Introduction

A quick search of the internet finds the Baku was a Kiev-class aircraft carrier of the Russian Navy. Her keel was laid down in 1978 in Ukraine, she was launched in 1982, and commissioned in December 1987. The ship was actually renamed Admiral Gorshkov after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the paint scheme and markings for this kit are more in line with those of the Adm. Gorshkov era. Plagued by difficulties since a boiler room explosion in 1994, she was offered for sale and 1996 and eventually sold to the Indian Navy in 2004. The Baku is an assault carrier, somewhat comparable to the newer USS Wasp class amphibious assault carriers of the U.S. Navy.

At the beginning of World War two the German Army had little need for dedicated mobile AA defence as the Luftwaffe enjoyed air superiorty. However after a short while it became more important for mobile AA defence as the Army realized that the Luftwaffe could not always provide a protective umbrella. A quick solution was to convert soft skin and half-track vehicles to provide this mobile AA defence, but it was also soon realized that many of these conversions left the crews exposed. It was then decided to mount more effective mobile AA platforms that would have fully enclosed turrets to protect the crews and improve overall survivability in the face of ever increasing Allied air supremacy. The Panther medium tank chassis was ideal for these future mobile AA defences, the 5.5 cm Zwilling Flakpanzer was one of many proposals that did not advance beyond the drawing board.

The idea of flamethrower tanks came about towards the end of WWI. Even though the US Army was not really sure if this was a platform that they wanted to pursue they still had the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) work on its development. For most of the interwar years there was not much development as this type of weapon was actually considered a failure. There was a renewed interest at the outbreak of World War II based on reports of German and Italian tank mounted flamethrowers. The real need for the flamethrower tank came from the Pacific campaign. There the usefulness of routing out the enemy from fortified positions on the islands become a backbone operation for the flamethrower tank. Thus also saving countless lives of soldiers. The US Army flamethrower tank was used sparingly in the ETO. Mainly due to the lack of platforms and fortified positions as encountered in the Pacific.