History of Tanks: Warring Power, Propaganda, Politics & Pounds

What Happened To Western Tanks Promised To Ukraine?

As is often the case, I am going to start my newsletter with a snippet of news about the subject from which we are peeling the history. And this week we are peeling the history of tanks. Two articles stood out for me from all the rest, because their headlines capture what’s been happening with the Western tanks promised to Ukraine.

The first one is a Jan 25th New York Times article with the following pithy headline:

Tanks, finally

I think the headline says it all. We all rejoiced when Germany’s Chancellor, Mr. Olaf Scholz, finally agreed to send tanks to Ukraine. This, of course, came after President Biden also agreed to do the same.

The second one is a Feb. 9th Wall Street Journal article, just this past week, with the following disappointing headline:

Tanks Aren’t Arriving in Ukraine Despite Promises From European Allies

As this article explains, many European countries seem to be backing out of their earlier pledges to supply Ukraine with modern Western tanks, which ironically leaves Germany in the very position that it was desperately trying to avoid — that is … being the only provider of a large…