We had a great show... we will let the pictures do the talking.
Photos by Marc-Henri Andre
Marc-Henri Andre has put together a stunning pictorial resulting from his visit to Stars 2014.
Click here to view Part One- 6MB PDF
Click here to view Part Two - 8MB PDF
Allan Seccombe of Business Day compiled the following article following his visit to Stars 2014
Click here to view the article - PDF
Photos by Rod Hering
Rod Hering, who has been a regular visitor to Sandstone and who has been in charge of our Ratel for the last 2-years, has sent us a magnificent gallery of photographs. Quite often we receive photographs from people who we do not normally recognise as being professionals. We do have a hard core of top class photographers like David Benn, Hannes Paling, Aidan McCarthy and others whose results are outstanding year in, year out. However, we are always delighted to receive pictures from people who look at things from a slightly different perspective and I think that is what Rod has achieved here. His photographs appear below.
Photos below by David Benn
Photos below by Hannes Paling
To view more images taken by Hannes during Stars 2014 click here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alfav8/sets/72157644098155905/.
Photos below by Gary Barnes
Photos below by Chris Wilson
Photos below by Danie Pretorius
Photos by Andy Selfe
Major Scherman gives a running commentary as Olifant Tango 2 1 Bravo thunders past the audience during the daily Heavy Armour demo at Stars of Sandstone 14.
It took a bit of nerve to sit and take this picture as the SA Armour Museum's Russian-designed T76 thundered towards me! Driver Sgt. Major Willem Wilke said it's called a 'Hands-up tank'..... Gunner, Commander and Driver each have to enter and exit the tank with their arms up, otherwise, once inside, there's too little room to fold your arms upwards to get to the controls!
With diesel squirted onto or inside the exhaust and blown out with the cooling fan, an effective smoke-screen is made for this Soviet T76 of the SA Armour Museum. The tank is small compared with 'our' Olifant in the foreground. The infrared sights look vulnerable!
The Olifant, and the Centurion it is derived from, is normally driven with its gun facing to the rear. In action the gun levels itself and stays on the target despite the moving tank under it.
The Rooikat which the members of the SA Armour Museum brought to Stars of Sandstone 14 is experimental, with the same gun as the Olifant. We were not allowed inside for security reasons! It has passive defence with heat dispersing foam dispensers all over the vehicle and active in the form of rocket-to-rocket launchers, as described by Captain Charl Ihlenfeldt who is seen putting it through its paces.
Soviet T76 tank emerging from a smoke-screen of its own making.
Smoke is blown out by the cooling fan on the left hand side of this Russian-designed T76 tank. Driver, Sgt Maj Willem Wilke, knows how to spin the tank on the spot to the right and the tank disappears from view. This would not fool a heat-seeking missile!
Loading an Olifant on to a low-bed is not for sissies! The driver sees nothing but blue sky once he has committed , until he over-balances! One of the members of SA Armour Museum described how he had to do this recently, on his own, at night!