No way to treat a Tortoise...
Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 4:35 pm
Well, not the proverbial garden slowcoach variety, anyway; but this former 79 ton rarity:
Bovington has, of course, a working example; but it still seems a shame that such a rare experimental beast should end up shot to buggery in a remote part of Scotland.
This pic was posted on the Historic Military Vehicle Forum ( http://hmvf.co.uk/topic/20282-range-wrecks/?page=7 )
and for those inclined- as I am sometimes- to wonder where all the WW2 hardware went, this site gives some good clues about the armoured inventory. Quite a few Comets and Shermans have had the stuffing shot out of them on the same range.
What interests me though, about the A39 Tortoise, is that it had a gun equivalent to the German 88. We probably all know that the Germans modified their Anti-aircraft, and Anti-tank 8.8 cm flak gun design, to produce a gun to fit the Tiger 1, and later the King Tiger. But it's not common knowledge that the Brits did the same with their 3.7 inch (94mm) QF anti-tank gun. The mark VI version of the gun had a ceiling of almost 50,000 ft (way more than the 88). and a muzzle velocity of over 1,000 metres per sec (3,425 Fps), again better than the 88. Apparently, the Canadians attempted to fit the gun to a Ram tank; but it never got beyond the testing phase- which was probably good news for German tank crews.. This greater performance came at price: the 3.7 in gun was almost two tons heavier than the German 88, and this created an almost insuperable mobility issue. Even though this British gun had always been envisioned to have a secondary role as an anti-tank weapon; the weight factor precluded its use. Until, that is, the Tortoise Assault Tank project came along in 1944.
Here's an interesting thread begun by Giganaut in 2014, on the topic of the Tortoise, and other Assault Tank designs.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13512&p=121671&hili ... 39#p121671
Only six were made, and Tom has the only 1/16 version, so far as I know. At almost 80 tons, 33ft in length and 13 ft wide, not many bridges would have been happy to support it, nor narrow streets eager to allow it to pass through Northern Europe.Bovington has, of course, a working example; but it still seems a shame that such a rare experimental beast should end up shot to buggery in a remote part of Scotland.
This pic was posted on the Historic Military Vehicle Forum ( http://hmvf.co.uk/topic/20282-range-wrecks/?page=7 )
and for those inclined- as I am sometimes- to wonder where all the WW2 hardware went, this site gives some good clues about the armoured inventory. Quite a few Comets and Shermans have had the stuffing shot out of them on the same range.
What interests me though, about the A39 Tortoise, is that it had a gun equivalent to the German 88. We probably all know that the Germans modified their Anti-aircraft, and Anti-tank 8.8 cm flak gun design, to produce a gun to fit the Tiger 1, and later the King Tiger. But it's not common knowledge that the Brits did the same with their 3.7 inch (94mm) QF anti-tank gun. The mark VI version of the gun had a ceiling of almost 50,000 ft (way more than the 88). and a muzzle velocity of over 1,000 metres per sec (3,425 Fps), again better than the 88. Apparently, the Canadians attempted to fit the gun to a Ram tank; but it never got beyond the testing phase- which was probably good news for German tank crews.. This greater performance came at price: the 3.7 in gun was almost two tons heavier than the German 88, and this created an almost insuperable mobility issue. Even though this British gun had always been envisioned to have a secondary role as an anti-tank weapon; the weight factor precluded its use. Until, that is, the Tortoise Assault Tank project came along in 1944.
Here's an interesting thread begun by Giganaut in 2014, on the topic of the Tortoise, and other Assault Tank designs.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13512&p=121671&hili ... 39#p121671