Monday 11 December 2017

Information on American Tanks

"To the chief of the Armoured Directorate of the GABTU, Military Engineer 1st Class comrade Korobkov
September 3rd, 1941

I report to you the details about new American tanks and news of American tank building.
  1. The Armoured Car Co. built a new type of light tank that is also an airborne tank. It can be suspended from a DC-4 airplane and transported over the air. There are two variants, 7.5 tons and 10 tons. The design of both tanks is identical: top speed of up to 80 kph, 200 hp Guiberson engine.
    The difference is due to the thickness of the armour, which is 38 mm (front) and 35 mm (sides) thick on the 10 ton tank. There is no data on the armour thickness of the 7.5 ton tank. The armament of both variants is the same: 1 37 mm cannon and 3 7.62 mm machineguns (one of them is AA). Tanks are built with a turret and without a turret. Allegedly, the second kind is the airborne tank. It is said that the new tank has been accepted into service and will be put into mass production. They will also be supplied to the British. Production is being organized at the Pressed Steel Co., which also presently builds the M3 medium tank.

  2. Production of M3 medium tanks is performed at the following companies: American Locomotive Co, Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Co., Baldwin Locomotive Works, Lima Locomotive Works, Pressed Steel Co., and Chrysler.
    A visually distinct model of the M3 medium tank with 90 mm of armour was supposed to have been produced by August 15th.
  3. Allegedly, a heavy tank entered trials in July of this year. The tank weighs about 55 tons and is equipped with a 1000 hp engine.
  4. Leake, a known American tractor designer, designed a heavy tank project weighing 175 tons. The tank uses two 2500 hp steam engines. The tank has 60-130 mm of armour and powerful armament. The author is ready to make an offer if there is any interest from our side.
  5. Presently, the M3 medium tank and M2A4 light tank are in production. It is possible that a portion of the light tank production will be covered by the tank mentioned in paragraph 1.
Assistant to the Chief of the General Staff Intelligence Department, Major-General Dronov"

4 comments:

  1. I seriously wonder what the turretless airborne tank is supposed to be. Its pretty straightforward that its not a turretless Locust, so the only thing that comes to mind is the elusive Christie Tank with a 75mm gun in the hull, that, at least slightly better than a german napkin tank, was features on a poster.

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    1. Yeah, I also think that it was the weird Christie tank that nobody actually wanted.

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  2. Visually distinct M3 with 90mm of armour, I wonder if this was one of the pilot hull castings for the Ram. They were still calling it the Canadian cruiser M3 during Aug 1941, firing tests were conducted on the 2nd casting at the time.

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    1. Possibly, I read that the Soviets were interested in casting techniques used in Ram production, if not in the tank itself.

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