- Yes
- No
- Researchable
- Premium
- Event
- Squadroon
- I Don’t Know/I Don’t Care
- I Voted No
- I Don’t Know/I Don’t Care
- 5.3 or lower
- 5.7
- 6.0
- 6.3
- 6.7
- 7.0 or higher.
- I Voted No
CJ-5 Tolar
Description:
At first glance, one could say that this is M38A1C vehicle, which is usually armed with 106mm M40 recoilless rifles. However, it is not! Instead it is CJ-5 (civilian model of M38A1) modified to carry M40A1 recoilles rifle. The vehicle represents itself as cheap solution for a tank destroyer with it’s use in a hit-and-run tactic, but it’s service with IDF wasn’t that successful as it entered service in 1965 prior to Six Day war and less than 10 years later withdrawn due to its ineffectiveness shortly after the Yom Kippur War.
History:
The Jeep or Willys MB manufactured by Willys-Overland was a light military utility vehicle widely used by the Allies during World War II. With an impressive Lend-Lease production of over 600,000 units, that made this nimble little four-wheel-drive vehicle its way to every theater of war.
The service of vehicle in the IDF began in 1965, and, interestingly, the IDF did not purchase the military version of the Willys, but the civilian CJ-5 series. The IDF saw their purchase as a cheap solution to the role of a tank destroyer with their use in hit-and-run tactics. Shortly after their arrival, the vehicles were modified to meet IDF standards, anti-tank version was armed with 106mm M40A1 recoilless rifles and given the service name CJ-5 Tolar ( “Tolar” is an abrebiation for - “Totakh Lelo-Reta”, which beissically means “Recoiles cannon” ).
The vehicle participated in the 1968 Six Day War, but since it was just entering the production, there were few of them. They continued to be produced until 1973 with the start of the Yom Kippur War, when the vehicle use was at its peak.
The results of the Yom Kippur War showed that the CJ-5 Tolar was ineffective, as it had to incounter modern Soviet tanks, such as the T-54 or IS-3, with obsolete armament for that time. Therefore, all CJ-5s armed with M40A1 rifles were withdrawn from service after the Yom Kippur War, making their use one of the shortes in IDF, only 8 years after being put into service for the first time.
But as a brand new BGM-71 TOW missiles arrived to Israel throughout and after the war as part of military assistance from the United States over the air bridge, the IDF decided to rearm the withdrawn CJ-5s with TOW missiles, thereby extending their service life under the new name “CJ-5 Orev” (Orev is the IDF’s nickname for the TOW missiles(eng. crow)).
General Information:
Firepower:
The vehicle is armed with a 106-mm M40A1 recoilless rifle, which received the name “Tolar” in the ranks of IDF, which is an abbreviation for “Totah Lelo-Reta”, which means “Recoiless rifle”. It is present in War Thunder in many nations such as the USA, Italy, Japan and recently added to Germany. The characteristics of the rifle are not the best, as it has poor aiming speed and not the best aiming angles. But it does its main job of destroying tanks. It is capable of firing HEAT and HESH rounds such as the M361A1 and M344A1. Ammunition storage is not the best, as this vehicle can only carry 7 rounds fully loaded, 1 loaded in berral and 6 in ammo rack under the gun.
Protection:
In short, it doesn’t have it. There are only two crew members in the car, the driver and the gunner. The crew and all modules are vulnerable to the enemy fire, so the vehicle can be knocked out by every stray bullet or fragment of artillery fire. The only and best way to use this type of vehicle is a “hit-and-run” tactic to surprise your enemies with ambush fire and run before the enemies could return machine gun fire or call artillery to your position.
Mobility:
The vehicle was created on the basis of the civilian model of the jeep M38A1, CJ-5. It is powered by a Willys “Hurricane” F-Head 134 engine with a T-90 3-speed manual transmission. The weight of the vehicle is approximately 1209 kg, and with a 75 hp engine, its power-to-weight ratio is 62.03 hp. / t, which is one of, if not the best power to weight ratio we could have in the game, but while the hp. / t ratio is excellent, the vehicle will not be the fastest among wheeled platforms in the game, since its top speed is about 96 km/h (60 mph).
As you can see, it sacrificed its protection in favor of speed.
Specificatios:
Dimensions
Length Hull - 3,510 mm
Width - 1,740 mm
Height - ~1850 mm
Weight - ~1,209 kg
Mobility
Engine - Willys “Hurricane” F-Head 134
Transmision - 3-speed manual, T-90.
Engine power - 75 hp
Top Road Speed - 96 km/h
Wheel formula - 4 × 4
Firepower
Main Armament - M40A1 Recioiless rifle
Ammunition Storage - x7 shells ( x1 ready to fire, x6 stored in the hull )
Crew
Gunner
Driver
Total - 2
Gallery:
Spoiler
All the pictures used are from Bukoved Article on M40A1 in service with IDF.
1967:
In Jerusalem, near Rockefeller museum:
And near police academy in Sheikh Jarrah district:
Shechem:
Presumably 1967:
Egyptian Front:
Syrian front:
Banias ?
Display, 1969:
Training, 1970
Parade in Jerusalem, 1968/73 ?
Parade, 1973:
presumably 1973, Sinai:
Somewhere, somtime:
Loading in Super Frelon:
CJ-5 at batai ha-osef museum:
Conclusions in final words:
You may like it you may hate it, In the end vehicle served in IDF and can be added to War Thunder. If added vehicle would be very skill dependent, as it has absolutely no armor and only two crew memebers. The way to use it is to abush your enemies when they least expect it and after 1 to 2 shots run before enemy could return fire or call artillery fire on your possition.
Thats all for this vehicle, it is part of a series I decided to make about light tank destroyers in service with IDF, Called “You May Call Em’ Technicals”. As it’s the first suggestion of a series i’ll update it to feature links to other suggestion of a light tank sedtroyers in IDF.
Thank you for reading my suggestion trough to the end, If you are interested you can check out my previous suggestions via my profile, as of right now I havent transfered all of my suggestions from the old forum so you can check out them through the links there.
And as always if you noticed any mistakes or have any helpful sources, please let me know and I will make necessary corrections.
Sources:
Spoiler
https://warwheels.net/images/JeepSufaIDFHendriks022012.pdf
В бело-голубом исполнении. - Пещера злобного Буквоеда — LiveJournal
https://www.automobile-catalog.com/curve/1965/1295690/kaiser-jeep_cj-5_universal_jeep.html#gsc.tab=0
https://www.automobile-catalog.com/make/jeep/cj-5/cj-5/1965.html#gsc.tab=0
Willys M38A1 - Wikipedia