Finnish T-50 up armoured : a T-50 with a UFP stronger than a T-34

[warner7]

[Would you like to see this in-game?]

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T-50 up armoured:

History:

The T-50 was put to production in 1941 due to the demand for a new light tank to replace the old T-26’s, the T-50 was an advanced design for its time with innovative slope armour and a commander’s cupola. The T-50’s captured by the Finns had some parts of the tank up-armoured T-50 had 17mm armour screens, so the total thickness of the armour increases to 57mm. The applique armour is only known to cover the large upper front plate (excluding the cheeks) and both the sides of the turret. These Up-armoured T-50s were used in combat by the Finnish troops.

Place in war thunder:

The T-50 with up-armoured can sit well at 2.7 br, it has more armour and people will have to take more time to aim, but the weak spots still exists. Shoot the gun mantlet (still same amount of armour as the in-game T-50) to knock the vehicle out. It trades off a bit of acceleration due to additional weight. I have used a steel calculator I found online and the T-50 up-armoured adds on about 1.1 ton weight compared to the base model, the power to weight has dropped from 21.7hp/t to 20.13 - 20 hp/t. This vehicle is a trade off for better armour for acceleration compared to the original T-50.

Specifications:

Dimentions:

Length: 5.20 m (17 ft 1 in)

Width: 2.47 m (8 ft 1 in)

Height: 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in)

Crew: 4 (driver, loader, gunner, commander)

Armament: 45mm 20K, all specifications are same as the in-game T-50.

Mobility:

Power: 300 hp V4

Top speed: 63 km/h

Power to weight: 20.13 - 20 hp/t

Weight: 14.9 - 15.0 tons

Armour differences compared to the in-game T-50:

Upper front plate: High hardness 40mm + 17mm (excludes the cheeks)

Turret sides: High hardness 40mm + 17mm (the turret front, gun mantlet and turret rear has no applique armour)

Pictures: These are photos of the Finnish captured ones, shown by the Finnish head lights.

A drawing of T-50 up-armoured. Although hard to see, if we squint our eyes we will see the bolted on armour on the turret.

An other photo of an up-armoured T-50

The Finnish captured T-50 “Niki” in parola. This pictire can help us see where the add on armour’s positions are at, as the added on armour are in the same places and areas . Also shows us there are no add-on armour at the rear areas of the tank.

Another picture with the up-armoured T-50. It is Finnish since it has the distinct headlights installed.

Bibliography:

T-50 light tank (1941)

T-50

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Т-50#Проекты

The Unluckiest Next Generation Tank

Лёгкий танк Т-50

Sorry for bad english, it is not my first language. Hope you enjoyed and make sure to vote and share your thoughts!

[RoadRunnerdn]

As I commented on the old forums. This is likely the Finnish vehicle.

And further research proves it is the Finnish vehicle.

Almost all of the black and white pictures in this post can be found in the Finnish military web archives SA - kuvagalleria. And the ones not present there can be deduced to be finnish due to the headlights, as it was the Finns who installed those foldable, protected headlights. They installed them on some of their other vehicles too including T-26 and T-34.

I’ve seen no convincing proof that the Soviets up armoured these themselves. Only poor sources. This vehicle should absolutely not be added, well, only as Finnish.

[DMYEugen]

+1 but not for Russia since there really isn’t evidence that these pictures are of a Russian operated vehicle, All evidence points to them being of the Finnish Niki.

[DMYEugen]

@warner7

Some of my sources seem to suggest the Soviets themselves up-armoured some of those T-50’s, then the Finnish captured an up-armoured variant.

That’s great and all but that still means that, most likely, none of the above pictures are of Russian operated uparmored T-50s, as evidenced by their Finnish headlights, and thus shouldn’t be labled as such. Also, that drawing of an uparmored T-50 comes from a modeling kit of a Finnish T-50.

[warner7]

True, an overwhelming amount of the evidence are suggesting this vehicle is Finnish. Changes were made. My bad for not digging deep enough, this suggestion was made some time ago and my researching skills were limited. I just transferred it from the old forums and didn’t check again, my apologies.

[warner7]

Changes were made. My apologies for not checking. Please reconsider your vote.

[JamesPond1200]

With this tank now set as Finnish, I fully support it. +1

[RoadRunnerdn]

The thing is, there’s nothing convincing that the soviets ever produced an up armoured version.

The only sources of yours that mention it are maximietteita.blogspot.com and tank-afv.com. Both are quite poor sources, with no trust that they too haven’t made assumptions based on the Finnish vehicle.

The Finnish vehicle was also clearly modified by the Finns and did not possess the extra armour upon capture, as the Finnish army archives (SA - kuvagalleria) have pictures of it in a state without the extra armour. Which again proves what is said by maximietteita.blogspot.com and tank-afv.com

One uparmored T-50 was captured by Finnish forces and was used by them in 1944.

Most were opposed to Finnish forces, and one, up-armored, was captured and reused in 1944.

as false. Giving them even less credibility. Less than 100 (as low as 69) T-50’s were built in total. Many were destroyed before the turn of the new year. And the ones that survived longer have no signs of any up armouring attempts. There were plans to up armour them to 50mm coming out of the factories, but it was never implemented as it would’ve affected their production even more.

I can’t see any reason to believe there ever was an up armoured variant produced by the Soviets.

Sources:

1. Tank Archives: The Unluckiest Next Generation Tank
2. Tank Archives: Long Living T-50

[warner7]

I have again changed the suggestion, I am not sure what will qualify as a poor or good source. Now the Soviets have nothing to do with the up-armoured T-50’s. Please reconsider your vote.