Firestone T52 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage

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Firestone T52 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage

An American tire and rubber company builds a tank? Meet the Firestone T52 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage from 1942.

History
The Firestone T52 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage was manufactured by the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, the US army contracted Firestone to develop a design in 1942. The turret designed by Firestone was circular in shape resembling a ball, the turret was designed to carry a single 40mm Bofors AA gun and two 12.7mm (.50 in) machine guns.

This wasn’t firestones only military project, they developed everything from helicopters, to aircraft parts, life rafts, barrage balloons, bullets, batteries, seats, tires, gas masks and many, many more… Experimenting on military projects wasn’t new to them, the US military probably just thought they’d use the knowledge from their anti-aircraft carriages to build the turret.

The turret was mounted on a standard Sherman M4A2 hull, replacing its 75mm turret with Firestones AA unit, capable of firing 100 rounds per minute. The right crew member would aim and fire the turret as well as fire the right machine gun, the left crew member would load the 40mm gun and fire the left machine gun. The other two crew members sat in the M4A2 hull like on a standard Sherman.

Operational History
The Firestone T52 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage went to the proving grounds in 1942 for testing and failed to impress the military officials. The T52 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage unfortunately never saw an operational career apart from its proving grounds testing, as far as we know.

Specifications
General characteristics

  • Class: SPAAG
  • Crew: 4
  • Production: 2 (prototypes)
  • Length: 6.27 m (20 ft 7 in)
  • Width: 3.00 m (9 ft 10 in)
  • Weight: ?? kg (?? lb)
  • Powerplant: 2 x liquid-cooled GMC Detroit Diesel 6–71 two-stroke inline engines
  • Power: 280 kW (375 hp)

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 45 km/h (28 mph)
  • Range: 161 km (100 mi)

Armament
Guns:

  • 1 × 40 mm Bofors AA gun (64 rounds)
  • 2 x 12.7 mm machine guns (1,000 rounds, 500 each)

Armour:

  • Ball Turret = 38mm (1.5 in)
  • Same as Sherman M4A2 hull

In game
The Firestone T52 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage would be a fun addition to war thunder, it would probably fit in Rank 1 or 2 area of the American ground tech tree, Its single 40mm AA gun positions it under the T77E1 but its two .50 cals definitely help with its AA claim a little. The Shermans body has some great armour but its performance isn’t great, it would probably be a little bit faster because the turret weighs less than the 75mm one that was removed.

Photos





Crew Hatches shown below

Sources

T52 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage
T52 - the Sherman with a Ball Turret -
M4 Sherman - Wikipedia
Firestone in World War Two

Thanks for reading :)

4 Likes
2

Kugelblitz, or better, Thunder Sphere.

2 Likes
3

Seems like one of those SPAAs that’d be more of a TD. Makes balancing a bit tricky.

1 Like
4

its just a Bofors. Same BR as any Bofors truck but adds up 0.3-0.7 for armor

5

Yes, maybe they will actually make this one a rank III and not randomly put it in rank II like what was done with the amazingly OP AA chaffee

6

Doughboy CV90 looks awesome!
Hopefully we can choose ammunition loadout on both the 40mm and the .50 cals like you can on the M15 CGMC so you can switch between SPAA and IFV roles with both gun types.

7

Any APHE shells?

8

I don’t think the US used any APHE for the Bofors 40mm during WW2. Only solid AP (M81A1). There may be experimental ones but none that I know of. The UK did allegedly use SAP rounds so that could possibly be used if you wanted to shoehorn it a bit.

2 Likes
9

An entire Sherman hull and they could only fit 64 rounds? are you sure this is not just the ready ammo in the ball turret?

10

Wow, what a legitimately great SPAA option that Gajin will never let us have : /