- yes
- no
- M4
- M4A1
- M4A2
- M4A3
- M4A4
- M4A6
- I said “no” before
Today I would like to suggest a big brother to the Calliope.
The M17 Whizbang
M17 Whizbang was a tank design similar to calliope, except it had a bigger set of rockets.
Calliope had 60 4.5 in M8 rockets placed above a Sherman tank that was able to elevate the angle of launch by aiming the gun up or down due to the launcher also attached to the gun barrel. The calliope was an effective psychological weapon that threatened the hostile with its unique rocket launching sound.
Due to this, the US Army seeked a stronger option than the 4.5 in. This was the 7.2 in HE Rocket T37 .
It was based off of an anti-submarine “Mousetrap”.
The T37 were originally armed on a sherman in front of the hull via a launcher called “Cowcatcher”, however the army wasn’t satisfied with the launcher. So they decided quickly to work on a unique launcher system for it, called the T40 whizbang.
“Cowcatcher”
The T40 Whizbang launcher had 2 layers of 10 rocket launchers horizontally, totalling into 20 rocket launchers. The launcher was armed with ½ in thick armor, but it was only effective at defending the rockets up to 7.62mm. After the T40 was accepted, its designation was changed to M17.
The M17 was able to be loaded onto any Sherman models. It was placed in the similar fashion as the calliope. But due to how big the launcher was and how low it was placed above the turret, it was not liked by its crews due to it preventing the top hatches from being openable.
M17 didn’t really see much action. It was originally planned to be part of the D-Day invasion, however the M17 couldn’t make it in time to the invasion due to delays on the production of the launcher.
The whizbang was able to be deployed after the invasion. Few of them were deployed in Northeastern Europe. But the counter attack by the Germans prevented the M17 from being used. In the end, they were removed and they sent 8 of them to Italy for it to be used as artillery support weapons.
There were some Calliope and M17 whizbang sent to the pacific theater for trial. They were effective at destroying enemy bunkers. However none were operated.
Photos:
Spoiler
Specs:
Spoiler
M4 Sherman
Armament: 75mm M3 gun
Engine: Continental R975 (400 hp @ 2400 rpm)
Mobility: 38/-5 km/h
Weight: 30.6tM4A1 Sherman
Armament: 75mm M3 gun
Engine: Continental R975 (400 hp @ 2400 rpm)
Mobility: 38/-5 km/h
Weight: 30.6tM4A2 Sherman
Armament: 75mm M3 gun
Engine: General Motors 6046 (410hp @ 2900 rpm)
Mobility: 48/-7 km/h
Weight: 32.5tM4A3 Sherman
Armament: 76mm M1 gun
Engine: GFord GAA (500hp @ 2600 rpm)
Mobility: 43/-6 km/h
Weight: 32.9tM4A4 Sherman
Armament: 75mm M3 gun
Engine: Chrysler A57 (425hp @ 2850 rpm)
Mobility: 41/-5 km/h
Weight: 32.2tM4A6 Sherman
Armament: 75mm M3 gun
Engine: Ordnance Engine RD-1820 (497hp @ 3000 rpm)
Mobility: 40/? km/h
Weight: 32.2tM17 Multiple Rocket Launcher
Armament: 20x 180mm Rockets
Length: 2.7m
Width: 2.7m
Weight: 4,615 lb
- Add the total height and weight of M17 to the any prefered Shermans variant
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