M55 Self-Propelled Howitzer

[MapleVII-live]

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

• Yes
• No

M55 SPH

ROCA

Background

Spoiler

The M55 is a self-propelled howitzer of American origin that is fully enclosed and armored. It is built upon the foundation of the M53 155 mm self-propelled gun. The M55 incorporates elements from the M47 Patton tank, with a unique twist in its automotive design. The engine is positioned at the front and is connected to a front-drive sprocket, enabling the vehicle to reach a maximum speed of 50 km/h (as indicated on Wikipedia). Due to the driver’s seat being located within the turret, a specialized seat is utilized to ensure that the driver maintains a forward-facing position, regardless of the turret’s direction.

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During the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, the United States leased 12 8-inch Howitzers, of the 12, 6 of them were M55 8-inch Self Propelled Artillery Pieces , which the ROCA stationed on the Island of Kinmen.

The ROCA used the M55 for a brief period, it is said that the US reacquired them for fear of a Taiwanese naval attack on the PRC. with the M55 being taken away, the US gave a few more 8-inch howitzers to the ROCA, being emplaced in large concrete bunkers and other positions around the island.

Technical Data

Specifications

Crew - 6 (1 Gunner, 1 Commander, 1 Driver, 3 Loaders)

Total Weight - 45,400 kg

Length - 9.72 m

Width - 3.58 m

Height - 2.4 m

Ground Clearance - 0.47 m

Ground Pressure - .817kg/cm²

Turret Ring Diameter - 1.51 m

Powerplant - 1 x Continental AV-1790-5B (Gross Power output - 596 kW at 2,800 rpm)

Transmission - General Motors CD-850-4 (2 Forward, 1 Reverse)

Max Speed - 35-56 km/h (Sources Differ)

Max Grade - 60°

Tracks - T80E6

Suspension Type - Torsion

Range - 240 km

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Armor

Vehicle Assembly - Welded

Armor Composition - Rolled Homogeneous Steel

Hull UFP - 25mm

Hull LFP - 25mm

Hull Sides - 13mm

Hull Rear - 13mm

Hull Roof - 13mm

Hull Floor - 13mm

Turret Frontal Plate - 13mm

Turret Sides - 13mm

Turret Rear - 13mm

Turret Roof - 13mm

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Fire Control and Armament

Main Armament - 1 x 203.2mm (8 in.) M47 Howitzer

Gunner Sight - T159E1 Telescope

Reload Time - ~120 seconds

Ammunition Count - 10 Shells

Shell Type - High Explosive (Unknown if adaptable to other 8 in. Howitzer Ammunition, such as HE-VT, APCBC, etc.)

Main Armament Horizontal Traverse - 30-30 (Right-Left)

Max Traverse Rate - 10°/s (Hydraulic, Manual Crank also present)

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Main Armament Vertical Traverse - +65 -5

Max Traverse Rate 7.5°/s (Hydraulic, Manual Crank also present)

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Machine Gun Mount fitted, unknown if .50 Cal fitted in Taiwanese Service.

Secondary Armament - 1 x 12.7mm M2HB in Flexible Cupola Mount.

360° of Traverse

Ammunition Count - 900 Rounds.

Sources

Spoiler

https://a2928796.pixnet.net/blog/post/358246262

8" SPH M55

https://army.chlin.com.tw/BBS/viewthread.php?action=printable&tid=9667

M55 self-propelled howitzer - Wikipedia

[DMYEugen]

+1 Absolutely. Was waiting for someone to suggest it.

[Exocetta]

Sure.

As long as you are willing to wait to drop the spades and fire from a halt.
Speaking of…
(long list of vehicles in the game that should have to do the same)

[Neobushido]

silly big guns are always a + for me

[fumiga_de_metal]

please don’t… artillery in this game is very ridiculous and the rubbish balance that they demand so much, placed next to WW2 tanks, completely takes away the immersion, not to mention that they are full of bugs, shooting at these vehicles doesn’t have the expected effect etc… rubbish

[quartas121]

As long as it goes to USA as well +1

[Insanerobert]

I agree, US should receive one as well.

[明星_日鞠]

m44 can be in game and m55 can also

it can add to china usa german france at same time. 1 work for 4

[BSpiel8-live]

Honestly not even sure what to say anymore. The idea of lend lease (or “copy paste” as we call it in the context of War Thunder) is actually rather interesting to me. In just about any other game I would be quite excited to see the same vehicle employed by multiple different nations with all the historical decals and camo schemes.

But man, in this game I just want to play stuff developed by the nation I’m using, and really it’s dissapointing how all the cool domestic self-propelled howitzers of Taiwan seem to be left in the dust for this soulless American slop I’m inevitably going to research and spade 3 times prior. What happened to War Thunder promoting vehicles you wouldn’t ever hear about otherwise?

[一弹定天下]

It’s easier to copy and paste than to innovate, so the game is becoming more and more of the same vehicle in different countries, making the game less fun.

[MapleVII-live]

I understand your reasoning, and I agree.

However, vehicle mocels can take time to make, so they may be working on the domestic options we have, but they are currently not avaliable at the moment.

I may have some personal bias as i am the person who suggested the vehicle, but it is nice to see it come to the game albeit it is copy and paste. Notably this will be the biggest howitzer we can get well remaining a viable playable vehicle.

I am working on sourcing for a few domestic models with the help of others on the Chinese Tech Tree channel. Some i have enough information on but no time on my hands.

[O_Warrior0]

It look like the taiwanese really like 200mm+ arilitery

[Lovecraft2]

Copypasting this to every nation again like the m44? That one was already a disaster. Why can’t we have indigenous WW2 howitzers instead of this. These annoying to face too at the tier they’re at. For aesthetic enjoyers like me, really fun when you have even more post war vehicles running around with ww2 tanks.

Do we really need this for everyone just because they had it?

[MapleVII-live]

@Lovecraft2

Why can’t we have indigenous WW2 howitzers instead of this.

Who’s gonna tell him

[Lovecraft2]

I’ll tell you that this suggestion is bad. Plain and simple.

[MapleVII-live]

Ah, jumping to insults i see.

[O_Warrior0]

Not every country are able to build their own weapons and lot of the exported weapons are a little difference some are customize for different terrain and harsh weathers and some have upgrades

[BSpiel8-live]

Eh, I had even more photos of Taiwanese domestic SPHs to share but I actually created my post prematurely because I was getting overwhelmed with the sheer quantity of new stuff I was finding. Really, many such cases where people say “X nation didn’t build their own counterparts to Y” are assumptions based entirely on Wikipedia-level research.

And heck, this is only one to two specific vehicles that Taiwan created as a counterpart to imported American howitzers such as the M55 and M109 (and even then, I’m still leaving out the longer-barreled variants of this vehicle!). When they weren’t creating counterparts, the number of experiments and field mods raise the count of unique vehicles even higher.

[NotKringe]

However, vehicle mocels can take time to make, so they may be working on the domestic options we have, but they are currently not avaliable at the moment.

So, you’re suggesting that these are merely just a placeholder? Yeah, this is not a good reasoning to justify all the copy-paste they are doing recently. Especially when they shafted an actual domestic options in favor of copy-paste, like how they add the M109 and M44 for Germany despite there’s tons of WW2 options available.

First we have M109, then the M44, and if the leak were true then we are gonna have the M55 for five tech trees. This is no longer a “representation of how military industry works”, but a lazy excuse to add copy-paste “filler” vehicle and pass it off as “content”.

Granted, voting “no” doesn’t really matter at this point if these copy-paste were going to be added in this update, but I hate how Gaijoob is trying to made these lazy copy paste a norm.

[一弹定天下]

Has anyone submitted a suggestion for this self-propelled gun in the forum?