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I would like to suggest an interesting armoured car for the game and a possible Swiss tech tree. the Radpanzer M6 Pak 41
The Radpanzer M6 pak 41 is a pretty decent upgrade of the T17E1 done by Switzerland in 1953. in 1951, 64 T17E1 were bought from England and 55 of them reached Switzerland in 1952 (9 were sunk during a loading accident) while those vehicles were already used, they were mostly in working orders. but the Swiss army wanted to put them in a full-scale revision. 5x was given to Eidgenössische Konstruktionswerkstätte who was tasked to create a new upgrade for those vehicles and standardize the armament to the Swiss standard as the Original 37mm M5/6 wasn’t in service in the Swiss army and Switzerland was not intending to set a supply line for the new ammunition. many weapons were proposed and one of them was rather interesting. the 47mm Field gun pak 41 was proposed and mounted on the T17E1 for trial purposes. some accounts state that all 5 received this gun at some point and they were tested from 1953. while the test appeared to be successful on the side of the armament, the project was cancelled and the T17E1 was used for targets in the shooting range and some were stripped from their turret to build a static fortification in the east side of the country. the reason for the cancellation was likely due to the general condition of the T17E1 that required a lot of maintenance and spare parts and also probably due to the performance in the snowy alpine road where it was mostly supposed to serve. a single surviving vehicle can be found in Tun’s museum.
Firepower
The Firepower of this vehicle is a fair upgrade over the 37mm. while not gaining significant extra penetration, the gun provides much more damage due to the larger size and the possibility of having APHE round. the round also loses a lot less penetration over the distance. in many cases, a single penetration can take 2-3 crew members of the enemy or even detonate the ammunition load of the tank. this gun is comparable to the Japanese 47mm Type 1 used on the later version of the Type 97 Chi-Ha. while not reliable in this use, this gun can manage to penetrate a Sherman a T-34 or even a KV-1 if used well. the turret offers a rather good elevation but the depression, while enough, is not very impressive. the exact gun’s elevation is yet to be confirmed, but it can be assumed to be the same as the original T17 which is -7°/+40°. while the elevation allows the aircraft to aim, the turret’s rotation is not so fast and does not easily allow it to follow low-flying aircraft. but it is still powered and should reach around 24°/sec (like most American light tanks of this era)
Mobility
the T17 is powered by two GMC Straight Six-cylinder 270ci, 4400cc providing 97 hp at 2750 rpm. this gives a total of 194 hp which is not bad for an armoured car. the weight just below 14 tonnes on the original version shouldn’t have significant change due to the new armament. the transmission is a General Motors Twin Hydramatic offering 4 forward speeds and 1 backward. the transmission is improved by a torque-converted General Motors Two Speed which converts the torque into high and low ratios according to the need which greatly improves mobility off-road and acceleration in general. this allows a top speed of 89 km/h on the road. the reverse speed should give around 15 km/h which is by itself enough to be capable of correcting the manoeuvre when needed, going around obstacles or pulling out of dangerous situations. the exact weight is still to be confirmed but the T17E1 weight is 13.92 tonnes which should be close to the weight of this vehicle too. until the weight is confirmed, I suggest using the T17E1’s weight as place placeholder. this should give a power/weight of 13.94 hp/ton which is not impressive but still pretty good.
Protection
The armour of the Radpanzer M6 with 20mm remains unchanged from the T17E1. it remains light but happens to be sturdy enough to protect against HMG fire in most circumstances. the front of the hull is well-sloped and still protected by 22mm of armour giving an effectiveness of around 30mm which makes it difficult to penetrate by HMG and even allows it to take some low-rank main gun from 37mm. the side is less protected but still has 19mm of armour which is enough to protect against HMG at some distance if there is some angle. the turret is much more protected offering 44mm of armour at the front with 45° angle which gives around 55mm of effective armour and 25.4 mm of armour is added by the gun’s shield. the turret also has 31.7 mm of armour on the side and rear which makes it capable of taking HMG at any distance. the roof of both the hull and the turret have 12.7mm of armour which usually is enough against 12.7mm rounds from aircraft but not for the 20mm. the crew of 5 men including 3 men in the turret and 2 men in the hull make for a rather large crew for an armoured car.
source
primary
- Chevrolet T17E1 Mk 1 4x4 Staghound - Gepanzerte Fahrzeuge - Radfahrzeuge | militärfahrzeuge.ch
- Radpanzer M6 47-mm — ВикиВоины
- Private Site
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