- Yes
- No
caid’s suggestion #62
I would like to suggest an interesting armored car for the game and a possible Swiss tech tree. the Saurer M6 flabeschutz
The Saurer M6 flabeschutz was a Swiss anti-aircraft vehicle that was used during WW2 to protect the Swiss airspace.
often overlooked by historians, the anti-aircraft vehicles were commonly used by about every nation. sometimes simple field modification of some utility truck on which they mounted machine-gun, sometimes as a specially designed vehicle for full production. this is the case with the Saurer M6 which was seldom mentioned anywhere but were amounts of the Saurer variants proposed for their M6 truck. The history of this SPAA is barely know but the Swiss uniform indicates that the truck was at least used in military service in Switzerland. in 1939-1940 Switzerland had a skirmish with the Germans who often violated the Swiss airspace to attack or escape France. As Switzerland was not without threat from Germany, they did engage a few German fighters and destroyed some of them. This engagement was mostly done by the large number of Swiss 20mm auto-cannons like the one used on the Saurer M6. those even pushed Germany to consider declaring war on Switzerland but Germany was with their hands full and not without knowing that Switzerland is not easy to invade. ultimately Germany went on one of their rare diplomatic solution with Germany which authorized the Swiss to force any German plane that violated their airspace to land in the Swiss airfield. the aircraft would be captured and kept by the Swiss army but the pilot was to be returned to Germany safely. this agreement led to a dozen aircraft being captured by Switzerland and ended the skirmish.
this story just shows that at some point, the Swiss were at the edge with Germany. because of that, the Swiss army needed defense. Germany had a much larger aviation than Switzerland on a scale that would get close to 100 against 1. Such a mobile anti-aircraft vehicle was key to the air defense. Switzerland had mounted a 20mm Fliegerabwehr Kanone 37 on their Saurer M6 truck which was a very common Swiss military utility truck in service in 1940. this modification was standard and not a simple field modification as it appears on some Saurer brochures. this allows us to assume there was more than one of those vehicles built but the lack of evidence only allows us to confirm one of them. besides the history of the truck who have little effect on the in-game performance, we can accurately estimate the performance of the vehicles as both the truck and the gun are known. the only missing information is the ammo load which can be left to guesswork as we could easily add 2-3 ammo boxes on the deck.
Firepower
This vehicle was armed with the 2 cm Oerlikon Fliegerabwehr Kanone 37. this auto-cannon was a Swiss-made dual-purpose anti-aircraft gun that was normally used as a field gun. this weapon was in many ways similar to the German 2 cm FLak 38 or the Italian 20mm Breda model 35. it features a fire rate of 280 rounds/minute and a velocity of 830 m/sec which is pretty close to the German and Italian auto-cannon. the gun is fed by 15 round magazine which is still decent. the elevation is of -10° to + 80° which make it pretty easy to engage aircraft. the rotation speed is unknown but ingame we could just make it identical to the Italian AS 42, Japanese Type 92, and German Flakpanzer 1 which have similar armament and all have a rotation speed of 35°/sec. the reload speed should also be similar to 3 sec for a new magazine. the ammo load is unknown, but we can easily add 2-3 ammo boxes on the truck’s deck. against the ground target the gun also has AP rounds with a penetration of about 35mm at combat distance. This is a performance almost identical to the Italian 20mm which is pretty capable of destroying a tank in low rank. this makes the gun pretty decent for the early game.
Mobility
the exact weight of the SPAA is unknown. but the truck weighs 6.900 kg and the gun about 350 kg (based on the later gun which is 410 kg) this should give a total weight of about 7.3 tonnes if we include the ammunition. the truck is powered by a Saurer CTDM, 6756cc, Diesel NA I6 giving 85hp @1900rpm. this means the truck has a power-weight of about 11.64 hp/tonnes which is not too bad for a wheeled vehicle. the max speed is 50 km/h on the road and it has a Saurer 4C Lang, 5F/1R, Manual (unsynchronized), Partial 6x6 transmission. this allows a reverse speed of 7.5 km/h which is okay. Altogether, the truck would have mobility a bit lower than the CM 52 but still capable of moving around well.
Protection
if you saw the pictures of this SPAA and still want to know if this vehicle has protection, I would only assume you are full of hope. these vehicles have about no protection at all. the deck is having about 3mm of wood steel half wall, the hull is made of about 3mm of steel and the driver is protected by 3mm see-through steel. it has the same protection as the CM 52 only without a roof or protection for the turret. and if you think I am ridiculous about the see-through steel or wood steel, I only base my data on a funny mistake on the same model of the CM 52 which is made of steel everywhere. this vehicle has very minimal protection where even the LMG can penetrate it. the crew is 4 men. This includes 2 men on the deck, which are the gunner and loader. and 2 men in the cockpit which are the commander and driver. the only protection of your vehicle is the body shield that is provided by the crew to the other crew members.
source
- Saurer M6, M. Gelastw. 2,5 t 6x6 - Lastwagen - Radfahrzeuge | militärfahrzeuge.ch
- Saurer M6 - Wikipedia
- 5404 Saurer M6 2,5t 6x6.pdf
Spoiler
Armament
The Switzerland supporter discord is open to everyone
If you like to see some wacky tanks if you want to see unique aircraft, if you want to see something about a new nation that could make it to the game. Switzerland is for you
the Swiss Discord is dedicated to researching Swiss military material and support. no qualification is needed. if you want to help or have a look around, follow this link and we would be happy to welcome you
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