- Yes
- No
Introduction:
Hello and welcome to my second suggestion, this time it is for the Stridsvagn m/21 (nr. 5) fitted with the 37mm Puteaux SA 18 that was taken from Putte, the Swedish bought Renault FT. This means we have a German tank sold to Sweden as tractor parts that later got a French cannon.
History:
In early 1918, a Swedish Military Commission went to Berlin to study a captured Mark tank. This resulted in the realization that tanks would be necessary in the future, and subsequently led to a study to acquire tanks for the Swedish Army. The Royal Army Administration’s Artillery Department (KAAD) granted permission in 1921 to secretly start negotiations with Germany to purchase tanks from them. This deal landed them in buying ten LK-IIs from Germany for the price of 18000 SEK for each tank. The LK-IIs chassis would reach Sweden between August and September 1921, and later in December, 10 tons of unhardened steel plates were deliever form a steel mill in Germany. These plates would later be hardened, and the tanks would be assembled in 1922 and numbered from 1 to 10.
In 1923, Major Burén wrote a report about how Stridsvagn m/21 (then Pansarvagn fm/22) number 5 had been fitted with the gun from the Renault FT bought in 1921, nicknamed Putte. This was done as it had been requested, most likely because the FT’s turret was found not to be satisfactory and would require a redesign, as it was hard to lay the gun on target rapidly. The SA 18 cannon would go through firing trials mounted in the Strv m/21, where it was noted that the gun performed as expected; the only downside noted was the ammunition, 1/3 of it misfired.
Also in 1923, Strv m/21 number 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8 would participate in a large scale traning excersice at Munka-Ljungby in Scania county. This is where we have the two images of the tank fitted with the SA 18 come from.
Sadly, it is unclear for how long the gun was mounted on the Strv m/21 (Nr. 5); it is totally possible it was mounted until the tanks were upgraded to the m/21-29 standard, but this is pure speculation on my part. We do not have any images of Putte as a firing target in 1926, so it is hard to know if the gun was ever put back on it. I would doubt it was, as it was used as a radio tank until it was decommissioned.
Armor
If you look up the armor values for the Strv m/21, you will usually see 4-14 mm of armor mentioned. This is because the floor is 4 mm thick and the roof is 9 mm thick. I have at one point measured the armor plating of the Strv m/21 at Arsenalen, Strängnäs, Sweden, to verify this.
Chassis
Front: 14 mm
Sides: 14 mm
Rear: 14 mm
Turret
Front: 14 mm
Sides: 14 mm
Rear: 14 mm
Crew
The crew consisted of two to four men, depending on the armament of the vehicle. These members were assigned as:
Commander / Gunner
Driver
Machinegunner
Machinegunner
Armament
The main cannon of the Strv m/21 (SA 18) is, of course, the Puteaux 37mm SA 18 cannon we all know from some of the French tanks like the FCM.36 that are already in game. Sadly, as with Putte, the only ammunition available would be the AP round (600 m/s) and the HE round (410 m/s). This is because the APCR rounds we have in-game came in 1937, hence the name Mle1937.
Unlike Putte tho, this had secondary armament, namely two Ksp m/14. These could be mounted on all sides of the vehicle. There is one slot per side of the tank. Though the images we have of Strv m/21 (Nr. 5) with the SA 18 do not show it with any secondary armament, nor the armored plates that would normally fill in the slots where the machine guns would be.
Mobility
Mass: 9,7 tons
Engine: Benz 1910, making 55 hp
Speed: 14 to 16 km/h, depending on the source.
Power to weight: 5,67 hp/ton