Stuart 18-Pdr: Improvised Honey

[Tomgun_BLYAT]

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

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Stuart 18-Pdr: Improvised Honey
This improvised SPG was created by men of British 8th Army following operation Crusader in year 1941. Someone got idea to mount 18-Pdr field gun on top of Stuart light tank (which were often called Honey by British) with damaged turret to create self-propelled version of said gun and give damaged tank second chance in life.

There is no available technical data regarding this unique field modification of vehicle, but taking in acount time of its creation and what is known about both hull and gun themself, it is possible to quess aproximate statistics.

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Hull
Hull is apears to be that of early Stuart tank due to time of creation being during North African Campaign, which would most likely make that hull of Stuart I (M3 w/Continental R-670). As Stuart I is already in game, statistics such as engine power and general hull armor layout should be same for 18-Pdr Stuart.

Stats

Armor:
Front - 38.1 mm (18°) Driver Port, 15.8 mm (69°) Front Glacis,44.4 mm (21°) Lower Glacis
Side - 25.4 mm
Rear - 25.4 mm
Roof - 12.7 mm
Engine: 262 hp Continental W-670-9A
Max speed: 51 kmh (31.7 mph)

Unfortunately I do not know exact weight of hull of M3 Stuart without turret and thus I cannot calculate power to weight ratio, but asuming turret weight was about 1/4 of tanks total weight and I added weight of 18-Pdr field gun, aproximate weight of this vehicle would be about 11-12 tons, giving it power/weight ratio of between 21-24 hp/t, but this is only rough estimate.

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Gun
Gun on other hand would be new addition to game and thus I will speak of it in more detail.
QF 18-Pounder field gun was standard field gun of British Empire during First World War and predecessor to famous 25-Pdr, with first versions intreduced in 1904 and later versions saw service into early 1942 with approx. 10,469 built.

Stats

QF 18-Pounder filed gun
Mass: 1.282 tonnes/2,825 lb
Barrel length: 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m)
Width: 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Crew: 6
Gunshield: proof against shrapnel and rifle fire (500 yds)(cca 7-8 mm by my calculations, but I may be wrong)
Calibre: 3.3 in (83.82 mm)
Shell: 84 x 295 mm R
Shell weight: 18.5 lb (8.4 kg) projectile 23 lb (10 kg) total including case.
Types of Ammo: Armour piercing, High explosive, Smoke, Shrapnel shell (also Gas, Star and Incendiary, but these types of shell are not present in game)
Recoil: 41 in (1.0 m) (Mk I – II), 26 in (0.66 m) to 48 in (1.2 m) (Mk III – V)
Elevation: -5° to +16°(Mk I & II), -5° to +30°, -5° to +37°(Mk IV & V)
Traverse: 4.5° left and right (Mk I – IV), 25° left and right (Mk V)
Rate of fire: 20 rpm, 4 rpm (sustained)
Muzzle velocity: 1,615 ft/s (492 m/s)

Pictures

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Only known photos of this obscure vehicle:

Spoiler

Model of 18-Pdr Stuart:

Spoiler

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Disclaimer: This is my first post and english is not my primary language, so I am sorry for any technical info mistakes, missing information or incorrect grammar.

I would also apriciate it, if someone would add any missing information in order to improve this post as information on this vehicle and 18-prd ammunition (especially WW2 ammo) are scarce.

Sources:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Warthunder/comments/u044az/a_british_m3_stuart_transformed_into_a_spg_with_a/
https://www.reddit.com/r/shittytechnicals/comments/j9v4d5/m3_stuart_18_pdr84mm/
18-Pdr gun on Wikipedia
Stuart light tank specs
Stuart I on War Thunder wiki
18-Pdr Stuart model on Youtube
Peter Chamberlain and Chris Ellis, British and American Tanks of World War 2

[Valcour]

Well it would have no (or very little) traverse and would be very vulnerable to MG fire but it could be a fun event machine. Any information on the ammunition supply?

[Spr4yz]

This gun and its ammunition are a bit elusive. There was an AP-T shell in use in Finland according to Jaegerplatoon.net, Weighing 8.32 kg and a muzzle velocity of 853 m/s (155mm pen @ 0m).

Checking Wikipedia’s page it has an HE shell with 510 gram filler of picrite (x1.1) and later amatol (x1.0). There are also some shrapnel shells but those are of limited use in the game.

In terms of ammo stowage, I found this handbook (p.33) from 1913 with a couple of pictures of various ammo carriages which could give an idea how the ammo could be stored. Especially if the carriages were still in use and repurposed to the inside of the vehicle.

This looks like a fun derp thumper (which I am biased towards <3), and in terms of traverse you’d have to treat it like any other assault gun and be careful how you advance and position yourself. +1

[EDDIEGT]

what happened to my poor stuart

[CMOT4356]

The poor Stuart chose more fire power and said " see I’m still relevant."

[PrussianOwl]

+1 support. Was going to suggest this vehicle myself! Also I did a bit of digging and apparently it was in a book from 1969 called “British and American Tanks of World War 2” by Peter Chamberlain and Chris Ellis if another source is needed

[AWACS Ghost Eye]

This reminds me of the SU-5-1 and by how improvised it looks it gives me interest

[Tomgun_BLYAT]

Just a backup of pictures, nothing to see here…

Spoiler

Also did bit of streamlining of page to make it easier to read

Hopefully I will get my lazy butt to read 1913 handbook from Spr4yz (thnx and sorry for not reading it yet) and I managed to find 1940 handbook on net so hopefully I will finally put together section on ammo, but no promises as I got some work to do and when I am free I am just cant force myself to do anything
Ordered to book from which the pictures com so hopefully there will be some info about this contraption as well and if not, cool, maybe I will at least scan pictures to get HQ pictures

[BSpiel8]

Here is something to see, the larger and better quality version of one of your photos

Apparently from this book, I believe you already mentioned it in your sources:
British and American Tanks of World War Two: The Complete Illustrated History of British, American and Commonwealth Tanks, 1939-45: Chamberlain, Peter, Ellis, Chris: 9780304355297: Amazon.com: Books