Hello.
In closest future I’d love to submit a suggestion regarding French prototype made in Britain in 1943, the Renault UE2 artillery tractor armed with 57mm 6-pounder, probably Mk.II version (as months or even years ago I have done numerous measurements to figure out the barrel length, and it must be 6-pdr L/43, field variant). A lot of you may know about it from WoT as UE 57:
However, as long as I’ve been asking people with enough knowledge, resources, and doing my own researches, I could not find anything more proper than that. The only physical sources I can access on it are a book, L’automobile sous l’uniforme, of 1992 edition (very old), and some modelist magazine
And that is it. That’s all we have - only a single photo and just a date of when it was made, somewhere in May-June 1943 in the UK, plus some info available on internet about the Galliot’s spiral muzzle brake being effective at reducing these big guns recoil at 81% rate, to be used on tiny arty tractors. The magazine depicts it with longer gun, perhaps Mk.IV, judging by increased length and different overall look of the barrel. It’s quite hard to tell the boxes on it’s sides depicted in the magazine are real, or those are the structure of UE 57 itself. Having ammo would be crucial for it to be added in the game.
I just remembered about a blogpost, telling about WoT community contributors being invited in British Shrivenham Defence Center. It is interesting because there, a real Galliot muzzle brake is featured as an exhibit, and on the wall, you could find that vehicle picture featured in the book, along with Lorraine 37L with 17-pdr:
Maybe someone who visited the Centre before, or could visit it, could share more photographs from it?
Link to the blogpost: OVERLORD'S BLOG: Defence Capabilities Centre Shrivenham (It also has some interesting info and photos, people interested in British stuff - really consider checking this link out)
I also have that muzzle brake patent they talk about, here: US2143596A - Recoil absorber for firearms - Google Patents
A Czech military website says one of the sources they use is this book, maybe people who own it could share info on UE 57: Ivo Pejčoch – Obrněná technika 7, Francie 1919-1945, vydavateľtvo Ares, Praha 2007, ISBN 978-80-86158-47-1
I’m asking you to help with researching this vehicle. Nothing in the French documents I could find, the French archive photographer Elan said due to the vehicle being constructed in the UK, info on it must be in British archives and museums. I’d like to ask you, if you could provide any help regarding it - possible documents from archives with bigger historical remark (when it was made, who made it and what happened to it in the end), specifications (exact gun model, effectivity of the muzzle brake, ammo quantity or it’s absence), or just more photos. Photos showing normal UE2 arty tractor would be also nice, to see if these boxes could actually be added later and used for storing ammo. The Czech book owners, and people who may visit Shrivenham Defence Center, would also help greatly - even the absence of info from these places would just specify where should we really look in future.
Good night everyone!