- Yes
- No
caid’s suggestion #57
I would like to suggest an early Swiss gun truck, the Unimog U25 204GK
this image was probably flipped from left and right
The Unimog U25 204GK (unofficial name) was a Unimog U25 Serie 2010 that was converted by the firm Oerlikon-contrave to carry a 20mm Oerlikon Type 204GK auto-cannon on a fully rotative ring. while Unimog 2010 would be a more accurate name as it indicates the exact model, I want to avoid using it because of the high risk of confusion with the year 2010. the Unimog 2010 was a reliable, light, and cheap truck produced by Mercedes-Benz and the main military used was the Swiss army who bought 540 of those trucks to serve as artillery tractors, aircraft towing, personal carriers, and utility trucks. In services in Switzerland since 1952 (long before 2010) a few of them were put at the disposal of the firm Oerlikon to do “experimentation”. trying to use it as a fire-support vehicle. the Unimog saw his cargo deck receiving a gun’s rig mounting a 20mm Oerlikon Type 204GK (later called KAA-01) on a fully rotative mount. this allows the truck to become a mobile turret that could be deployed quickly, and engage light vehicles and aircraft. t
The test was not successful as the high center of gravity and light weight made the truck have difficulty absorbing the recoil when shooting sideways. it was clear that on uneven terrain, the truck was at high risk of flipping over. the development was abandoned
Firepower
the armament was identified as the 2 cm Maschinenkanone Oerlikon Typ 204GK. this auto-cannon is a common Swiss gun who was having similar penetration to the WW2 auto-cannon of caliber 20mm, but this auto-cannon features 5 advantages that make it much better.
- High fire rate: this gunfire about 3 times faster than the regular WW2 20mm auto-cannon
- High velocity: this gun have about 30% move velocity than the WW2 20mm auto-cannon
- Larger magazine: this gun carry about 4 times the ammunition of the WW2 20mm auto-cannon in a single magazine
- It uses APHE: the main anti-tank round has similar penetration, but it also has HE filler which makes it MUCH more effective because a single bullet will deal about 3 times the damage of a solid round.
- It has APCR : while not the main round, it can use a powerful APCR against armored targets.
this makes this vehicle a pretty interesting one as it would have real difficulty dealing with heavy targets but would be deadly in flanking and against light targets. the ammo load is unknown, but the truck easily has the space for 5 magazines stored plus one loaded in the gun. the gun is mounted on a ring that has a full rotation. this allows a high depression which makes it pretty good to fire down in the valley (a feature that the Swiss needed) and can rise high to the peak. but this mount wasn’t the best against aircraft while it was capable of doing it.
Mobility
Altogether it gives a weight of about 2.2 tonnes which is one of the lightest vehicles that could be in the game. but while extremely light, the vehicle also features an extremely weak engine. with a 1.8 L OM636.914 I4 engine giving only 34 hp, this vehicle will have difficulty even breaking a wood fence in-game. it would barely be capable to move of 10cm of the wreckage of a light tank even at full speed. but obstacle aside, this vehicle will have a pretty nice mobility when it does not hit a tree or a wall. power weight of 15.45 hp/ton is still pretty good for a wheeled vehicle and makes this truck have a pretty nice off-road mobility which was one of the main features of this vehicle. with the extremely lightweight and good power-weight, this truck will still fare pretty well on soft ground compared to other trucks. but the top speed is not impressive with 53 km/h forward, it would not break the record of speed but the acceleration would still make it feel fast.
Protection
if you expect this truck to have armor, it has about nothing. the truck has an open cabin. the wooden wall on the deck and exposed crew. it has about nothing that can help to survive a volley of LMG flying in his direction. the truck does have a sort of turret, but the turret is mounted on a skeleton frame which makes it only save the crew when you are lucky enough to have a bullet hit the frame instant of the gunner’s leg. the chassis also features no protection. hull is made of steel which is probably around 3mm thin (not even enough against LMG) but also the cabin is made of a fordable fabric which would not have any effect on any bullets that would decide to fly inside. the crew would probably include 3 men. One would be the driver. one would be the gunner and the last one would be the commander sitting next to the driver.
source
Spoiler
chassis
armament
- Oerlikon Kaa Formerly Gk - Machine Gun V5 - Bev Fitchett's Guns
- https://militaerfahrzeuge.ch/unterkategorie_13_10_789.html (the coaxial of this tank is the same as this auto-cannon)
- 20 mm Flab Kan 54 - Fliegerabwehr - Geschütze | militärfahrzeuge.ch (AA version of the same gun)
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