The Chieftain's Hatch: T28 vs T95

12.04.2014 The Chieftain's Hatch

Last week's article on T28 generated a lot of confusion/misinformation on the forum and Facebook on the concept of what is T28 vs what is T95. Usually depending on the number of tracks visible. I've decided to take this week's Hatch and lay it out clearly for all to see. It's a ltitle basic by Hatch standards, but it probably needs clearing up.

First things first. Last week's article was an April Fool's thing. T28 was never sent to Korea, the photographs were of an LST loading test in Virginia in 1948.

OK. Let's sort out a few things.

This is a Super-Heavy Tank T28. See? It says T28 on the back of it.

This is also a Super-Heavy Tank T28. Note it says "T-28" on the side. Point to note: Unlike the previous photo, this vehicle only has one set of tracks, and no skirt.

 

As an aside, note the "-" in "T-28" in the photo above. Although the official nomenclature from Ordnance Committee did not use a "-", it was not uncommon for the "-" to appear in official documentation. The two formats, such as T28 and T-28 were used interchangeably. This was not confined only to T28, but appears on documentation for a number of vehicles.

Now, this is a 105mm Gun Motor Carriage T95, the drawing is from the operator's manual. It says "T95" on it. Twice.

Actually, I'm going to digress momentarily. Something else I keep seeing about the forum is the statement that  T95 is undersized in the game. "It's supposed to be as tall as a Jagtiger!" or something daft like that. That's because they go to Wiki and see 'T28 height" at 9'4", or 2.84m. That's to the top of the .50 cal. The vehicle roof is 6'9" off the ground. That's 2.12m, all of about 4" taller than me. By comparison, the turret roof of a Soviet T-54 is 2.4m, almost a foot higher. T95 is a low vehicle. Anyway, now that I've dealt with that problem here's a photo of GMC T95. See? It says "T95" on the skirt.

This also is a Gun Motor Carriage T95 picture from the manual.

Point to note. Only one set of tracks.

Here's what's going on.

They're the same vehicle. The vehicle was developed as a super-heavy tank designed to breach the Siegried Line fortifications, and so designated in the tank nomenclature, coming somewhere between T26 (Pershing), and T29 (the turreted 105mm tank eveyone at Tier VII loves). (T27 was taken by an armoured car and GMC). About 1945/46, I'd need to check, someone decided that the thing wasn't really a tank, and was more a self-propelled artillery piece. This it was redesignated to a Gun Motor Carriage, and the GMCs were way up the numbering list. T95 was available. Then, a year or so later, they decided that perhaps it actually was a tank after all, and renamed it back to T28. If anyone cares to look up the exact dates, the OCMs in question were OCM 27219 declaring it T95, and OCM 30958 turning it back into T28. Although both T28s and T95s built were identical, to have 12" or so of frontal armour, a number of hulls were cast with only 8" or so of armour. These were only ever called T28 castings, as the decision to build the complete vehicles with the thicker armour basis was done long before the GMC shennanigans started. There was no distinction in the armour basis/nomenclature, as there was in the heavy and lighter armoured tanks T25 and T26. The vehicle only ever carried a 105mm gun.

Now, T28/T95 may not have been a particularly tall vehicle, but it was a particularly wide vehicle. In order to get it onto flatcars, onto LCTs etc, they needed to make it narrower. It's not a unique problem, Tigers, for example, would have to take off the outer roadwheels and put on narrower tracks to go on flatcars.

The method was simple enough. Unbolt one set of outer tracks. Leave it standing, then go drive around the other side of it.

Whoever was in charge of this one wanted it very clear to all who saw it that this was T95 number 2! Heaven forbid they should be mistaken for those rejects in charge of Vehicle #1!

Bolt the two together, then disconnect the second outboard track from the vehicle. Move in front of them, and turn them into a trailer.

OK, so now that we have sorted that out, there remains a question. What the heck is this, that's a T28 in the game?

Compared to the real tank, it has VVSS suspension instead of HVSS, frontal drive-train, and an extended lower front hull.

Well, put frankly, we made it up. I speculate that the thinking was that the US rather gave up on the whole concept of heavy TDs and assault guns and didn't develop much which could survive at Tier VIII while remaining in the tech tree lineage. So, we had to fill in the gap a bit with a little creative license/speculation.

All hail Bob!

                  USА will save the world

The M48 Patton is a main battle tank that was designed in the United States. It was the third tank^[3] to be officially named after General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. Third Army^[4] during World War II and one of the earliest American advocates for the use of tanks in battle^[5] It was a further development of the M47 Patton tank. The M48 Patton was in U.S. service until replaced by the M60.^[4] The M48 served as the U.S. Army and Marine Corps's primary battle tank during theVietnam War. It was widely used by U.S. Cold War allies, especially other NATO countries.

The M48 Patton tank was designed to replace the previous M47 Pattons and M4 Shermans. Although largely resembling the M47, the M48 Patton was a completely new tank design. Some M48A5 models served well into the 1980s with American forces, and many various M48 Patton models remain in service in other countries. The M48 was the last U.S. tank to mount the 90 mm tank gun, with the last model, the M48A5, being upgraded to carry the new standard weapon of the M60, the105mm gun.

The Turkish Army has the largest number of modernized M48 MBTs, with more than 1,400 M48s in its inventory. Of these, around 1,000 have been phased out or are in storage, or have been modified to ARVs.

ТАНК «Оплот»  готов выгонять РАШИСТОВ с украинской земли!

«Оплот» (до принятия на вооружение — Т-84У) — украинский основной боевой танк. От базовой модели — Т-84 —отличается установкой приборов прицеливания зарубежного производства и увеличенными бортовыми экранами. Разработан Харьковским конструкторским бюро по машиностроению имени А. А. Морозова. 28 мая 2009 года принят на вооружение Вооружённых сил Украины.

Компания "Укрспецэкспорт" подписала контракт с представителями Вооруженных сил Королевства Таиланд на изготовление и поставку 49 танков "Оплот" (Т-84У), говорится в сообщении украинского предприятия. "Общая стоимость контракта существенно превышает 200 млн долларов", - сообщается о сумме сделки. Выполнять заказ будут предприятия, вошедшие в государственный концерн "Укроборонпром".

Сам танк представляет собой боевую машину, способную вести бой как при низких температурах воздуха (−40 °C), так и при высоких (+55 °C). «Оплот» обладает хорошими показателями скорости, маневренности и проходимости. Компоновка классическая — отделение управления располагается в носовой части, боевое отделение — посредине, а моторно-трансмиссионное — в корме танка. По сравнению с Т-80УД, было сделано несколько улучшений:

• новая сварно-катаная башня;
• тепловизионный прицел;
• спутниковая навигационная система;
• динамическая защита 3-го поколения «Нож»;
• комплекс оптико-электронного противодействия «Варта» ["Стража"];
• цифровая технология управления огнём;
• вспомогательный агрегат питания и другое.

Решение о постройке танков было принято в 1915 году практически одновременно в Великобритании , Франции и России . Окончательно первая английская модель танка была готова в 1916 году, когда прошла испытания, и первый заказ на 100 машин поступил в производство. Это был танк Mark I — довольно несовершенная боевая машина, выпускавшаяся в двух модификациях — «самец» (с пушечным вооружением в боковых спонсонах) и «самка» (только с пулемётным вооружением). Вскоре выяснилась низкая эффективность  пулемётных «самок», которые не могли бороться с бронетехникой противника и с трудом уничтожали огневые точки. Тогда была выпущена ограниченная серия «самок», у которых в левом спонсоне по-прежнему был пулемёт, а в правом — пушка.

Солдаты тут же метко окрестили их «гермафродитами». Впервые танки (модели Mk.1) были использованы английской армией против германской армии 15 сентября 1916 года воФранции, на реке Сомме.