Favorite rare vehicles/prototypes WW2 and inter-war

[CHRISTIEFRONTDRIVE]

Underrated, lesser-known, guilty pleasures, whatever, let's post pictures and get a good discussion going .

Here's one to start us off: Soviet AT-1 tank destroyer, so rare it's nearly impossible to find pictures.



dat 76.2mm gun in 1935! Only two were made apparently.

Not really that rare but I have a soft spot for the Flammpanzer II Flamingo, it just looks cool as shit.



What's your favorites?

[Korsakov829]

I'll find some pictures of what comes to mind quick...


YaG-10 with 76mm AA gun.


Pansarbil M/39


T-29, it's size is just ridiculous.


Blohm & Voss BV 141


DAF Amphibie 1939


NKL-23


This rail... track... Czech thing? Forget its name.

[Born2Kill 007]

Pzkpfw. Panther Ausf. F
Upgraded Panthers with better armor, Schmalturm with the 88mm KwK 43 L/71, heavier armor and yet lower weight IIRC, built-in stereoscopic rangefinder, ...
Yet, all protoypes were destroyed by the allied during target practises. One survived i think, but it has more parts replaced than it had of it's own.

Panther II is also intresting, but i think the Ausf. F would have been better since i guess the costs and mobility/engine might have been an issue on the Panther II, while the advantages were less. It had strongly improved armor to 10cm angled frontal armor, heavier side and top armor, heavier Tiger II turret etc.
Luckily, one of these survived the war and target practises, and you can still visit it at the Patton Cavalry and Armor Museum. Sadly, they put a Panther Ausf. G turret on it.

[THeTA0123]

The only effective panther tank would have been the origenal 35 ton. Smaller, faster, way more reliable (most panther tank compoments were calculated for a lower weight) yet with 60mm frontal armour and 80mm turret armour. As the hetzer later proved, this was still sufficient for even the late war allied tank guns.

With an estimated cost of 88 900 reich marks ( 104 000 for PZIV in 1943)



The T20 medium tank. Same weight as M4 sherman. Smaller, Faster. 76mm gun. Given a tested suspension and transmission, it performed very well. But instead of deploying this tank in early 1943, they kept on testing and testing new things. And the M4 sherman remained in service...

This tank was the father to the M26 pershing however

[Kelmola]

The T20 medium tank. Same weight as M4 sherman. Smaller, Faster. 76mm gun. Given a tested suspension and transmission, it performed very well. But instead of deploying this tank in early 1943, they kept on testing and testing new things. And the M4 sherman remained in service...

You can thank Leslie McNair for that, and for not upgunning every Sherman, and for halting the production of Pershing, and for clinging to the retarded "thin-skinned tank destroyers and towed AT guns are teh ossumest tank killers, tanks should only fight infantry" doctrine.

Somehow I suspect that the 8th AF did not mistakenly bomb his command post during Cobra. Or even if they did, it was poetic justice.

[CHRISTIEFRONTDRIVE]

Polish TKD tank destroyer

http://derela.republika.pl/tkd.htm

[THeTA0123]

The T20 medium tank. Same weight as M4 sherman. Smaller, Faster. 76mm gun. Given a tested suspension and transmission, it performed very well. But instead of deploying this tank in early 1943, they kept on testing and testing new things. And the M4 sherman remained in service...

You can thank Leslie McNair for that, and for not upgunning every Sherman, and for halting the production of Pershing, and for clinging to the retarded "thin-skinned tank destroyers and towed AT guns are teh ossumest tank killers, tanks should only fight infantry" doctrine.

Somehow I suspect that the 8th AF did not mistakenly bomb his command post during Cobra. Or even if they did, it was poetic justice.

If it wassent for Lesli Mcnair, American forces would have had 500 M26 persing tanks at the start of normandy. With a total of 2000 ready by end of 1944. He and patton deliberatly delayed these programs because he believed in mass swarms of tanks

Well each of those shermans held 5 crewmembers. 2000 american tanks destroyed in normandy alone. Do the math

[PanzerKnacker]

Huh? wait....what? Erm...

So, 2000 ready by end of 1944, 500 on D day, 2000 destroyed....erm...shermans, Pershing, T20....Patton Mcnair...


what the HECK did I just read?

[Kelmola]

TheTa means that Patton was equally to blame for the delaying of Pershing production, and that 500 Pershings would have been complete by Normandy and 2000 by Bulge if not for him - instead the Murrikans lost 2000 Shermans (mostly 75mm variants).

However, Patton was essentially sidelined from 43 to 44 after the "slapping incidents". Doubt he had much pull at the time over the frakking Commanding General, Army Ground Forces McNair. Especially considering Patton's superior, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Eisenhower, was screaming for 76mm Shermans and M26's and still was not heard. Also, Patton had practically developed the US armoured doctrine which McNair then promptly trashed as "unsound", doesn't sound like the old cavalryman would have supported that upstart artilleryman in in anything.

Exactly one source (Cooper: "Death Traps") tells the story of Patton halting back the development of M26, and even that is repeating the certainly most reliable scuttlebutt heard at the 3rd AD's motor pool. Every other source puts it straight at the lap of McNair.