Czechoslovak tree part 3 - Light tanks

Introduction:

The general introduction to the Czechoslovak army has been written in the previous posts so I won't write much more about that. Suffice to say that when it comes to light tanks, pre-war Czechoslovakia was a superpower. Czechoslovak tanks and their copies could be found all over the glob - literally - and when Germany seized Czechoslovakia's armored forces, the older models of tanks (mostly LT-35's) went to Germany's allies - Romania, Bulgaria, but also Hungary. Czechoslovak pre-war light tanks were the perfect blend of mobility, armor and firepower and the tradition was kept throughout the war with the prototypes made for the Germans right to the post-war years, when the Soviet influence unfortunately doused all the new and upcoming projects and threw the Czechoslovak design school into the decades of Soviet influence.

With that being said, let's move on to the vehicles themselves and their nomenclature. And let me tell you, it's a MESS. There were literally dozens of projects and subprojects of pre-war Czechoslovak light tanks. Most of them come from the competition of two companies: ČKD and Škoda. Those two were the responsible for most of the pre-war and war production and only after the war during the onset of communism were they sort of forced to work together - naturally after the state stole them from their owners (technically this is not totally true, as there were some joint projects previously, but most of the time they were competing fiercely). Both of these companies produced several mainstay models, which sold in modified versions on the export market and some were quite different from the others. And that's not only that, then there is the nomenclature. If you think the German one is a mess, you should check out some tracts about the Czechoslovak pre-war tanks, it's horrible - some tanks were using two or more names, some had absolutely minor changes that, but they were renamed to a different model etc. It is not the purpose of this post to describe the relations between them, but suffice to say that there would probably be enough pre-war light tanks to fill tier 3 and 4 of 3+ branches.

Well, let's have a look at it. Once again, I used Tuccy's Czechoslovak tree as a reference, but I went the other way. Basically, what Tuccy proposed are two branches: one dedicated to the Škoda vehicles, one to the ČKD vehicles. As much as I'd love to see an independent Czechoslovak tree, I am pretty sure that's not going to happen (pity, though, there were dozens of designs worth adding), so we can't really afford such luxury as two independent branches of light/medium tanks. We gotta make it one branch. So here's how I mixed it.

Please note, that there aren't the famous LT-35 and LT-38 in this branch. They'd form the basis of the main medium branch. Well, let's have a look at it.

Tier 1 - Kolohousenka
Tier 2 - LT-34
Tier 3 - TNH
Tier 4 - T-16
Tier 5 - TNH 57/900
Tier 6 - T-17
Tier 7 - U9376 Leták

Tier 1 - Kolohousenka



History:

This horribly ugly vehicle was amongst the first attempts to combine wheel and track propulsion in order for the vehicle to have the advantages of both. It is a design from the mid 20's. The name means in Czech "wheel-track" (the old name for tracks in Czech - "housenka" - is the same word meaning "caterpillar" in English) and that's really what it was - the wheels were supposed to be used during long transports on paved roads, the tracks were to be used only during combat operations and during offroad movement. The main reason for the development wasn't only the speed of the vehicle on the roads, but also the fact, that the tracks from the 20's tended to break a LOT, eg efforts were made to reduce the stress on them as much as possible.
While the most famous wheel-track system is probably the one from Walter Christie (used later on the BT series of Russian vehicles), Czechoslovak army decided do buy the more complicated system from the famous German designer, ing. Heinrich Vollmer, which was really a combination of two suspensions: a wheel suspension capable of lifting and lowering itself, and the track suspension from the Hanomag WD-50 tractor. The ramps on the side of the vehicle served to ease the transition from wheels to tracks and it took roughly 15 minutes for the vehicle to be converted from wheels to tracks and vice versa.
The army passed the purchased production rights to three companies, which produced the first two prototypes (intened to be artillery tractors at first) designated KH-50. The trials weren't satisfactory however - one of the vehicle had to be scrapped because it was completely worn out very soon, the other was converted into a tank (see on picture) by adding a round turret with a 37mm infantry gun. Later this was replaced by twin heavy machine guns and there were even plans for a 75mm howitzer. This conversion was accepteded by the army under the designation of KH-60, but by that time it was already judged as obsolete and serial production was never considered. The vehicle stayed in service for 5 years (1925-1930) and was used for training, after that it was effectively turned into a monument and never used again. Funnily enough, German tank manuals from 1939 still stated it was an active type in the Czechoslovak army.
KH's were exported too - two KH-60's were exported to Soviet Union in 1927 and one to Italy in 1930.
Although Kolohousenka was deemed a failure, Czechoslovak army didn't stop in trying to create the combined vehicles by itself. However, by 1930 the license for Vollmer's suspension already ran out and further attempts to develop such a suspension by themselves were met with failure yet again.

Characteristics:

Armor: 6-14mm
Weapon: low velocity 37mm infantry gun
Weight: 10 tons
Speed: 15 km/h on tracks
Engine: 60hp Škoda V4

Note: There are several candidates for tier 1: the first Czechoslovak army tank was actually the French FT-17, but there were also the Praga MT and Praga YNH projects (they looked a bit like the Leichttraktor). However, Kolohousenka is by far the most original project of them all. Another "candidate" would be the infamous Tančík vzor 1933 (basically a tankette inspired by the Carden-Lloyd vehicles, it was horrible, everyone who came in contact with it hated it - especially the crews), but that one was really too undergunned even for tier 1 (7,92mm MG - with AP ammo, it's cca 15mm penetration max).

Tier 2 - LT-34



History:

In the late 20's, Czechoslovak army experimented with tankettes, as the tankettes seemed to be the "flavour of the decade", especially the Carden Lloyd ones. Everyone wanted to have them and so the Czechoslovak army decided it wanted them too. After some experiments with the tankettes, ČKD designed its own, the infamous Tančík vz. 33 (1933 pattern tankette), which was eventually produced in 70 pieces and delivered in 1934. It was a complete failure, the vehicle was a nightmare to drive and even worse to shoot from, it broke down all the time and the army hated it and considered it absolutely useless. In the end, 70 were made despite the protests but the soldiers got rid of them rather quickly and the last of them disappeared somewhere during the war.
The ČKD learned from its mistakes (even though they were quite costly). In the 30's it was clear that the tankettes can't handle the tanks the light tanks can and that the tankette platform is so flimsy no serious upgunning and uparmoring is in question. ČKD responded by constructing a brand new vehicle from its own initiative (which wasn't very common). At first, the vehicle was to be armed with the licensed Vickers 47mm gun, but the army refused that and so it was re-armed (at least on the paper) with the 37mm Škoda A3 cannon. The first prototype was made in 1932, it passed the tests successfuly and in 1933, first 50 vehicles were ordered. The army designation LT-34 ("lehký tank vzor 34" - "light tank 1934 pattern") was given to it in 1935.
After its introduction to the army, some significant flaws were discovered. The armor was only 15mm thick and couldn't withstand modern AT guns, the tracks were prone to breaking when the vehicle turned. The vehicle was also pretty slow. After the introduction of the LT-35, LT-34's were relegated to secondary duties, as they were considered inferior and too slow for the scouting role they were to perform. In the end, 51 vehicles (including the prototype) were produced and when Germany occupied the Czech republic (by that time fascist Slovakia already tore from the Czechoslovakia), they captured amongst many other things also 23 of these machines. They were probably used for training for a while and later scrapped. Slovak LT-34's took later part in the Slovak National Uprising, but by that time they were so worn out most of them were immobile, some where used as static defenses but the Germans captured them and planned to sell them to the fascist Croatia - they sent them to Pilsen for re-fitting and repairs, but (probably by a mixup) local German commander considered them wrecks and ordered them scrapped. Only two tanks survived the war more or less intact and both were scrapped in the 50's.

Characteristics:

Armor: 8-15mm
Weapon: 37mm A3 (designated "vz.34" by the army), Vickers 47mm
Weight: 7,5 tons
Speed: 30 km/h
Engine: 62,5hp Praga V4


Tier 3 - TNH




History:

The history of the export tank designated TNH is very complicated. There were several types, subtypes and variations with different armament (and sometimes turrets) and there are whole books dealing with this whole line of tanks. The tank name is derived from the fact that it used the Praga TN engine series and the H stands for "housenkový" - "tracked".
The roots of this tank go back to 1935 and the fact Iran was looking for new tanks. Both ČKD and Škoda took part in these negotiations, but ČKD sort of "bribed" the Shah of Iran, when they sent him one prototype of the P-I tankette (later to become the infamous Tančík vzor 1933) as a gift. The Shah was pleased and ČKD got the order, much to the dismay of the Škoda negotiatiors, present in Teheran at that time. Some bickering followed, but when Teheran started threatening to give the order of the 30 tankettes and 26 light tanks to the British, the fights quickly stopped, as ČKD promised to arm their tanks with Škoda cannons (designated A4 BETA).
Trials followed successfuly and the Iranians were so impessed, they decided to order the total of 50 tankettes and 40 tanks. The tanks were transported to Iran in pieces and completed on the spot using local workers, the order was completed in November 1937. Although there were some issues (unqualified Iran soldiers, old officers), the whole deal made Iran very happy and it was decided to order 100 to 300 more vehicles. The war interfered with that however and the TNH tanks served in Iran until mid 50's.
Another modification of this type was the order for Peru. The order itself was quite complicated - the original TNH tanks weren't what the Peruans were looking for and in the end, another derivate, designated LTH (originally meant to be exported to Switzerland, the Peruan version was designated LTP) was selected. The tank was especially modified to work in high altitudes (amongst other things by using a special carburator intended for airplanes). The tank was very well recieved in Peru, it worked flawlessly and it reached the legendary status in Peru, being valued higher than the US Stuart deliveries. The LTP was used fought (!) in Peru until 1988 and only recently a surviving LTP tank was returned to Czechoslovakia to be stored in a museum:



There were other customers too: the LTH was intended Switzerland (and had 40mm Oerlikon gun and a diesel engine), LTL for Lithuania (with a 20mm Oerlikon cannon and a lighter engine), LLT also for Lithuania (with a 37mm Škoda gun) - these were confiscated by Slovaks and used to fight the Soviets - all were lost in battle. And then there is the TNH-Sv., serving in the Swedish army under the designation of Stvr M/41 with the 37mm Bofors gun. There were others too.

This branch of vehicles gives WG many possibilities. Theoretically it could be the most varied tank in the game, the amount of versions and derivates is huge.

Characteristics:

Armor: 8-15mm (TNH) to 10-50mm (TNH-Sv)
Weapon: 37mm A3, 37mm A4 BETA, 37mm Škoda A7, 24mm Oerlikon M38, 20mm Oerlikon, 37mm Bofors Stvr K M/38 and others
Weight: from 7,3 tons (LTP) to 11 tons (TNH-Sv)
Speed: from 38 km/h (TNH) to 54 km/h (LTL)
Engine: from 100hp Praga TN100 (TNH) to 160hp Scania-Vabis 603-2 (TNH-Sv)

Tier 4 - T-16



History:

As you all probably know, there is a T-15 tank in the game already (on the picture). The T-16 is a post-war evolution thereof. In 1942, the Germans started to realize they got themselves into a world of hurt in Russia and started looking for alternative designs and production capacities for new tanks, including light tanks. What was previously unthinkable (using non-German designs to manufacture vehicles for the Wehrmacht) now became grim reality for the German engineers and soldiers. The obvious choice was the former Czechoslovakia. Now under the brutal occupation, the designers at Škoda and ČKD were pressed into designing tanks for the Third Reich. The T-15 was one of those designs. It was supposed to be a new light tank and it was quite modern for its time (concieved in 1941), the delays caused by German machinations (German companies were very reluctant to use Czechoslovak designs, they didn't want competition) pushed the trials of the prototypes to 1942. The prototype was rejected (it had its flaws) temporarily and returned to the Škoda factory for refit. Next round of trials took place in october, but the design was still not perfected (partially due to sabotage works carried out by some workers and designers, some of which were executed) and the tank was refused completely. Four prototypes were ordered to be scrapped, but one prototype was saved and kept until 1945 and it was gradually rebuilt. They added sloped frontal armor (much like the one of the Panther in shape), the turret was rebuilt for more slope too, but the most important change was the engine and armament. The engine was to be the 210hp diesel Tatra T-103. The tank was to be armed with the newly-developed autoloader gun series - either with the 47mm Škoda A24, or the 57mm Škoda A25. Such a completely refitted T-15 was to be designated T-16 and offered post-war to the Czechoslovak army.
However, the guns weren't available on time and the post-war development was eventually cancelled. The test prototype was scrapped at some point in the 50's.

Characteristics:

Armor: 8-30mm (armor thickness unknown, heavily sloped)
Weapon: both with autoloaders, 47mm A24 or 57mm A25
Weight: ?
Speed: 50 km/h+
Engine: 210hp Tatra T-103

Tier 5 - TNH 57/900



History:

After the war, the newly-reformed Czechoslovak army was not interested too much in new light tanks, even though the LT-38 and Hetzer suspensions were used for the development of other vehicles, such as some self-propelled guns. Several designs were given to consideration in 1948-1949, including the Škoda T-17, but the army really showed no interest. However, Škoda developed the new line of automatic drum-fed cannons - the 37mm A23, the 47mm A24 and the 57mm A25 (the latter two intended also for the T-16 prototype). ČKD thought it would be a great idea to make a new light tank design too - they knew the Czechoslovak army wasn't really interested and so the design was concieved for export in 1949 and it was designated (in the ČKD light tank tradition) as TNH 57/900, as it was based on the TNH chassis conception and designed so that it could share many parts with the LT-38 and Hetzer. It was to be armed with the 57mm A25 cannon and it was generally a very good design. One prototype was made and it passed some tests, but in 1949, Czechoslovakia was banned from selling any weapons to countries outside of the Soviet sphere of influence (and as the countries within the sphere of Soviet influence were serviced exclusively by Soviets and their tech, it was a de-facto export ban). Losing its primary goal (the export), the projet was cancelled in 1950. Oddly enough, the prototype wasn't scrapped and it was used for towing artillery even around 1957. Without the turret of course.

Characteristics:

Armor: 20-50mm
Weapon: 57mm A25 autoloaded
Weight: ?
Speed: 48 km/h
Engine: 250hp Praga V8 or 220hp Tatra V12

Tier 6 - T-17



History:

In November 1948, it was decided on the meeting between the Škoda company leadership and the representatives of the Czechoslovak army to create a light platform on which a light tank destroyer, a light self propelled gun and a light tank could be built. This platform was named "Lehký podvozek" or LP. It was based on a drawing from Škoda design bureau of a light tank designated T-17. It was supposed to be a classical setup tank with 4 members of the crew. The armor was 10 to 60mm thick and the gun was supposed to be a 75mm A18 cannon with a drum autoloader. The cannon itself was introduced to the army in 1947 already. The shapes of the tank were very modern. The front hull was inspired by the IS-3 design ("pike nose") and very well angled, the turret was to be cast and rounded, similiar in shape to the T-55 turret. The mantlet however was clearly inspired by the German designs. The tank was considered very modern, but in the upcoming age of the main battle tank and with the Soviet restrictions placed on the developement, it never had a chance. It was scrapped in the early 50's and it never passed to the prototype stage.

Characteristics:

Armor: 10-60mm
Weapon: 75mm A18, autoloaded
Weight: 19t
Speed: cca 50 km/h
Engine: 200hp?

Tier 7 - U9376 "Leták"







History:

This oddly named tank ("leták" in Czech means "a flier" or "a pamphlet", not really ) was one of the last cases of independent Czechoslovak design under the difficult conditions of the sovietisation of the 50's. It was concieved in 1954 as a floating tank, much like the later Soviet PT-76. The word "leták" was not intended as its name, it was merely a codeword. The main goal was to build a floating light tank, using the components of the T-34/85, namely the V-2 engine with the weight of 15 to 20 tons. Due to one previous floating tank project (VOŽ), a suspension and floating system were already available. The suspension consisted of torsion bars and thanks to that, the vehicle was rather fast: 60 km/h on hard surfaces. In the end, the vehicle was to weight cca 15 tons and was to be armed with an autoloaded 57mm Czechoslovak gun. Design works began in earnest by the end of 1954, but in 1955 an order came to stop the new projects, including this tank. Despite that, the already finished concept was send to Soviet Union for evaluation. The Soviets replied favourably - they however suggested the tank to be armed with an 76mm or even 85mm cannon and to use lighter engine, namely the V-6. The tank was even judged to be better than the Soviet concept of PT-76, but even that didn't help - the Czechoslovak army scrapped the project in February 1956.

Characteristics:

Armor: 10-20 mm
Weapon: 57mm A25 autoloaded, 76mm, 85mm
Weight: 15-20 tons (depending on version)
Speed: cca 60 km/h
Engine: cca 200hp V-6