those of you, who are interested in French projects most likely know about this vehicle, but let me introduce this beauty to the rest of the good folks reading this blog.
This is the Somua SM project. Works on it begin at the Société d'outillage mécanique et d'usinage d'artillerie (SOMUA) design bureau in 1946, during that time France desperately sought to regain international prestige by (amongst other ways) restarting its tank-producing industry. As you can see on the hull, experience learned from the German vehicles has been used in its design (the sloped armor reminds us of the Tiger II, by which it was heavily inspired). A 100mm gun, installed in an oscillating turret (which was apparently identical to the one of the AMX-50) has been chosen as the armament.
First prototype was finished in October 1951 and trials lasted until mid 1953, but by then politics intervened and it was decided to buy the American (and cheap) M47 Pattons instead.
Not much else is known about this vehicle, including the exact armor thicknesses or weight (it is estimated it will be the same weight category as the AMX 50). In game however it could be a rather interesting vehicle. In fact, we can be reasonably sure it will be implemented at some point, because a long time ago (mid 2012), it appeared in the French tree (before the whole "future tree" concept was scrapped) as a tier 7 heavy tank:
-for-book_true_com.jpg)
A Tiger II hull with an AMX-50-ish turret? Yes please :)
Autoloader?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely.
DeleteWill it.... um... have a gun?
DeleteIf it retains its position as tier VII it's definitely getting 90mm DCA 45 same as ARL 44 and AMX M4 45 but looking at the muzzle break in the picture it has mounted 105mm SA 47 which IMO is Over powered for its tier. My bet is that it'll be either slow and papery armored but with OP gun or it gets AMX 50 100'ish mobility but with DCA 45 instead of powerful SA 47.
DeleteIt might as well get kicked to tier VIII as it was a competitive design to AMX 50 100 and be very similar to it.
PalmNut
Oh I almost forgot about that techtree.
ReplyDelete*stares at P26/40 tank*
I so want italian tanks~
It's probably not actual anymore. It was from June 2012. In December 2012 on the Czech community meeting, Tuccy was asked about the French tanks and he said they aren't even sure what to do with the tier 10 (whether both the branches will merge into the AMX50B, or there will be second tier 10 heavy). I think the French tanks (due to their low demand) have relatively low priority.
DeleteI know, but I'm a dreamer~
DeleteEven though I dislike that WG puts so much effort into new tanks instead of enhancing the gameplay, I can't stop drooling over new tanks.
Italian tanks are very high on my list of "Things I want to drool about" list :P
I do remember this tree. It was epic and I wish they make it.
DeleteAs far as I read about Frenchies, there was a project with a goal to uparmor the AMX 50 100 hull. The result was a whopping 250-280mm front armor sloped at sliglty worse angle than 50 100's but the project got scrapped because the tank was too nose-heavy and sides were still only 30mm thick which was deemed ridiculous .
The up-armored AMX 50 was distinguished by different glacis shape from other prototypes:
Original armor scheme for up armored variant that I found long time ago:
http://s23.postimg.org/gmhnkhpx7/Plan_d_etude_0_1669.png
Up armored AMX 50 100 variant photo (note the front hull shape):
http://www.chars-francais.net/new/images/stories/galery/1949_amx50-100/amx%2050-100-02%20photo%20dga.jpg
Original AMX 50 100 variant photo:
http://www.chars-francais.net/new/images/stories/galery/1949_amx50-100/amx%2050-100-06%20photo%20ecpa.jpg
I read somewhere on forums that devs speculated to add AMX based on this hull with regular turret as tier X since this tank would have better frontal armor than even T95 but that's all I ever read about secondary tier X french Heavy
PalmNut
this uparmored amx 50 100 could be great as part of a 3rd heavy line along with the uparmored amx 50 120
DeleteZee
Could you please re-host stuff from wot.com/.eu/.whatever instead of linking to it, maybe adding a source link for reference? I cannot access anything on the official site from here.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what you mean, is the picture not showing for you?
DeleteYes, this one:
Deletehttp://worldoftanks.com/dcont/fb/media/media/art_techtree/tech/tech_trees_june_29/french_tree_full(eng)-for-book_true_com.jpg
Since it is hosted on wot.com, I cannot view it.
wot.com is blocked here, that is what I meant to say.
DeleteDamn, I need sleep :(
Ok should work now.
DeleteIt does work now. Thank you :)
Deleteit can be a good candidate (coz dont know about weight and armor of the hull) for a premium french medium tank (what a name) i think. it will be my dream:P hull from german tank and french turret lol
ReplyDeletepesymistik
The problem is... it was a Heavy Tank project, Somua SM was a AMX 50's competitor but was scrapped very soon because as you can see it was very similar to King Tiger and Panther tanks and as such, it carried over some design flaws from these tanks which french didn't know about before testing.
DeleteAnother cheap french copy of german tanks? What the? I don't even get it why there has to be a M4 1945 and a Tiger. They are nearly the same tanks.
ReplyDeleteOk the french need tanks in the techtree to fit in but it's kinda annoying the french don't have much other possible tier 7s or 8s rather than german copys.
Tiger and AMX M4 same ? I think you're either troll or blind.
DeleteTiger and AMX M4? Definitely blind.
DeleteTiger II and AMX M4? Yes, hull shares similar design.
But so does Tiger II and Panther, heck, AMX M4 is similar to Panther more than Tiger both in shape and armor thickness
DeleteI want a tier7 autoloader hvy!
ReplyDeleteFrench heavies are nice and all, but I'm more interested in the future medium line leading to the AMX-30. SS, have you got any information about the AMX-45 or the Chasseur de Char? I also wonder how they're going to differentiate the AMX-30 from the Leopard. Same armour, worse speed and manoeuvrability, better gun with a great HEAT round (Obus.G)?
ReplyDeleteAMX-30 doesn't have worse mobility than Leopard1 They have simillar power to weight ratio.
DeleteAs for Chasseur de Char, it's not difficult to find on the internet, here, for your convenience:
http://www.heberger-image.fr/data/images/57827_AMX_Chasseur.jpg
AMX-45 is nowhere on the internet so I guess you need to go to Saumur Museum in france to get some info about it.
PalmNut
Thanks. The reason I said the AMX-30 would have worse mobility in-game is because real-life testing has shown that the Leopard had better offroad capability (the tanks were tested side by side), though only slightly.
DeleteI've seen that Chasseur de Char diagram before. Aside from that there's one article about in on the Chars Francais website, but not much more than that. Couldn't find anything about the 45 either, looks like a visit to the library is in order. ;)
Thanks!
On the NA forums, a player asked about this on the French mediums section. What I dug up was a diagram posted by Overlord showing the E-50 Ausf. M(Before it was implemented) in comparison to a lineart of the AMX-45(Char Moyen 1945)
Deletehttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z9oHXoYpVvU/T9cYTmNKrLI/AAAAAAAAA-4/GpsH3cFU8Y0/s1600/E-50ausfM004.gif
It looks like an already implemented AMX M4 45. The in-game model has an alternative suspension but M4 was planned to have independent torsion bar suspension, same as Panther and King Tiger tanks.
DeleteBut thanks for posting, every clue on how this tank might look is valuable.
PalmNut
Still want normal RoF heavies - drum autoloaders for me is a big NO-GO.
ReplyDeleteThe hull looks more like a Panther hull then a Tiger II hull ...
ReplyDeletewhat a beauty...hope it get's implemented
ReplyDeleteflegmurda
Can you post the rest of the old Tech Trees? I hate not knowing what WG is working on...
ReplyDelete