Jan 3, 2013
3.1.2013 cont.
- physics won't be changed to allow longer jumps, Storm states that even though there are some "proofs" of BT-2 tanks jumping long distances, those jumps were basically faked - they were long prepared and tested, not performed in combat
- Storm: "There will be no switch of FV215b" (SS: I'd still be very careful with this, the sentence can be interpreted in more ways)
- Storm: SerB's statement does NOT imply the FV215b switch. "There is no change planned. If we decide to change it, we'll tell, but it won't happen sooner than 3-4 months from now. So far it's just talk."
- sound horns have been basically scrapped
- T-50-2 to MT-25 change: "We're still solving how to do it properly"
- VK2801 with HEAT ammo is overpowered according to SerB
- no radical gameplay changes planned for the future ("Dota, WoW, CS all work for ages on the same principle, no radical changes")
- E25 is planned for 2013, E10 isn't, as the devs have to implement the mechanics of lowering the suspension (as it was planned in real life) - E10: "when it's done it's done"
- devs are still thinking about what to do with golden derp tanks such as the Panzer IV and Sherman. No final solution decided yet. There is an option of lowering their penetration value - but no exact plans or promises
- Q: "Will you add the casino into the hangar?" (SS: by "casino", a rolling tank selection system is meant like it is in WoWp as far as I know). A: "Actually, the opposite - we'll buy a casino and put a tank inside" :)
- it's not planned to introduce player-selected gold sums into the giftshop
- on the second Soviet medium branch: "no comment"
- devs won't disclose the plan for 2013, because it would only lead to a loads of questions and whine such as "...but you promised, when?"
- About changing the maps for better cover from arty: "there is enough cover" and "stop whining"
- the "Arctic" map was modelled after Karelian isthmus
- there are no plans to create an equipment piece, that would work like the "sixth sense" perk
Mr. Doyle's German tanks - answers
Hello everyone,
Overlord published the last bunch of questions and answers, here:
http://overlord-wot.blogspot.cz/2013/01/wot-doyle-kubinka-and-much-more-part-9.html
It's actually very interesting, enjoy :) And please: As always, if you want to write something into the comments, PLEASE do it politely, last two of Overlord's articles got trolled by retards throwing insults. We are better than that.
Thank you.
Overlord published the last bunch of questions and answers, here:
http://overlord-wot.blogspot.cz/2013/01/wot-doyle-kubinka-and-much-more-part-9.html
It's actually very interesting, enjoy :) And please: As always, if you want to write something into the comments, PLEASE do it politely, last two of Overlord's articles got trolled by retards throwing insults. We are better than that.
Thank you.
3.1.2013
3.1.2012
Apparently, SerB or Storm aren't available, a developer named Veider answers a few questions instead
- GW E won't have the 1200 engine, it won't have it's passability thru soft terrain improved ("there aren't that many of the soft terrain areas in game, you can go around")
- soft terrain is recognizable on the maps, as it corresponds to real life soft terrain: marshes, bottoms of the lakes and rivers
- Prokhorovka won't be remodelled in order to add more cover from the arty it seems ("When I play on the Prokhorovka map and the enemy has arty, I am going thru the village for cover")
- in the future, 100mm (and possibly other) Soviet guns will be rebalanced (to correspond to the pen/alpha of the current Chinese 100mm)
Apparently, SerB or Storm aren't available, a developer named Veider answers a few questions instead
- GW E won't have the 1200 engine, it won't have it's passability thru soft terrain improved ("there aren't that many of the soft terrain areas in game, you can go around")
- soft terrain is recognizable on the maps, as it corresponds to real life soft terrain: marshes, bottoms of the lakes and rivers
- Prokhorovka won't be remodelled in order to add more cover from the arty it seems ("When I play on the Prokhorovka map and the enemy has arty, I am going thru the village for cover")
- in the future, 100mm (and possibly other) Soviet guns will be rebalanced (to correspond to the pen/alpha of the current Chinese 100mm)
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
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
Czechoslovak tree part 2 - Artillery
Introduction:
Czechoslovak army always had strong artillery tradition, that started even before WW1. Škoda howitzers and heavy mortars were renowned throughout the world and rightfully feared, artillery was one of the strongest elements in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire army. After the Treaty of Versailles and Austro-Hungarian breakup, it was only logical for the newly-emerged Czechoslovak republic, who just inherited most of the Austro-Hungarian industrial potential (Pilsen, Prague) to continue following the tradition. Czechoslovakia was always a rather small-ish country (compared to its neighbors - the massive Germany, rebuilding its armed forces throughout the 30's, the vast plains of Poland, which favoured the maneuvers and quick warfare and of course the lowlands of Hungary), but well protected by its mountain ranges on the borders. Its military doctrine reflected that - Czechoslovak army wasn't the lightning strike armored fist of the blitzkrieg, nor was it an army built on horsepower and massed light armor forces, such as the one of Poland. Instead, it relied (in the best Legionnaire traditions) on motorized and train movement of troops and heavy towed artillery. This, along with the essentially defensive nature of the army was the reason there was no urgent need for fast-moving fire support vehicles the Germans had throughout the war. Therefore, pre-war SPG projects are rare and they nearly never left the prototype stage. After all, the Czechoslovak generals thoughts - there are the mountains, there is the impregnable line of border fortifications with heavy artillery installed and there are motorized response units of artillery batallions, what could possibly happen?
After the war, the newly-reformed Czechoslovak army learned its bitter lesson and was determined to keep up with world's trends, when it comes to artillery too. During 1945-1948, quite a few projects were designed and given to consideration. Most were quite interesting, combining the captured technology with Czechoslovak artillery tradition and skill. However, until or short after 1948 all were cancelled in favour of the purchase of Soviet artillery. They can still be seen in the archives however - a testament to the skill of the men behind the drawing boards.
In game
Generally, the Czechoslovak arty line consists of paper projects. There is no way around it and this will be the case of other EU nations too, as a self-propelled gun, useable as WoT artillery was a rather specialised vehicle very few armies had the need to build - until the war at least. All of the projects are also post-war vehicles and most mid-tiers have German guns Czechoslovakia recieved or refurbished after the war (especially the 105mm howitzer was quite common). The artillery is also on the "heavier" end, far from the agile artillery of the French (or British). The biggest cannons however are Czechoslovak-made, such as the 305mm B2 Škoda mortar.
I will again be using Tuccy's concept that can originally be found here, with some modifications I made myself. I hope you'll like it.
A note on the nomenclature: Zb does not specifically mean project description, rather it's an archive number of the drawing, on which the project was found. Most of these projects remained on the company proposal stage, they didn't recieve an army designation (which is "Samohybná houfnice" or ShH - "self-propelled howitzer", followed by the gun pattern). Also, the brackets - showing what type of hull the vehicle is based on - are not official, I added those myself for easier orientation.
Here's the basic layout:
Tier 2 - Zb 16051-P (Hetzer)
Tier 3 - Zb 16050-P (Hetzer)
Tier 4 - Zb 16064-P (T-22)
Tier 5 - ShH vz.18/47
Tier 6 - Zb 16063-P (Panther)
Tier 7 - Zb 16057-P (Panther)
Tier 8 - Zb 16053-P (Panther)
Tier 2 - Zb 16051-P (Hetzer)
History:
As mentioned in the introduction and in the thread, post-war Czechoslovakia sought to quickly expand its SPG branch, especially by using resources available from the German occupation. A large number of Hetzer vehicles remained in Czechoslovakia after the war's end and some designers sought to used that fact to its full potential. This is one of the early projects. It was introduced on 4.11.1946 by Škoda and it consisted of the modified Hetzer hull, with a limited traverse 105mm German leFH 18 howitzer, now re-designated as "vzor 18 N" (Pattern 1918, German). The gun could be traversed 7,5 degress from the axis and elevated to up to 35 degrees. The project was introduced to the commanding officer of VTÚ (military technical institute), who refused it outright. The army artillery branch itself on the meeting of 15.2.1947 showed some interest to actually test such a vehicle, but otherwise the project had very little support and was cancelled soon after.
Characteristics:
Gun - 105mm leFH 18, relatively high speed, but very limited traverse. For the sake of balance, the armor could be reduced (as added weight of the howitzer would surely strain the suspension). Limited mobility would also be an option - a fully armored and mobile Hetzer would otherwise be pretty overpowered for tier 2.
Note for tier 2 - Tuccy's proposal for this tier suggests another vehicle: there was apparently a MU-4 tankette prototype, armed with a 70mm BA-1 gun (something like a SU-18). However, I haven't been able to find any info about it - probably because my books on this topic are an older edition. Also, putting a nerfed Hetzer on this tier would make the T2 - T3 transition easier, given the nature of the tier 3 vehicle.
Tier 3 - Zb 16050-P (Hetzer)
History:
This is a sister project to the one set on tier 2. It was introduced to the VTU command on 4.11.1946 along with the other project. The goal was to put the Škoda-manufactured 150mm StuH 43 howitzer (manufactured in Czechoslovakia for the Sturmpanzer IV vehicles) into the Hetzer chassis and use the result as direct or indirect fire support vehicle. This project was cancelled outright - it had some serious flaws, most notable of which being the low carried shell capacity (only 10 rounds) and very limited traverse and elevation (traverse - 3,5 degrees from axis on each side, elevation max 25 degrees).
Characteristics:
The gun would be quite powerful for tier 3, making this a Czechoslovak equivalent of the WoT Sturmpanzer I. The armor would have to be taken into consideration also, but again, there is space for nerfs in this direction (a regular Hetzer armed with a 150mm gun would be pretty nasty).
Note for tier 3 - essentially, tier 2 and 3 vehicles could be switched, depending on the game balance. Tuccy has both of these vehicles combined at tier 3. It is my belief however that (considering its severe traverse limits) this vehicle wouldn't be overpowered for tier 2, especially if it recieved a special MM value, like the Stupa I has.
Tier 4 - Zb 16064-P (T-22)
History:
Along with the abovementioned projects, the Škoda company introduced this project to the army on 4.11.1946. The basis for it is the obsolete Czechoslovak medium tank project designated T-22 (from late 30's, prototype finished in 1941) - a prototype of which could still be found back then in the Škoda factory. The howitzer was to be mounted in the frontal part of the vehicle. It is documented that the project was considered until 20.5.1947 (the drawing is dated to this day), but the hull and the whole concept was considered very obsolete and the project was cancelled quickly.
Characteristics:
Yet again the ubiquitous 105mm leFH gun (upgradeable to its slightly improved Czechoslovak copy, or even the German 150mm howitzer, as seen on another project drawing, Zb 10404-P, in fact this could be the combination of both projects), this time mounted on a fairly fast hull (50km/h). The elevation and traverse are decent this time (15 degrees to each side, 40 degrees up), but the vehicle is relatively unarmored (cca 30mm armor max). Ammo capacity (26 rounds) is a notable improvement over the Hetzer projects.
Tier 5 - ShH vz.18/47 ("Hummel")
History:
After the war ended, a Czechoslovak army committee visited a former SS training camp, located in Vrchotové Janovice, where a number of German armored vehicles (including a Hummel SPG) were situated. This was the first time the Czechoslovak army showed interest in the Hummels, the one situated there was too damaged however and was scrapped. But there were more - during 1946-1947, 12 vehicles considered destroyed were salvaged from the countryside. At first they weren't even considerd to be activated, but in early 1948, the lack of heavy armor and self-propelled guns forced the army command to press these machines once again into service. Their general repair and refit was carried out in the ČKD Prague factory in the spring of 1948 and by June, first vehicle was transferred to the army test committee - re-armed with the refitted 152mm howitzer (18/47 pattern, basically the original German sFH 18, refitted to fire Soviet 152mm shells). During the summer and fall it was tested and by the october 1948, it was transferred to a regular army unit. The rest of the salvaged vehicles was repaired and refitted until May 1949 and soon after, it was officially accepted into service under the designation "ShH vz.18/47" - in November 1949, a 12 of them in total officially served. They were in active service until the end of 1954 - in 1955, one of them was taken to be stored for testing, the other 11 were salvaged for spare parts (Czechoslovak army was still using captured Panzer IV's back then) and scrapped.
Characteristics:
Well, it's a Hummel - with a small twist. The 152mm howitzer packs quite a punch, but ultimately its game performance shouldn't be that different from the German original.
Tier 6 - Zb 16063-P (Panther)
History:
This was one of the post-war projects to utilise the Panther hulls and a number of available German 150mm howitzers, which were refitted to fire the Soviet and Czechoslovak 152mm ammunition. On 15.2.1947, a meeting took place at the Czechoslovak army HQ. One of the decisions taken there was to explore the possibility of mounting a 150mm howitzer on one of the available Panther hulls. It was to be made by Škoda, who was asking for the proper platform to try this out since 1946. The army first tried to actually sell one of the Panthers to Škoda for a very high price, but Škoda refused and in 1947 a decision was made to simply give one of the Panthers to Škoda for free. On 16.6.1947, Škoda and the Army Technical Institute (VTU) agreed on building two prototypes of the vehicle. There were several versions concieved - with a fully rotating turret, with a 150mm, 152mm and a 105mm howitzer. In the end, one of the two prototypes was to be built with a 150mm turret, one was to have the 105mm one. It was also decided that the initial prototype trials were to be made on 28.6.1949, but by then, the Panther hull wasn't even delivered to the company. The Panther was to be delivered from the possession of ČKD Sokolovo on 10.1.1949 - that didn't happen and the fate of the project is unclear, it was probably scrapped when the Czechoslovak army decided to adopt the Soviet technology in the early 50's.
Characteristics:
Even though the picture doesn't show it as such, the turret superstructure is supposed to be fully traverseable (360 degrees turret). The guns consist of the 105mm, 150mm and the 152mm vz.18/47 versions. The vehicle was fairly heavy and the Panther hull is well armored, so I assume it would find its niche in World of Tanks.
Tier 7 - Zb 16057-P (Panther)
History:
This in fact isn't a new project per se, it's a stage of the tier 6 project (was a part of the documentation agreed upon on 16.6.1947 by Škoda and the army), only with a different - enclosed - fully traverseable turret. This project suffered the same fate as the 16063-P.
Characteristics:
Considering the game performance, both vehicles on tier 6 and 7 are probably interchangeable. It would be possible to remove the top 152mm howitzer from tier 6 and add it only to the tier 7 vehicle, but that is a game balance issue. It also "looks better".
Tier 8 - Zb 16053-P (305mm Panther)
History:
On 4.11.1946, this project was presented along with several others by Škoda to the army representatives. It is a Panther hull with 305mm B-20 mortar (developed by Škoda during the war) mounted. The weapons was truly massive, which led to the removal of a part of the Panther armor in order to save weight. The spare ammunition (9 pieces) was situated over the engine. The bracing part of the Mortar was lowered thru the bottom of the tank. Although the work on the mortar itself continued for some time, this project was cancelled very soon.
Characteristics:
The B-20 mortar was a monster. It would be a nice tier 8 arty and perhaps even tier 10, if pushed that far. The mortar could traverse 20 degrees on each side (40 in total).
Is there more?
Yes. There were several more projects, for example a 105mm howitzer based on the Hungarian Turán chassis - and I am not even considering yet the Soviet projects with modifications. All in all, this could make for a nice branch of arty and a worthy addition to the EU tree.
Czechoslovak tree part 1 - Tank Destroyers
Hello everyone,
first and foremost, this thread is based on Tuccy's work on the Czechoslovak tree (which can be found here) - he did a tremendous job and the whole thing has already been passed to the guys at Wargaming development, so there's a chance we'll see some of the following vehicles.
As you probably know, Czechoslovak tanks will be a part of the newly developed "EU" tree. It's one of the few things we know the tree will contain (along with Italians, Hungarians, Swedish, possibly Yugoslavs and others). In fact, pre-war Czechoslovakia was an arms-manufacturing superpower, Czechoslovak weapons were widely exported and they will most likey form the (pre-war part) backbone of the tree.
When it comes to tank destroyers however, Czechoslovakia wasn't that active, up until the war, during which the famous Hetzer was developed and manufactured by ČKD Pilsen. Otherwise, however, Czechoslovak industry during wartime was completely under the command of the Germans and not that many TD projects were developed during 1939-1945. 1945-1948 saw a sort of renaissance of the Czechoslovak military construction development and several projects were concieved. With the closing of the Iron Curtain however, the independent Czechoslovak designs were quickly stopped and the whole military industry oriented on the Russian vehicles. Some of the Czechoslovak projects lasted until 1952, but by then the whole construction branch was firmly in the hands of communists and the rise of the Warsaw Pact meant doom to all independent thoughts, not only in the military construction branch.
Surprisingly enough, there are enough vehicles to actually make TWO partial branches of the Czechoslovak tank destroyers, ranging from tier 2 to tier 6, with a possibility to be prolonged to tier 7-8 either by some fictional evolution E50M style, by simply buffing the existing projects, by introducing projects Tuccy's tree "saved" for the arty branch or by introducing licensed soviet tank destroyers with modifications (the SD-76 (premium), SD-100 and the licensed ISU-152). Tuccy's initial concept is this:
The left branch has the turreted vehicles (with the exception of the ST-II), the right branch has turretless vehicles. Let's start with the turretless branch.
As you can see, it's basically a mix of Škoda designs, with the LP and TVP-based projects later on. Let's look at them closer.
Tier 2 - Š-i-d
Additional photos:
History:
Š-i-d is a Škoda design, based on the Š-I (MU-4) tankette, developed in mid thirties by Škoda as a response towards the demands of the royal Yugoslavian army (the "d" in the name means "dělový" - "gun variant"). It was designed in 1935 - a simple box-shaped casemate was added on the original hull,made out of 5-20mm armor plates, riveted together. It had a crew of two and it was armed with a modified version of the Škoda A3 37mm AT gun (that could move 10 degrees to the sides from its axis, the elevation was -10 degrees to 25 degrees). The prototype however still had quite a few flaws. By the end of 1935, it was introduced to the Yugoslavian officers, who liked it, but they submitted a number of improvement suggestions, which were later incorporated into the next version, designated Š-i-D. Š-i-D was the result of the Yugoslavian input. Namely, the chassis was prolonged, by adding one roadwheel and a roller and the engine was a more powerful model. The armor plates were a bit thicker (23mm max) and it was armed with an improved model of the A3 gun (the A3J), that had an extended traverse possibility (15 degrees from the axis). The vehicle was well liked and in 1936 (after trials), Yugoslavia signed a contract for 8 of these vehicles. They were subsequently accepted into the service under the designation of T-32. They were used to train crews mostly, but after Yugoslavia was attacked by Germans and their fascist allies, 4 of these vehicles fought sought of Belgrade, where they were destroyed by German artillery - despite their short career, they were regarded as successful. The remaining 4 vehicles (unarmed, used for training) stayed in the military school in Zemun, until they were captured by the Germans there. They were sent to (now German-occupied) Škoda factory for refit and afterwards, they went to the Waffen SS units and were used for training.
Game-wise, this vehicle will most likely be a mixture of Š-i-d and Š-i-D (with the Š-i-D hull, and possible upgrade to the 37mm cannon). Regarding its name - pre-war Czechoslovakia had a HUGE mess in weapon nomenclature (almost as bad as Germans had in the war). There are various ways how to write the name of this vehicle, which originally derivates from the Š-I (Š-roman one) tankette. Written versions of Š-i-d, Š-1-D and others (the MU designation) are known to exist and they were most likely caused by typos made by officers, workers and ministry clerks.
Characteristics:
Weight: 4,8t (Š-i-D)
Armor: 22mm front, 10-15mm sides, 5-8mm back
Engine: Škoda Flat Six (55hp, possible upgrade to 60hp in the Š-i-D version)
Max. Speed: 41 km/h
Gun: 37mm A3, upgrade to A3J
Tier 3 - Š-i-j
History:
After the success of the Š-i-D vehicles in 1937, the Yugoslavian government did put a new set on demands for Škoda engineers to work on. These demands included a small gun tankette. The resulting prototype, based on these demands, was designated Š-i-j (J stands for jugoslávský (yugoslavian)). It was bigger than the previous model and had improved suspension and a brand new engine. But most importantly, it also had a new more powerful gun - the 47mm A-9Ja. One prototype was made and tested extensively in Yugoslavia in 1939/1940. It wasn't found perfect - in fact, it had quite some flaws - but despite that, it was accepted for future service. A 108 vehicle batch was planned, but based on the war experience, Yugoslavian army changed the specifications and focused on heavier vehicles - and that was the end of this project. The prototype was taken back to Czechoslovakia (and redesigned, first to T-1D, later T-2D and finally T-3D), where it remained until it was taken away by Waffen SS representatives on 17.9.1943 to Munich for testing. Its final fate is unclear.
Characteristics:
Weight: 5,8t
Armor: 30mm front, 15mm sides
Engine: Škoda Diesel (60hp)
Max. Speed: 31 km/h
Gun: 47mm A9Ja, upgrade to German 50mm - theoretically
Tier 4 - ST-I, G-13
History:
After the war, newly restored Czechoslovakia found itself without any standartized equipment and with its whole industry oriented to fuel the German war machine. ČKD specifically (under the German name BMM) had all the know-how and tools to produce one of the late-war legendary designs, the Jagdpanzer 38(t), later to be known as the Hetzer. Both Škoda and ČKD offered the new Czechoslovak government to continue producing these vehicles for the Czechoslovak army, armed by a mixture of old Soviet, British and German equipment (including Panzer IV's, Panthers and several Tigers). However, in 1945, the Hetzer was tested by the Czechoslovak army, heavily critisized for its glaring weaknesses and in October 1945 only 20 unarmed vehicles were ordered for training purposes (it was recommended by the committee not to adopt them for service). Later though, this decision was reverted, as the training version (under the designation of ST-III) was fairly successful and the armed version, now designated ST-I (ST = "stíhač tanků", "tank hunter" in english) was adopted despite army reservations. In the end, an order was made to refit 87 captured German Hetzers and to build 20 new ones. The differences between the original Hetzer and the ST-I were minimal. Namely, the defensive machinegun was removed from the top of the hull. The vehicles were armed with the original German StuK 40 cannon and with the refurbished Pak39 75mm L/48 cannons. Some were even the German "Starr" versions with simplified gun mounts, which were converted to normal gun mounts. In the end, roughly 150 new pieces were built from scratch, another 158 were built for Switzerland under the designation of G-13 and later, in the early 60's, 8 were sold to Guinea. Czechoslovak army kept these vehicles until the 60's, when they were replaced by the Soviet machines, such as the SD-100. Some were used for experimental mounts (such as the 150mm SPG based on Hetzer hull). Czechoslovak vehicles were later redesigned to "Sh PTK 75 mm vz. 39/44" (self propelled anti tank cannon 75mm, pattern 39/44)
Characteristics:
Weight: 15,7t
Armor: 60mm front, 8mm sides
Engine: Praga 6 cylinter (cca 170hp), upgrade to cca 200hp possible
Max. Speed: cca 40 km/h
Gun: 75mm StuK40, 75mm PaK39
Tier 5 - ShPTK-LP
History:
As mentioned in the ST-I section, right after the war, Czechoslovakia was armed with various captured, lend-leased or even donated allied vehicles. It was a huge mess and a logistical nightmare. However, contrary to the chaos that ruled the army in the early post-war days, design bureaus at ČKD and Škoda factories survived the war relatively unscathed, mostly because they were simply useful for the Germans. And so it was that new designs for the re-estabilished Czechoslovak army were concieved right after the war. The new Czechoslovak design school was a mixture of German and Russian influences (with - relatively few - western ones), but also went back to the construction tradition and the classic roots of the 30's. One thing Czechoslovaks were really good at was light tank construction. While war and immediate-post-war projects were being worked on independently by the design bureaus, it was decided to offer the army an unified project for the light chassis (LP - lehký podvozek), that would form the basis of a light tank, a light tank destroyer and some specialised vehicles, such as a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.
On 18.-20.11.1948, a conference took place at Škoda works (already under the control of the communists), that was to lay out the future of the Czechoslovak unified light chasses (LP) project regarding the self-propelled guns. Two branches of the army took part in it - the tank command and the artillery command, both interested in the projects. However, demands of both of these branches varied wildly. Artillery command clearly preferred turreted vehicles with very light armor, while tank command preferred heavily-armored "Hetzer-like" constructions with low silhouettes.
Several (in fact, too many) project ideas came out of it. One of them was a construction drawing, designated Zb 5920-S, showing a Hetzer-like vehicle, armed with the newly-developed Czechoslovak 76,2mm cannon A19 with possible elevation of -8 to +20 degrees - and possible 30 degrees traverse from the vehicle axis. Secondary armament would be a 7,92mm machinegun and a newly-developed Czechoslovak 12,7mm machinegun installed in a mini-turret, that would be shared with the TVP-based vehicles (see further). The armor was to be cca 50mm thick at the front, sides would be cca 25mm thick. It was to be cca 17t heavy and powered by 500hp V8 turbocharged engine.
Some initial ideas were laid out, but in January 1949, it was decided there are way too many new projects. The project was first combined with another project (which was supported by the artillery command) and later disappeared, probably scrapped in 1950/1951.
Characteristics:
Weight: 17t
Armor: 50mm front, 25mm sides
Engine: turbo-charged V8, 500hp
Max. Speed: 55 km/h
Gun: 76,2mm A19, a 105mm howitzer version was also developed
Tier 6 - ShPTK-TVP
History:
This vehicle idea, based on the TVP chassis, came from the same conference as the tier 5 LP vehicle. After the war, Czechoslovaks were looking for their new universal tanks and a series of projects, designated TVP (Tank Všeobecného Použití - "tank for universal use") came to be. You can read about the series in an article I made. One of the 1948 conference ideas was to use the hull of the vehicle for SPG and TD projects. Again, there were two competing "schools" - the tank command preferred a low armored tank destroyer, while the artillery command of the Czechoslovak army preferred a turreted version. This is the turret-less proposal. It was to be armed with a newly-developed Czechoslovak 100mm "AK-1" cannon (traverse - 20 degrees from the axis on both sides, -8 to 20 degrees elevation), it was to weight around 40 tons, the heavily sloped frontal armor is rated at 65mm front and the vehicle was to be equipped with a 1000hp V16 ČKD AHX (or Škoda AHK) (!) engine. Another proposal (seen on the picture under number 2) was to actually arm it with an indigenous 152mm howitzer, thus creating a "supercharged Hetzer". The project lived on for a short while, but it was cancelled along with the TVP (around 1952).
Characteristics:
Weight: 40t
Armor: 65mm front, 20mm sides
Engine: V16 Škoda AHK or ČKD AHX, 983hp
Max. Speed: ?? km/h
Gun: 100mm AK-1, or a 152mm howitzer
Tier 2 - MU-6/III
History:
MU-6 was a Škoda prototype design from 1933-1934. MU series of tankettes - first armored vehicles designed by Škoda - were heavily inspired by Carden Lloyd tankettes (the suspension was almost identical, even though Škoda never owned a license). It's predecessor - the MU-4 was quite a successful design (beating the Polish TKS and another Czechoslovak design - Praga P-I in the competitions for the Yugoslav tankette order), but the army required something with more punch and Škoda obliged. The result was the MU-6, basically a tankette with an unarmored revolving turret, armed with a 47mm A-2 cannon and machineguns. Armor was practically nonexistent - 6mm and 8mm sheets covered the vehicle, giving nearly no protection at all. Compared to its predecessor MU-4 it was longer (one roadhweel added), with one extra crew member and more powerful engine. As a self-propelled gun it wasn't bad, but it was advertised as a light tank and the lack of armor ultimately doomed it. Czechoslovak army showed no interest in such a vehicle and the project was cancelled in 1934.
Characteristics:
Weight: 3t
Armor: 5mm front, 4mm sides
Engine: Škoda Flat Six V6, 55hp
Max. Speed: 41 km/h
Gun: 47mm A-2
Tier 3 - PÚV-6
History:
The PÚV-6 (Pásový Útočný Vůz, 6válcový motor - tracked assault vehicle, V6 engine) is the evolution of the MU-6. After the MU-6 failure in 1934, the Škoda engineers tried to make something of the failed prototype and came with a solution unheard of at the time. They removed the turret completely, replacing it with very thin plates and installed a dual-purpose 40mm L/71 Z-1 prototype gun. This vehicle would now be used against both air and land targets. The suspension remained basically the same (minor improvements and engine tuning). While in theory the concept sounded reasonable and innovative, the vehicle was tested in 1934-1935 and the tests showed a huge number of flaws, including the unreliability of the running gear. What was even more surprising however was the low accuracy of the gun, because the long barrel tended to oscillate too much between shots. The result was that the Z-1 gun itself was never adopted by the Czechoslovak army despite its potential and the development of the vehicle was terminated in 1935.
Characteristics:
Weight: 4,5t
Armor: 5,5mm max
Engine: Škoda Flat Six V6, 55hp
Max. Speed: 41 km/h
Gun: 40mm Z-1
Tier 4 - ST-II
History:
After the war, Czechoslovak army was equipped with all sorts of captured vehicles. Apart from the Hetzers, adopted to the Czechoslovak army as ST-I, Czechoslovak also had a number of Marder III vehicles (both Ausf.M and Ausf.H) - it is unclear how many, some sources vaguely state "many", some state as little as 12. One thing is clear: all of them were taken out of service very soon. Marder III's were built on the LT-38 chassis Czechoslovak crews and workers were familiar with, but offered very little advantages, apart from being a stopgap measure to fight the enemy armor.
Characteristics:
Weight: 10,8t
Armor: 50mm max (15mm sides)
Engine: Praga AC
Max. Speed: 47 km/h
Gun: 75mm Pak 40/3 L/46
Note:
As many would probably agree, ST-II is not an ideal choice for this tier. There are two more in fact, each carries its own problems. First is the SD-76 - a Czechoslovak version of the famous SU-76 SPG. A few were imported (as far as I know, all were completely worn out) and experimented upon. SD-76 never made it to the regular army (unlike the ST-II), but it's an option. Second option would be to include some sort of ShPTK-LP construction, namely the one with a dual-purpose 50mm cannon. Superficially, it resembled the SU-76, but it had nothing in common with it. However, that was a purely paper project (not that it matters that much). There are more exotic options here too, such as the ShPTK 75/40, which was the StuG III used by Czechoslovak army - think stock StuG.
Tier 5 - ShPTK-LP- Turret
History:
The story of this vehicle closely resembles the one in the turretless branch. During the conference of 1948, this proposal for a turreted tank destroyer was preferred by the artillery command. It was to be very lightly armored (cca 20mm), but very light and fast (16 tons, 500hp engine, 55km/h cross country) and armed with a newly developed 76,2mm gun in a fully traverseable turret. At the time, the engineers tried to construct something resembling the M18 Hellcat. It boasted an impressive elevation - from -8 to 38 degrees (an artillery legacy). A 105mm howitzer version was also concieved (number 2 on the picture). Just like the turretless version - this project was short-lived. In 1949 it was decided there are too many projects around of this kind and this project was merged with the turretless version and effectively cancelled.
Characteristics:
Weight: 16t
Armor: 20mm max
Engine: V8 turbodiesel, 500hp
Max. Speed: 55 km/h cross country
Gun: 76,2mm A19, 105mm howitzer
Tier 6 - ShPTK-TVP-Turret
History:
Again, the story of this vehicle closely resembles the one of the turretless TVP. This was the artillery command's preferred version, capable of huge elevation. It was to be lightly armored, but heavily armed. The designers were inspired by the US M10 and M36 vehicles, but - along the lines of "bigger is better", they equipped their vehicle with either a Czechoslovak 100mm A20 gun, or even a 152mm howitzer (unclear as to what type, it might have been the newly developed Czechoslovak model, not the Russian one - picture no 3). The turret was fully traverseable, the elevation was to range from -6 to 40 degrees (in the case of the 100mm gun), or -5 to 70 degrees (!) (in the case of the howitzer). Artillery roots are clearly shown here. However, even this vehicle based on the TVP suspension was to be lightly armed - for its 32 tons, it was to have only 20mm armor. However, it still retained the 1000hp (!) TVP engine - it would have been a monster. The 100mm gun A22 would have roughly the performance of an improved D-10S gun. Just like with the other project, this design was scrapped with the end of the TVP tank development. It stayed on paper - no prototype was ever made.
Characteristics:
Weight: 40t
Armor: 20mm
Engine: V16 Škoda AHK or ČKD AHX, 983hp
Max. Speed: ?? km/h
Gun: 100mm A22, or a 152mm howitzer
Tier 7 onwards
Here it gets a bit more complicated. Again - there are two options, as "unfinished" half-branches are not allowed (according to Wargaming, a branch must end either by a tier 10 vehicle, or by merging with the original branch). The merge is obvious - both branches could aim into the tier 7 TVP medium tank, continuing all the was to tier 10 (SerB stated he already has tier 8 and 9 Czechoslovak tanks - tier 10 being either some sort of "superTVP" fictional design á la E50 Ausf. M, or simply some version of the Czechoslovak T-55). That's the easy way.
The hard way would be to try to fit two more vehicles, to make the branches merge into tier 9. If the tier 9 was a soviet construction (such as some type of Czechoslovak T-54), tier 7 could be the SD-100 (a licensed version of SU-100, practically without any changes, although there was an evolution program to equip it with better gun (Czechoslovak A20), fire control system and shells), while tier 8 could be some sort of ISU-152, briefly used by the Czechoslovak army, as far as I can tell. Those could very well aim to another Soviet machine at tier 9.
And premiums?
There were all sorts of experiments going on, so I am sure there could be a premium Czechoslovak TD as well. Namely, captured StuG III's and Hetzers were to be equipped with the Czechoslovak 76,2mm A19 gun, or even the 85mm vz.44 gun. Those never reached any serious project stage however.
Sources:
www.valka.cz
M. Dubánek - Od bodáku po tryskáče
Francev, Kliment - Československá obrněná vozidla 1918-1945
Pejčoch - Obrněná technika 6
first and foremost, this thread is based on Tuccy's work on the Czechoslovak tree (which can be found here) - he did a tremendous job and the whole thing has already been passed to the guys at Wargaming development, so there's a chance we'll see some of the following vehicles.
As you probably know, Czechoslovak tanks will be a part of the newly developed "EU" tree. It's one of the few things we know the tree will contain (along with Italians, Hungarians, Swedish, possibly Yugoslavs and others). In fact, pre-war Czechoslovakia was an arms-manufacturing superpower, Czechoslovak weapons were widely exported and they will most likey form the (pre-war part) backbone of the tree.
When it comes to tank destroyers however, Czechoslovakia wasn't that active, up until the war, during which the famous Hetzer was developed and manufactured by ČKD Pilsen. Otherwise, however, Czechoslovak industry during wartime was completely under the command of the Germans and not that many TD projects were developed during 1939-1945. 1945-1948 saw a sort of renaissance of the Czechoslovak military construction development and several projects were concieved. With the closing of the Iron Curtain however, the independent Czechoslovak designs were quickly stopped and the whole military industry oriented on the Russian vehicles. Some of the Czechoslovak projects lasted until 1952, but by then the whole construction branch was firmly in the hands of communists and the rise of the Warsaw Pact meant doom to all independent thoughts, not only in the military construction branch.
Surprisingly enough, there are enough vehicles to actually make TWO partial branches of the Czechoslovak tank destroyers, ranging from tier 2 to tier 6, with a possibility to be prolonged to tier 7-8 either by some fictional evolution E50M style, by simply buffing the existing projects, by introducing projects Tuccy's tree "saved" for the arty branch or by introducing licensed soviet tank destroyers with modifications (the SD-76 (premium), SD-100 and the licensed ISU-152). Tuccy's initial concept is this:
The left branch has the turreted vehicles (with the exception of the ST-II), the right branch has turretless vehicles. Let's start with the turretless branch.
Turretless branch
As you can see, it's basically a mix of Škoda designs, with the LP and TVP-based projects later on. Let's look at them closer.
Tier 2 - Š-i-d
Additional photos:
History:
Š-i-d is a Škoda design, based on the Š-I (MU-4) tankette, developed in mid thirties by Škoda as a response towards the demands of the royal Yugoslavian army (the "d" in the name means "dělový" - "gun variant"). It was designed in 1935 - a simple box-shaped casemate was added on the original hull,made out of 5-20mm armor plates, riveted together. It had a crew of two and it was armed with a modified version of the Škoda A3 37mm AT gun (that could move 10 degrees to the sides from its axis, the elevation was -10 degrees to 25 degrees). The prototype however still had quite a few flaws. By the end of 1935, it was introduced to the Yugoslavian officers, who liked it, but they submitted a number of improvement suggestions, which were later incorporated into the next version, designated Š-i-D. Š-i-D was the result of the Yugoslavian input. Namely, the chassis was prolonged, by adding one roadwheel and a roller and the engine was a more powerful model. The armor plates were a bit thicker (23mm max) and it was armed with an improved model of the A3 gun (the A3J), that had an extended traverse possibility (15 degrees from the axis). The vehicle was well liked and in 1936 (after trials), Yugoslavia signed a contract for 8 of these vehicles. They were subsequently accepted into the service under the designation of T-32. They were used to train crews mostly, but after Yugoslavia was attacked by Germans and their fascist allies, 4 of these vehicles fought sought of Belgrade, where they were destroyed by German artillery - despite their short career, they were regarded as successful. The remaining 4 vehicles (unarmed, used for training) stayed in the military school in Zemun, until they were captured by the Germans there. They were sent to (now German-occupied) Škoda factory for refit and afterwards, they went to the Waffen SS units and were used for training.
Game-wise, this vehicle will most likely be a mixture of Š-i-d and Š-i-D (with the Š-i-D hull, and possible upgrade to the 37mm cannon). Regarding its name - pre-war Czechoslovakia had a HUGE mess in weapon nomenclature (almost as bad as Germans had in the war). There are various ways how to write the name of this vehicle, which originally derivates from the Š-I (Š-roman one) tankette. Written versions of Š-i-d, Š-1-D and others (the MU designation) are known to exist and they were most likely caused by typos made by officers, workers and ministry clerks.
Characteristics:
Weight: 4,8t (Š-i-D)
Armor: 22mm front, 10-15mm sides, 5-8mm back
Engine: Škoda Flat Six (55hp, possible upgrade to 60hp in the Š-i-D version)
Max. Speed: 41 km/h
Gun: 37mm A3, upgrade to A3J
Tier 3 - Š-i-j
History:
After the success of the Š-i-D vehicles in 1937, the Yugoslavian government did put a new set on demands for Škoda engineers to work on. These demands included a small gun tankette. The resulting prototype, based on these demands, was designated Š-i-j (J stands for jugoslávský (yugoslavian)). It was bigger than the previous model and had improved suspension and a brand new engine. But most importantly, it also had a new more powerful gun - the 47mm A-9Ja. One prototype was made and tested extensively in Yugoslavia in 1939/1940. It wasn't found perfect - in fact, it had quite some flaws - but despite that, it was accepted for future service. A 108 vehicle batch was planned, but based on the war experience, Yugoslavian army changed the specifications and focused on heavier vehicles - and that was the end of this project. The prototype was taken back to Czechoslovakia (and redesigned, first to T-1D, later T-2D and finally T-3D), where it remained until it was taken away by Waffen SS representatives on 17.9.1943 to Munich for testing. Its final fate is unclear.
Characteristics:
Weight: 5,8t
Armor: 30mm front, 15mm sides
Engine: Škoda Diesel (60hp)
Max. Speed: 31 km/h
Gun: 47mm A9Ja, upgrade to German 50mm - theoretically
Tier 4 - ST-I, G-13
History:
After the war, newly restored Czechoslovakia found itself without any standartized equipment and with its whole industry oriented to fuel the German war machine. ČKD specifically (under the German name BMM) had all the know-how and tools to produce one of the late-war legendary designs, the Jagdpanzer 38(t), later to be known as the Hetzer. Both Škoda and ČKD offered the new Czechoslovak government to continue producing these vehicles for the Czechoslovak army, armed by a mixture of old Soviet, British and German equipment (including Panzer IV's, Panthers and several Tigers). However, in 1945, the Hetzer was tested by the Czechoslovak army, heavily critisized for its glaring weaknesses and in October 1945 only 20 unarmed vehicles were ordered for training purposes (it was recommended by the committee not to adopt them for service). Later though, this decision was reverted, as the training version (under the designation of ST-III) was fairly successful and the armed version, now designated ST-I (ST = "stíhač tanků", "tank hunter" in english) was adopted despite army reservations. In the end, an order was made to refit 87 captured German Hetzers and to build 20 new ones. The differences between the original Hetzer and the ST-I were minimal. Namely, the defensive machinegun was removed from the top of the hull. The vehicles were armed with the original German StuK 40 cannon and with the refurbished Pak39 75mm L/48 cannons. Some were even the German "Starr" versions with simplified gun mounts, which were converted to normal gun mounts. In the end, roughly 150 new pieces were built from scratch, another 158 were built for Switzerland under the designation of G-13 and later, in the early 60's, 8 were sold to Guinea. Czechoslovak army kept these vehicles until the 60's, when they were replaced by the Soviet machines, such as the SD-100. Some were used for experimental mounts (such as the 150mm SPG based on Hetzer hull). Czechoslovak vehicles were later redesigned to "Sh PTK 75 mm vz. 39/44" (self propelled anti tank cannon 75mm, pattern 39/44)
Characteristics:
Weight: 15,7t
Armor: 60mm front, 8mm sides
Engine: Praga 6 cylinter (cca 170hp), upgrade to cca 200hp possible
Max. Speed: cca 40 km/h
Gun: 75mm StuK40, 75mm PaK39
Tier 5 - ShPTK-LP
History:
As mentioned in the ST-I section, right after the war, Czechoslovakia was armed with various captured, lend-leased or even donated allied vehicles. It was a huge mess and a logistical nightmare. However, contrary to the chaos that ruled the army in the early post-war days, design bureaus at ČKD and Škoda factories survived the war relatively unscathed, mostly because they were simply useful for the Germans. And so it was that new designs for the re-estabilished Czechoslovak army were concieved right after the war. The new Czechoslovak design school was a mixture of German and Russian influences (with - relatively few - western ones), but also went back to the construction tradition and the classic roots of the 30's. One thing Czechoslovaks were really good at was light tank construction. While war and immediate-post-war projects were being worked on independently by the design bureaus, it was decided to offer the army an unified project for the light chassis (LP - lehký podvozek), that would form the basis of a light tank, a light tank destroyer and some specialised vehicles, such as a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.
On 18.-20.11.1948, a conference took place at Škoda works (already under the control of the communists), that was to lay out the future of the Czechoslovak unified light chasses (LP) project regarding the self-propelled guns. Two branches of the army took part in it - the tank command and the artillery command, both interested in the projects. However, demands of both of these branches varied wildly. Artillery command clearly preferred turreted vehicles with very light armor, while tank command preferred heavily-armored "Hetzer-like" constructions with low silhouettes.
Several (in fact, too many) project ideas came out of it. One of them was a construction drawing, designated Zb 5920-S, showing a Hetzer-like vehicle, armed with the newly-developed Czechoslovak 76,2mm cannon A19 with possible elevation of -8 to +20 degrees - and possible 30 degrees traverse from the vehicle axis. Secondary armament would be a 7,92mm machinegun and a newly-developed Czechoslovak 12,7mm machinegun installed in a mini-turret, that would be shared with the TVP-based vehicles (see further). The armor was to be cca 50mm thick at the front, sides would be cca 25mm thick. It was to be cca 17t heavy and powered by 500hp V8 turbocharged engine.
Some initial ideas were laid out, but in January 1949, it was decided there are way too many new projects. The project was first combined with another project (which was supported by the artillery command) and later disappeared, probably scrapped in 1950/1951.
Characteristics:
Weight: 17t
Armor: 50mm front, 25mm sides
Engine: turbo-charged V8, 500hp
Max. Speed: 55 km/h
Gun: 76,2mm A19, a 105mm howitzer version was also developed
Tier 6 - ShPTK-TVP
History:
This vehicle idea, based on the TVP chassis, came from the same conference as the tier 5 LP vehicle. After the war, Czechoslovaks were looking for their new universal tanks and a series of projects, designated TVP (Tank Všeobecného Použití - "tank for universal use") came to be. You can read about the series in an article I made. One of the 1948 conference ideas was to use the hull of the vehicle for SPG and TD projects. Again, there were two competing "schools" - the tank command preferred a low armored tank destroyer, while the artillery command of the Czechoslovak army preferred a turreted version. This is the turret-less proposal. It was to be armed with a newly-developed Czechoslovak 100mm "AK-1" cannon (traverse - 20 degrees from the axis on both sides, -8 to 20 degrees elevation), it was to weight around 40 tons, the heavily sloped frontal armor is rated at 65mm front and the vehicle was to be equipped with a 1000hp V16 ČKD AHX (or Škoda AHK) (!) engine. Another proposal (seen on the picture under number 2) was to actually arm it with an indigenous 152mm howitzer, thus creating a "supercharged Hetzer". The project lived on for a short while, but it was cancelled along with the TVP (around 1952).
Characteristics:
Weight: 40t
Armor: 65mm front, 20mm sides
Engine: V16 Škoda AHK or ČKD AHX, 983hp
Max. Speed: ?? km/h
Gun: 100mm AK-1, or a 152mm howitzer
Turret branch
Tier 2 - MU-6/III
History:
MU-6 was a Škoda prototype design from 1933-1934. MU series of tankettes - first armored vehicles designed by Škoda - were heavily inspired by Carden Lloyd tankettes (the suspension was almost identical, even though Škoda never owned a license). It's predecessor - the MU-4 was quite a successful design (beating the Polish TKS and another Czechoslovak design - Praga P-I in the competitions for the Yugoslav tankette order), but the army required something with more punch and Škoda obliged. The result was the MU-6, basically a tankette with an unarmored revolving turret, armed with a 47mm A-2 cannon and machineguns. Armor was practically nonexistent - 6mm and 8mm sheets covered the vehicle, giving nearly no protection at all. Compared to its predecessor MU-4 it was longer (one roadhweel added), with one extra crew member and more powerful engine. As a self-propelled gun it wasn't bad, but it was advertised as a light tank and the lack of armor ultimately doomed it. Czechoslovak army showed no interest in such a vehicle and the project was cancelled in 1934.
Characteristics:
Weight: 3t
Armor: 5mm front, 4mm sides
Engine: Škoda Flat Six V6, 55hp
Max. Speed: 41 km/h
Gun: 47mm A-2
Tier 3 - PÚV-6
History:
The PÚV-6 (Pásový Útočný Vůz, 6válcový motor - tracked assault vehicle, V6 engine) is the evolution of the MU-6. After the MU-6 failure in 1934, the Škoda engineers tried to make something of the failed prototype and came with a solution unheard of at the time. They removed the turret completely, replacing it with very thin plates and installed a dual-purpose 40mm L/71 Z-1 prototype gun. This vehicle would now be used against both air and land targets. The suspension remained basically the same (minor improvements and engine tuning). While in theory the concept sounded reasonable and innovative, the vehicle was tested in 1934-1935 and the tests showed a huge number of flaws, including the unreliability of the running gear. What was even more surprising however was the low accuracy of the gun, because the long barrel tended to oscillate too much between shots. The result was that the Z-1 gun itself was never adopted by the Czechoslovak army despite its potential and the development of the vehicle was terminated in 1935.
Characteristics:
Weight: 4,5t
Armor: 5,5mm max
Engine: Škoda Flat Six V6, 55hp
Max. Speed: 41 km/h
Gun: 40mm Z-1
Tier 4 - ST-II
History:
After the war, Czechoslovak army was equipped with all sorts of captured vehicles. Apart from the Hetzers, adopted to the Czechoslovak army as ST-I, Czechoslovak also had a number of Marder III vehicles (both Ausf.M and Ausf.H) - it is unclear how many, some sources vaguely state "many", some state as little as 12. One thing is clear: all of them were taken out of service very soon. Marder III's were built on the LT-38 chassis Czechoslovak crews and workers were familiar with, but offered very little advantages, apart from being a stopgap measure to fight the enemy armor.
Characteristics:
Weight: 10,8t
Armor: 50mm max (15mm sides)
Engine: Praga AC
Max. Speed: 47 km/h
Gun: 75mm Pak 40/3 L/46
Note:
As many would probably agree, ST-II is not an ideal choice for this tier. There are two more in fact, each carries its own problems. First is the SD-76 - a Czechoslovak version of the famous SU-76 SPG. A few were imported (as far as I know, all were completely worn out) and experimented upon. SD-76 never made it to the regular army (unlike the ST-II), but it's an option. Second option would be to include some sort of ShPTK-LP construction, namely the one with a dual-purpose 50mm cannon. Superficially, it resembled the SU-76, but it had nothing in common with it. However, that was a purely paper project (not that it matters that much). There are more exotic options here too, such as the ShPTK 75/40, which was the StuG III used by Czechoslovak army - think stock StuG.
Tier 5 - ShPTK-LP- Turret
History:
The story of this vehicle closely resembles the one in the turretless branch. During the conference of 1948, this proposal for a turreted tank destroyer was preferred by the artillery command. It was to be very lightly armored (cca 20mm), but very light and fast (16 tons, 500hp engine, 55km/h cross country) and armed with a newly developed 76,2mm gun in a fully traverseable turret. At the time, the engineers tried to construct something resembling the M18 Hellcat. It boasted an impressive elevation - from -8 to 38 degrees (an artillery legacy). A 105mm howitzer version was also concieved (number 2 on the picture). Just like the turretless version - this project was short-lived. In 1949 it was decided there are too many projects around of this kind and this project was merged with the turretless version and effectively cancelled.
Characteristics:
Weight: 16t
Armor: 20mm max
Engine: V8 turbodiesel, 500hp
Max. Speed: 55 km/h cross country
Gun: 76,2mm A19, 105mm howitzer
Tier 6 - ShPTK-TVP-Turret
History:
Again, the story of this vehicle closely resembles the one of the turretless TVP. This was the artillery command's preferred version, capable of huge elevation. It was to be lightly armored, but heavily armed. The designers were inspired by the US M10 and M36 vehicles, but - along the lines of "bigger is better", they equipped their vehicle with either a Czechoslovak 100mm A20 gun, or even a 152mm howitzer (unclear as to what type, it might have been the newly developed Czechoslovak model, not the Russian one - picture no 3). The turret was fully traverseable, the elevation was to range from -6 to 40 degrees (in the case of the 100mm gun), or -5 to 70 degrees (!) (in the case of the howitzer). Artillery roots are clearly shown here. However, even this vehicle based on the TVP suspension was to be lightly armed - for its 32 tons, it was to have only 20mm armor. However, it still retained the 1000hp (!) TVP engine - it would have been a monster. The 100mm gun A22 would have roughly the performance of an improved D-10S gun. Just like with the other project, this design was scrapped with the end of the TVP tank development. It stayed on paper - no prototype was ever made.
Characteristics:
Weight: 40t
Armor: 20mm
Engine: V16 Škoda AHK or ČKD AHX, 983hp
Max. Speed: ?? km/h
Gun: 100mm A22, or a 152mm howitzer
Tier 7 onwards
Here it gets a bit more complicated. Again - there are two options, as "unfinished" half-branches are not allowed (according to Wargaming, a branch must end either by a tier 10 vehicle, or by merging with the original branch). The merge is obvious - both branches could aim into the tier 7 TVP medium tank, continuing all the was to tier 10 (SerB stated he already has tier 8 and 9 Czechoslovak tanks - tier 10 being either some sort of "superTVP" fictional design á la E50 Ausf. M, or simply some version of the Czechoslovak T-55). That's the easy way.
The hard way would be to try to fit two more vehicles, to make the branches merge into tier 9. If the tier 9 was a soviet construction (such as some type of Czechoslovak T-54), tier 7 could be the SD-100 (a licensed version of SU-100, practically without any changes, although there was an evolution program to equip it with better gun (Czechoslovak A20), fire control system and shells), while tier 8 could be some sort of ISU-152, briefly used by the Czechoslovak army, as far as I can tell. Those could very well aim to another Soviet machine at tier 9.
And premiums?
There were all sorts of experiments going on, so I am sure there could be a premium Czechoslovak TD as well. Namely, captured StuG III's and Hetzers were to be equipped with the Czechoslovak 76,2mm A19 gun, or even the 85mm vz.44 gun. Those never reached any serious project stage however.
Sources:
www.valka.cz
M. Dubánek - Od bodáku po tryskáče
Francev, Kliment - Československá obrněná vozidla 1918-1945
Pejčoch - Obrněná technika 6