Introducing equipment that can be released as the next battle pass or regular equipment

[Deus benedicat tibi 20]

T42
Tentative medium tank
specifications
Battlefield
5.91 m (hull) // 7.99 m (including main gun)
full width
3.58m
precedent
3.21m
weight
30.9t // 33.8t (combat weight)
number of passengers
4 (commander, gunner, driver, ammunitioner)
offense power
main armament
90mm T119
angle of rotation
360°
secondary armament
2 M2 Browning heavy machine guns
mobility
engine
Continental AOS-895-3 in-line 6-cylinder air-cooled gasoline
horsepower
500hp
output ratio
16.1 hp/t (kW/t)
suspension
torsion bar
top speed on the road
51km/h
cruising distance
110 km (road)



Development

 

The M26 Pershing, which appeared at the end of World War II, introduced a 90mm tank gun and a new power pack design, and as armor became thicker, it was a better tank than Sherman in terms of overall performance including defense, but mobility and fuel efficiency were not very good due to limitations in engine performance. Even after the end of World War II, the US Army had to operate Pershings produced during the Great War and post-war production Pershings. At the time, the Soviet Union was operating more powerful tanks such as the IS-3, and the US Army also replaced the Pershing's power pack to strengthen its power. It was decided to develop an improved version with increased mobility.

Thus, the M46 Patton was created starting from the improved version of Pershing. The M46 is essentially a large-scale improvement of Pershing with a slightly increased body and a new power pack, so the US military uses the M46 as a temporary replacement for the old M4 Sherman and Pershing. To replace the future M46, development of the next tank, the T42, began at a meeting held at the Arsenal plant in Detroit in September 1948. Requirements included using the same armament while adopting better armor than the M46 Patton, installing a twin-axle gun stabilizer and a new recoil control mechanism, and limiting the weight to 36 tons. Also at the same time, the T41 (M41 Walker Bulldog) light tank and the T43 heavy tank were being developed as part of the US armored vehicle modernization program.

When the T42 was first designed, it was shaped based on the design of the T37 prototype light tank, but after several design changes, it lost much of its resemblance to the T37. At first attempts were made to mount a covered machine gun on the side of the turret like a B-25 bomber, but this was ultimately abandoned. The diameter of the turret ring was initially 69 inches like the T37, but later expanded to 73 inches.

In November 1950, the official project name was changed from Medium Tank T42' to '90mm Gun Tank T42' as the US Army excluded the weight class from the tank designation and included the main gun caliber.

However, since the drivetrain was taken from the T37 light tank, the driving performance was not as good as the M46 as a result of putting the drive system of the light tank on a heavier medium tank. Later, in the second test conducted in November 1950, the T42, which was lighter by about 227 kg by introducing some aluminum parts, was equipped with an improved AOS-895-3 engine and CD-500-3 transmission, and as a result of the test, the initially planned mobility was achieved. I passed when it came out. However, the US military was still not satisfied with the lack of engine power and refused to adopt the T42.

Still, the development of the T42 proceeded without giving up, and from the end of 1950, full-scale prototype vehicle testing began. Of course, from the first prototype, a pin missing from the drivetrain due to a poor drivetrain assembly caused a hole in the fuel tank, which touched hot engine parts. A fire broke out and was destroyed. Tests continued on the remaining prototypes, and in April 1951, car 2 was fitted with the new XT-500 transmission and tested. And the initially planned but canceled turret external machine guns were replaced with remotely controlled machine guns mounted on the front fenders of the hull, similar to the early Soviet T-54, and added. As a result of testing by adding an M1919 Browning on the idler wheel and attaching a pneumatic valve and solenoid device for remote operation, it was judged to be effective for suppressed fire, and research on enabling the machine gun to operate vertically and horizontally continued for a while, but in the end, this idea was abandoned. Abandoned.

By 1953, with only a few tests going on without much progress, it was decided to abandon the initial goal of making a tank equal to or better than the M46 Patton in order to save the T42 project and turn to a lighter and more economical medium tank. Changes such as changing the front of the body to a curved shape and removing the support wheel rollers to change the track shape to a Soviet tank like the T-54 were planned, but these plans were not made as the T42 project ended in 1953.

 

special feature

 

The front of the body was made of cast armor, the rear was made by welding homogeneous rolled armor, and the body was manufactured by welding the front and rear of the finished body.

The turret is definitely newer than the M26/M46. It was somewhat similar in shape to the M41 Walker Bulldog, which was being developed at the same time, but the turret was planned to be produced entirely through a casting process. An elongated bustle at the rear of the turret was used to place an ammunition magazine and radio communicator. It also has a fairly new design, including a stereo range finder on the side of the turret. As the main armament of the prototype, the new 90mm T119 gun was developed and more powerful than the M46's 90mm M3A1 gun. At one point, a British military liaison officer suggested using a 20-pounder gun, but this was rejected.

Since the drivetrain was taken from the T37 light tank, which consists of an AOS-895 air-cooled gasoline engine and a General Motors CD-500 transmission, the driving performance was evaluated poorly from the first driving test. Improvements were made after that, but the engine output was in the 500 horsepower range, so it was unavoidable that the maneuverability was poor.

An attempt was made on this tank to be equipped with an image-coordinated optical range finder with the light tank T37 and heavy tank T43. Although the tank was never produced, this turret with an optical range finder was later used in the development of the M46E1 in combination with the chassis of the M46 Patton, and it became the basis for the M47 Patton turret developed with some design modifications from the M46E1.

There is a rumor in this optical rangefinder, and it is claimed that a defect was found in which the rangefinder was installed close to the gun barrel during the operation of the M47 Patton, causing damage when the main gun was fired. Conversely, however, there is no mention of this problem in the Hunnicutt booklet, and it is not reliable because it only appears in Japanese Wikipedia, such as M103's fighting monster nickname. This is the same way as the M47 Patton, in the Leopard 1 method in which the gunner calculates the firing parameters, it was mounted close to the main gun, and the M48 and M60 Patton, which are later models of the M47, are claimed to have moved over to the calculation by the tank commander and changed the position.

 

derivative

T69: T42 hull with rocking turret, 90mm T178 gun and revolver-type autoloader.
T87: The front of the hull is made of cast steel, the armor is rounded, and a flatter track suspension is installed.
M46E1: M47 Patton prototype, M46 Patton hull with T42 turret mounted.

 

last

It was too unreasonable to ask for the performance of the M46 or higher for a medium tank designed based on a light tank, and the product that came out was treated on the same level as the later model of the M4A3. Production costs came out higher than expected. Development was also delayed due to problems with mobility and drivetrain, and development was not completed even though it passed 1952 and 1953.

In the end, while the development was not finished, the Korean War broke out in 1950, and the US Army, which urgently needed a new tank, quickly introduced the M47 Patton developed based on the M46E1, which put the turret of the T42 on the body of the M46 Patton. Development of the M48 Patton also began and was already adopted in 1953 [7]. On the other hand, the T42 did not develop much in the development stage, and development was discontinued in 1953 as it was judged useless. It was also December 1950 when six prototype cars were completed and tested at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

After the development of the T42 was discontinued, the development of a tank equipped with an automatic loading device using an oscillating turret began to become popular, and such tanks were developed in the United States. A prototype vehicle T69 equipped with was developed. However, this too was abandoned due to performance and reliability problems found in tests conducted in the mid-to-late 1950s.

 

 

 

thank you for watching 

[Deus benedicat tibi 20]

This vehicle was used in top secrecy by the US government during the mid to late Korean War.