No Tiger Tank with an artillery twist

  • Thread starter Deleted member 1487
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Cool were those Waffentrraegers.
There was a project around, intended the use of the Pz-III/IV chassis to mount the 12,8cm:

mt wf.jpg
 

Deleted member 1487

Cool were those Waffentrraegers.
There was a project around, intended the use of the Pz-III/IV chassis to mount the 12,8cm:

View attachment 308767
What's that from?

I did find this:
http://ftr.wot-news.com/2013/11/10/waffentrager-auf-panzer-iv/
The design was actually scrapped, because in early 1944, the developers started considering putting the guns on even lighter chassis (in this case modified 38t or even 38d) – and Panzer IV didn’t fit it. Another role was possibly played by the fact that by 1944, Panzer IV was already scheduled out of production (by the end of the war, only three unified platforms were scheduled to be manufactured: 38t, Panther and Tiger II). Regardless, WTP4 never made it past the drawing boards. In case you are wondering what the hell is K81: it’s a 128mm variant with different lafette (either from Soviet ML-20 howitzer or French GPF) and different recoil mechanism. The muzzle brake was also different from PaK 44, or it wasn’t used at all.
179790_original.jpg
 

Deleted member 1487

http://ftr.wot-news.com/2013/10/22/building-a-tier-x-hellcat-waffentrager-panther/
From this start Krupp went ahead with draft W1734, using a SFH43 heavy howitzer with -8 gun depression and the estimated weight rose to 34 tons, provided the apparatus for separating the gun from the carrier was not included in the chassis.

The 128mm K43 (analogous to the Pak 44 L/55) woud add approximately 5 tons to the SFH 43 proposal, bringing the weight to 39 tons, still leaving plenty of room for a more powerful cannon as the series tank ended up 45 tons heavy.

WT+Panther.png
 
How much do recoil spades help increase the gun-to-chassis ratio?
How much larger a gun can you fire if you lower its base-plate off the rear bumper? ...... removing the chassis from the recoil cycle.

As for the debate about cannon versus howitzer .... remember that mortars were originally designed to lob heavy shells short distances over castle walls.
Meanwhile, cannons were designed for the opposite roll: long range, with as flat a trajectory as possible. Those two objectives required the fastest muzzle velocity possible.
Modern howitzers were designed as intermediate guns that could fill both roles. Mind you American M-109 SP howitzers started with 105 mm howitzers, then 155mm howitzers, then progressively longer 155mm tubes to improve range.
Thinly-armoured M-109 crews try to avoid direct confrontations with tanks.
 
Spades, in one or another variation, were used on M12 and other Sherman-based SP arty, on the 10,5cm leFH 16 installed on the captured & modified Vickers tank hull, on the 15cm sFH 13 installed on the captured Lorraine tractor, while the Italian Semovente da 149/40 have had perhaps the most elaborate & strong layout of the spades (picture). Looks like the spades were judged as a worthy addition.
 
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