Hello everyone,
yesterday, while listing thru a book, I ran into this interesting little project of a vehicle, that might eventually appear in the Japanese tech tree. Meet the Ho-Ru, Japanese Marder.
The Ho-Ru project was started in 1945 as a response to the threat the American medium tanks posed in the Pacific. The problem was that apart from the Shinhoto Chi-Ha and the newest Japanese medium tank projects, Japan had little in the way of armor to deal with the enemy tanks. The project was based on the need to defend against those in case of enemy invasion of Japan itself.
It was based on the Type 95 Ha-Go tankette (by 1945 it was obsolete and useless against American and Soviet armor), possibly as a plan to utilize its hulls. A decision was made to convert them into cheap and agile open-topped tank destroyers, much like the German Marder series, but sleeker.
The chassis itself wasn’t changed too much, the suspension was of the Hara type. Only the tracks were changed, their width increased to 350mm.
A superstructure of sloped plates was made on the original tankette hull and the whole thing was armed with a 47mm gun. Sources differ on what type of gun it was: Zaloga states it was the “classic” Type 1 47mm gun, while other sources (Pejčoch) suggest it was a new Type 5 47mm gun with increased penetration (such a development did take place by the end of the war). Fedoseyev states that the gun had the initial shell velocity of 820m/s and could penetrate 50mm of armor at 500m.
The crew consisted of three men – the driver, commander/gunner and the loader. One prototype was allegedly made in 1945 and it took part in some trials, but the war ended before serial production could be started.
In World of Tanks, this vehicle might appear as a premium tank destroyer. The reason for it being most likely a premium TD is that its year of development (1945) doesn’t correspond to its power (it’s probably tier 2-3 material).
Characteristics
Crew: 3
Weight: unknown, possible under 6 tons
Armor: 12mm front, 8mm sides
Engine: Mitsubishi A6120VD, 120hp
Maximum speeed: 45km/h+
Gun: 47mm (Type 1 or Type 5)
Maybe give it increase mobility while using that 47 mm guns…(still the guns seem weak even at tier 2 but 3)
Why would the fact it was designed in ’45 change anything? I mean, the JagdPanzer 38(t) was designed long after the StuG III and look at what order they’re in.
Or consider the Tier of the Tiger I and the IS Tanks. The IS-1 was produced a whole year later (1943) while the IS-2 took even longer (1944 I think) while the Tiger was a 1942 machine. On Tier 7 the Tiger is nothing but obsolete in armor and firepower and just about bearable thanks to the long 88 and the large health pool. They didnt care about development times, or even balancing IMO, they just wanted to have the Tiger I get its ass kicked 9 out of 10 times. Then everybody complained and they sort-of fixed it by softstats.
But you already have the Vk 3601h at tier 6 that is for all intents and purposes is a faster (historic) tiger with worse side armour . You really can’t complain .
Yes, but that’s
a) far from an ideal solution and
b) it’s bound to change, Jpz 38t might be replaced by early (historical) StuG III in the future.
Definitely not something WG wants to repeat (this stance was confirmed during the Kanonenjagdpanzer questions).
What do you mean? Early StuG III with 7,5 cm L/24 gun?
75mm L/24 and 50mm front armor like the earlier models i’d guess
What anon wrote. 50mm armor, 75mm L/24, 75mm StuK 40, 105mm StuH 42. Tier 5 could be then occupied by StuG IV.
I want to see a stug 4 with armor skirts to make it realistic!
This Jap Marder looks cool though… I do love TD’s :)
It means:
• moving current StuG III to tier IV;
• removing 7,5 cm L/70 from StuG III;
• introduction StuG IV on V tier – which is basically the same vehicle as current StuG III but on Panzer IV chassis;
• still no 7,5 cm L/70 because IIRC it wasn’t planned on StuG IV.
IMHO good deal on tier IV because 7,5cm L/48 can be beast there. But weak deal on tier V where without 7,5 cm L/70 StuG IV will be mediocre TD.
So if early Stug replaces Hetzer, what would happen to Hetzer? Tier 3, alternative tier 4, removed?
Well if they do something like that hopefully it will have more HP than the Hezter because the StuG III is pretty big compared to the Hezter which means it will have less camo.
It means nothing of what you state. StuG III as it is will stay where it is right now.
Well JagdPanther 1 came also after ferdinand. Ferdinand is older TD than Jagdpanther
How about IS-7 and IS-8. IS-7 is tier 10 and IS-8 is tier 9 tank. As you can see the development year doesnt mean a thing. Its all about how powerful each tank are.
It does, at least roughly. All of them are post-war tanks. This is why you don’t have Kanonenjagdpanzer at tier 6
So what about M37 arty previoumsly before M7 Priest?
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