Secret German Tank Project

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It is no secret that Heinz Guderian, a leading thinker in the German school of armoured warfare, was greatly impressed by the Soviet T-34 tank. In October of 1941, one of his subordinates from the 4th Tank Division wrote: “Immediately create copies of the 26-ton Russian tank, and use captured 26- and 52-ton tanks. Each tank regiment should have one company of these tanks.” It is also known that Fast Heinz’ plan to clone the T-34 was unsuccessful. What is less known is what happened later, when Guderian ran into one of the more underrated tanks of the war, the T-60.

The T-60 was one of the most numerous tanks of the Second World War, but, as a light tank, it lacked the thick armour or impressive firepower of the T-34, IS, Tiger, Panther, and other famous tanks of the war. Little is written about it, which is a shame, as Guderian saw much promise in it. Torsion bars, that Russian hard steel he was a fan of, sloped armour, easily obtainable and reparable engines. The design was far superior to that of German light tanks, and even the captured Czech tanks in the Wehrmacht’s service were starting to show their age. The T-60, a modern light tank, was what the Wehrmacht needed. Better yet, the factory at Kharkov was not evacuated completely before the Germans captured it, giving them a manufacturing base.

However, the T-60 had its downsides. The tank only had two crewmen, and a 20 mm automatic cannon was not exactly the impressive armament the Fuhrer was pushing for. The captured factory was put to work. Experiments began to improve the firepower of the vehicle.

By Spring 1942, German engineers reached a solution that maximized both use of newly available resources and compatibility with the Wehrmacht’s existing vehicles. A PzIV turret mounted on the modified hull increased the firepower of the tank, while increasing parts commonality. The hull, of course, was much different from the original T-60. The driver’s hatch had to be removed and mufflers and exhaust system were moved sideways, to maximize area available for the turret ring. Even so, the tank could only fire within a limited arc, otherwise it would flip over.

trololo

While the exact name of the vehicle is unknown, the vehicle was indexed PzKpfw IV/473(r) by Soviet historians

Guderian’s new creation had to be kept in strict secrecy, as Hitler was pushing for bigger and heavier tanks, and a light tank project, especially one using equipment created by sub-human Slavs, would not be approved. Guderian decided to first prove the tank’s worth in battle. A perfect opportunity presented itself in the battle for Mukhosransk. The combination of winter snow and spring mud made the area impossible to traverse for anything but light tanks, and a brilliant design such as this could turn the flow of battle. In late March of 1942, a platoon of PzIV/473(r) tanks (473(r) being the index for captured Soviet T-60 and T-70 tanks in Wehrmacht service) arrived near the city. What happened next is told by Junior Lieutenant Soldatov in his diary.

“April 1st, 1942. The Germans brought in new tanks. Most of my men have not ever seen a tank before, aside from the T-40s supporting our platoon, but I have seen too many. As soon as I saw this one, I knew that it was odd. Never before have the Germans used tanks with armour like this. Lacking anti-tank weapons, I ordered my platoon to lay low in the forest and let them pass. We did not see these tanks again.”

Indeed, these tanks do not show up in any other diaries or memoirs, only in one photograph, taken in the aftermath of the battle.

april fool's

Guderian did not get his brilliant victory to barter for the project’s continued existence. It is likely that all of these experimental tanks either perished here, swallowed up by the seemingly infinite Russian forest, or were destroyed at their factory in order to hide their failure.

49 thoughts on “Secret German Tank Project”

    • It’s lined up as a German premium, actually, but it’s awaiting the new Havok physics so that the tank can properly flip over if you fire with the turret rotated more than 30 degrees from the rear or front.

  14. I smell bull fertilizer.

    I’d still love to see that thing ingame as a german t3 premium.
    German M2 medium with limited turret traverse?

  16. I was believing it untill I saw Mukhosransk. Interesting, but there’s a Musokhransk town in Russia. And “Mukhosransk” is a common name of some little, God forgotten town. Literally kinda “covered by fly’s sh#t”. And yes, Soldatov is rather popular second name in Russia.

  19. April’s fool article.

    The clue:
    - The picture name is: “trololo.png”

    Keep up the good work :)

  23. hahaha you got me xD then i saw the april fools tags from the pictures ! good one xD

  27. Sorry, but the oversized turret was a dead giveaway :)) The germans made crazy stuff – but this is just too much xD Happy April fools!

  30. I thought at first
    (•_•)
    ( •_•)>⌐■-■
    (⌐■_■)
    Priority of Sion wrote this article.

  33. So, how long do you think it’ll be before people are passing this around the internet with the belief that it was an actual German tank project? (like the Krokodil or E-90 (or any number of other fake E-series tanks) or like the KV-VI)