TVP Model 1946 – a Potential Hightier Premium

Hello everyone,

here’s a little preview of a potential premium tier 7-8 tank I’ve put together – you guessed it, it’s Czechoslovak. I am calling it “TVP Model 1946″ (it really has no official designation).

Actually, a quick stop here. Hightier premium medium tanks are in fact a problem for the European branch. This is one of the very few candidates, available for such a position. One might think that this issue will be mitigated by the presence of Swedish tanks in the EU tree, but – no. The Swedish – for all their interesting designs – have problems with hightier medium tanks, some candidates are pretty speculative (or without drawings whatsoever) and the medium branch is generally very strained (what the Swedish do not lack are hightier heavies and TD’s, but mediums are a bit of a problem). Italians are even worse, pretty much only clones or fantasies (Panther II) on high tiers. Hungarians and Polish have no hightier mediums at all and Yugoslavia has some candidates, but it was never really considered to be one of the “primary” EU tree nations (lack of lowtiers). They will probably come, eventually. Switzerland is promising by the way.

Anyway, back to Czechoslovakia. This is the first proposal for TVP by VTU from 1946. Its history is complicated and not really important at this point, if you are interested, check the earlier TVP articles on FTR. Today, we are going to focus on game characteristics and how to turn it into a premium tank.

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Short description:

Initial proposal by Military Technical Institute (VTU) for a “medium tank of general use”, designated “TVP”. It was further developed by Škoda and Praga until the 50′s, when the program was cancelled in favour of licensed T-34/85 production.

Tier: 7-8 (depending on balance)
Length: 6560mm (8978mm with barrel, gun barrel here is NOT up to scale, it’s a placeholder!)
Width: 3280mm
Height: 2043mm (2367mm with copula)
Clearance: 537mm
Roadwheel diameter: 755mm
Frontal sprocket diameter: 453mm
Rear drive sprocket diameter: 447mm
Return roller diameter: 187mm

Crew: 5 (Commander, Driver, Machinegunner/Radioman, Gunner, Loader)
Weight: 30 or 33 tons (depending on the gun used)

Note: This post incorporates basically two main variants: a “lighter” 30 ton one and a “heavier” one of 33 tons. Please note the standardized crew of 5, useful for other EU hightiers.

Main gun options (all were historically considered):

- 85mm PTK Vz.44S (S-53, later license-produced in Czechoslovakia, underpowered for high tiers)
- 88mm PLK Vz.41N (modified 88mm FlaK 41 L/74) OR 88mm PTK Vz.43/41N (simply the L/71 88mm PaK 43) – the gun was rated in any case at 1000 m/s
- 105 mm PLK Vz.39N (modified 105mm FlaK 39 L/63,3) – the gun was rated at 900 m/s

Note: Of these options, the 88mm L/71 PaK is most historical (the problem was, only one FlaK 41 was ever captured and its use for mass-produced tank was thus extremely unlikely, whereas we had many captured L/71 guns. Soviet license production of their 85mm guns started practically only a decade later). 105mm option is possible as well, for that hard hitting alpha.

S-53 and 88mm L/71 are already in the game.

105mm Vz.39N data:

Caliber: 105mm
Barrel length: L/52,8
Shell velocity of HE shell: 880 m/s
Shell velocity of AP shell: 860 m/s
Weight of HE shell: 26 kg
Weight of AP shell: 26,1 kg
Capable of firing an APC shell of following penetration:

165,1 mm at 1000 yards (914 meters)
152,4 mm at 1500 yards (1371,6 meters)
142,2 mm at 2000 yards (1828,8 meters)

Note: That gives us cca 185mm penetration 105mm caliber gun, quite sufficient for a tier 8 premium. Naturally, the rate of fire would be nowhere near the one of the Flak mount. I do believe however that the 88mm variant would be the best.

Ammo carried: 80 rounds for the main gun, 3600 rounds for both machineguns
Secondary armament: two heavy machineguns (Vz.37 or BESA, 7,92mm – one coaxial, one in the hull), and a flamethrower (paired with the hull machinegun), a grenade launcher on the top of the turret for close defense (range 5-20 meters).

Note: Obviously, the flamethrower and MG data are here for summary purposes only, I do not want flamethrowers on WoT tanks.

Armor:

Welded armor (both turret and hull)
Hull: 65/40/30 (bottom and roof 20mm)
Turret: 65/40/30 (roof 20mm, cupola presumably 30mm)
Mantlet thickness: unknown (defined as “of German origin, Saukopfblende”)
The vehicle was to be equipped with Schurzen (unknown shape and thickness, but consists of steel mesh, situated 20cm from the tank, not on the drawing)

Turret was electrically rotated, commander’s cupola was capable of traversing, equipped with 5 episcopes and independently traversing ceiling with binoculars, artillery rangefinder and holes for signal flags. There was a grenade launcher on the turret.

Note: For its tier, it’s relatively thin armor, but it’s compensated by mobility.

Mobility:

Maximum speed: 50 km/h
Engine options: 600hp Škoda Diesel (for 30 ton version with 88mm gun), 660hp Škoda Diesel (for 33 ton version with 105mm gun), or 608 hp Škoda Diesel
Transmission: Praga-Wilson
Power-to-weight: 20 hp/t
Ground pressure: 0,5 kg/cm3
Suspension: leaf springs, of the same type as LT Vz.38

Radio: RM-31T (speculative of course, but this is the radio the vehicle would have, if it was ever mass-produced. By 1946, there was absolutely no unification between the Czechoslovak armored vehicles, some had British sets, some had German sets and some Soviet sets). Range is of course “as needed” (radios in WoT have nothing to do with reality apart from some of the names anyway).

Summary: A very mobile and reasonably armed medium tank with mediocre (subpar) armor. Suitable for tier 7-8 premium position.

Well, that’s it. In case you are not interested in Czechoslovak or EU tanks – please, just move along without trolling the comment section, this post is for those, who actually care :) Thank you.

36 thoughts on “TVP Model 1946 – a Potential Hightier Premium

  1. You said you believe the 88mm Versoin would be the best. I think the 105mm would be better, because with the Panther 88, there will be a very similiar tank in the game soon. And it is as well very similiar to the Panther II, so i would prefer the 105mm, it would be like the VK3002 D, just on tier 8. So there would be a new (on tier 8) unique Medium, since the T44 and the Obj. 416 have other armor/a rear mounted turret.

    But in general, i really would like to see this tank in the game, wether with 88 or 105mm.
    And i really like how you are caring about the things WG does not give a fuck about – but i think it is true what one of the recent articels said, that WG will have to focus more on the european market in the future.
    Anyhow keep up the good work :)

  2. My first thought was also “3002DB with 88 L/71″. Sounds good for a tier 8 medium. Wouldn’t mind the 105 either. With that one I guess the alpha would be somewhere around Lowe -alpha of 320 instead of ARL/AMX M4 with 300 or RO L7 with 390.

    • The German influence is still very heavy, yes. The latter models shifted more to British and Soviet way of thinking. Otherwise – yea, the turret was supposed to be shifted forward to give way to the massive engine.

  3. Just a few questions for you, SS. Little relevance to its place as a premium tank, mostly design questions.

    How were the crew’s optics? From the picture, it looks to be very poor for everyone involved, especially for a postwar vehicle.

    Why 65mm frontal armor? It seems unusually thin; especially given the relatively poor ballistic shape and large profile. Early Allied weaponry was capable of penetrating that much armor, so, even small countries that saw a little bit of action or were armed with M3 Lees and the like would be able to ‘handle it’, given enough care. The 40mm I can see–it should be enough to stop the PTRD and its ilk handily, especially with schurzen.

    How far could the flamethrowers reach? Given the armor, I assumed this is a ‘search and destroy’ type vehicle, not an infantry tank. Were they just to help clear potential fortifications?

    Why leaf springs? At this point in time, everyone was moving to large diameter road wheels and torsion bars, weren’t they? Was this just for simplicity’s sake, or a mimicry of the Panzer IV? In any case, I cannot imagine the suspension performing too well, despite the very good ground pressure.

    It seems to me that they blewup a KV-1 hull to Tiger proportions. It’s definitely got the speed to make it work as a hightier premium, though, its size gives me cause to worry for its health. Perhaps it will be given high health to compensate?

    • This design was just an early proposal, the questions you are asking weren’t developed in detail until much later (for example, the flamethrower was considered a pretty dumb idea and was removed).

      Crew optics are described as such: “commander’s cupola was capable of traversing, equipped with 5 episcopes and independently traversing ceiling with binoculars”.

      While there is not an official source to consider this, the 65mm demand was selected as something likely to be withstand hits from low caliber autocannons and German weapons up to 75mm (excluding the L/70). Keep in mind that this vehicle was designed with the knowledge of the Panther and Sherman, but without the knowledge of Pershing, T-44, IS-3 or T-54. This early concept became quickly obsolete and it was decided to upgun the vehicle to 100mm level, armor thickness was increased later on as well to well-sloped 90mm.

      The flamethrower was of uknown type, as the Czechoslovak indegenous one for PM-1 was not developed yet. Presumably, it was a variant of the Flammenwerfer 41, giving it range of cca 30 meters. It was a bit of a throwback, based on the experience with flamethrower tanks on the eastern front. The demand was soon dropped and moved to a specialized flamethrower vehicle (PM-1), which in turn was declared obsolete by 1956.

      Leaf springs is another throwback to the LT Vz.38 design, that used this solution (plus, capacities to manufacture it were readily available). The suspension of Vz.38 proved to be extremely good (survived the war, the most famous use of which was the Hetzer) and thus, at first, it was proposed to use it. Soon after (months literally), it was replaced by torsion bars in the project.

      Personally, I don’t think it’s THAT huge, but yea, it’s definitely not tiny (to accomodate for the powerful weaponry). With the mobility however, it shouldn’t be a problem.

      • Good commander’s optics, then.

        As I thought, simplicity of manufacture for the leaf springs. Good enough. Did the road wheels ever get a diameter increase?

        Surely the 65mm requirement was drawn up before the 76mm M1A1 and S-53 entered service? It’s easy to say should haves and could haves given what we know now, so, know that I am not mocking the design. Effective enough and it looks to be easy to manufacture.

        You might want to post up the 100mm version as well, assuming it is not a smoothbore or equipped with electronic fire control systems. Given the presence of the Sheridan prototype, M60, STB-1, IS-7, and Leopard 1, there is plenty of room for earlier vehicles.

        As for the size: it is directly comparable to the Tiger I. Not as tall, however, it is nearly as long and wide in the hull and turret. I am indeed curious why they felt the need to make the hull so large; was crew efficiency that improved? Did the engine take up that much space? Just out of curiousity–was the 660 hp diesel already in service when the requirement was drawn up? There are quite a few vehicles that could benefit from such a hefty engine.

        Regardless, every Czech tank you have posted had become a very sensible, economical design by the time it was produced or set to be, and I am sure that this design is no different.

        • Those are very reasonable questions. Let’s see.

          - yes, roadwheels diameter increased in later projects to 930mm
          - the armor – you have to understand that Czechoslovak tank medium development practically froze in 1942. In 1945, Czechoslovak military was re-eastabilished “from scratch” and they had a LOT of catching up to do. The armor included this. Plus, it was influenced by the T-34/85 hull armor, which was actually thinner (and yet deemed sufficient).
          - 100mm version was already covered many times (this is it: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/01/27/giganauts-tvp-render/), but I am working on a summary, yes. Electronics? This program was cancelled in early 50′s – not much room there.
          - size: the vehicle was historically literally designed around the gun. The developers wanted to choose the gun first (see the choices above) and then design something it would fit in, including the massive 105mm. That required a big turret, which means a big turret ring, which in turn means wide hull. Plus, the engine was really supposed to be massive (furthermore, there were upgrades available, reaching up to the mighty 1000hp enginge).

          • I suppose in 1942, 65mm sloped armor was entirely appropriate.

            I think I either didn’t see that article or dismissed it as an IS-4 render and moved on. Thank you for the link :)

            That is quite a lot of work, wow. They did a nice job.

            I am guessing the AM-39-P proposal is an in-line vehicle with the 10.5cm L/63,3 as a top gun option? You would lose the very unique original proposed turret shape if the TVP were implemented any other way. You are right, this is pretty difficult.

            If the AM-39-P is not already an in-line vehicle, you could drop down the TVP to tier 6 with the 85mm S-53 and raise the AM-39-P to tier 8 with the 10.5cm L/63,3 for gameplay reasons–you would lose a good deal of historicality, as it’s very apparent that the 85mm S-53 was not seriously considered for very long.

            In any case, multiple premiums based on roughly the same hull wouldn’t be entirely out of place–after all, America has many different vehicles based off of the M3/M4 hull, and Germany has two Panzer IV premiums and three Panther premiums.

            • This is a situation I am trying to avoid really – three similiar hulls after one another. Basically, the way it is now:

              - TVP 1946 as a premium with either 88mm or 105mm (it can be “wasted” as a lowtier as well with a smaller gun, but that’s kinda complicated)

              - T-50 (evolution of the tank above by Škoda) as tier 8 (boxy turret, 76,2mm and 88 or 105mm gun)
              - T-51 (evolution by Praga) – more roadwheels, piked nose hull, cast turret as tier 9, 100mm guns (several models, Czech projects)
              - T-50/51 (the render) – 100mm autoloaded, equivalent of the Soviet tier 10 medium guns (perhaps a bit better)

              Currently, I am working on sorting all three.

              • I think it would work out the best with the 105mm. The 88mm leaves it too similar to current vehicles, even if it is the most historically correct.

                Though, a tier 6 TVP would be a hell of a fighter, wouldn’t it? You wouldn’t get into the armor balance problems the T-44-85 had, either.

          • 1000hp? Sweet! Actually, that reminds me – I’d like to see more data on some of the German gas turbine projects. They looked like they’d be fun.

  4. The lack of Hungarian high tier premium can be solved with the Tas rohamlöveg TD, if the guys at WG decides that way. Of course, implementig it as a regular would be nicer, but the need for a high tier premium vehicle might overwright this option. We’ll see, it’s just an idea.

    EDIT: oh, I missed the high tier ‘medium’ part, so nevermind :P

  5. As for swedish high tier meds hopefully we can find something in the Landsverk Drawing archives.

    We know that there should be a 30 tonne tank design with a 10,5cm gun and a 60kph top speed with the designation Landsverk Pricken, and other than that there should be a newer version of the Landsverk Leo from 1950 which was offered for export

    • I should add that we have the drawing number number of the Pricken so we know it should be out there

  6. Why not flamethrowers in wot? That would be kinda cool i think. mind explaining why not SS? I’m just wondering, because i think it could be a cool idea.

  7. So a medium tank with very little armor and the long 88 gun…hmm…this could be pretty good if it gets limited MM (I imagine it playing similarly to the FCM 50t, only smaller)