Author: Zarax, Silentstalker
Hello everyone,
I am sure all of you noticed the removal of the E-25 from the shop. Of course, that leaves a gap in the tree of sorts – what of the players, who want to buy a lightweight but rapid fire tank destroyers? Well, fear not, for there are candidates, that could potentially replace the E-25 as the light tank destroyers. Enter the world of the “mad genius” of WW2, Dr.Ferdinand Porsche and his light tank/TD series. Let’s have a look at them in an article by Zarax:
As World War II progressed, resources dwindled and the coming of Speer marked the end of serious support for super-heavy and technically complex designs, Ferdinand Porsche found the need for a radical change of design philosophy.
His advanced petro-electric powered designs were found too demanding in resources and maintenance, with the Porsche Tiger chassis becoming the simplified Elefant and the Maus, his masterpiece, reduced to a production of a few prototypes, constantly tweaked but with no future.
Thus, with a renewed interest in lighter designs, Porsche developed a new concept of tank capable of engaging both air and ground targets using self loading weapons, using as little crew as possible. The preliminary work for the “Special Vehicle V” family began in May 1943 under own initiative, starting with the Porsche “Typ 245/I”, a 18 ton light tank design.
Armed with a 55mm Mk112 belt-fed cannon and a coaxial machine gun, the tank could engage both light vehicles and low flying planes thanks to the turret elevation of 90° and the use of thin walled high explosive shells for maximum fragmentation effect.
The tank was to be powered by a Typ 101 316 HP engine that could reach 345 HP by forced induction and was placed on the rear of the tank giving a top speed of 65 KM/H.
Crewed by 3 people and well protected by a 60mm sloped frontal plate, it was planned to use a smaller version of the truncated cone spring suspension used in the Maus.
An assault gun version of this tank was planned with the Typ 245/2 design, this time armed with a longer 55mm cannon (likely the Mk114) and a machine gun in the turret. The vehicle was quite low, with an overall height of 1450mm and the crew was reduced to two. The vehicle was also slightly lighter at 15 tons and this time powered by the smaller transverse mounted Maybach HL116 engine, for a planned top speed of 58 km/h.
In 1944, as the war went on and the need of more effective assault guns ensued, Porsche created a new design family, the 27,1 ton “Special Vehicle VI”. Planning for the use of both hydraulic (Typ 250) and mechanical (Typ 255) transmission, the vehicle was designed for housing larger weapons, a bigger crew and heavier armor. The primary armament was a semi-automatic 10.5cm howitzer mounted centrally in the casemate with an ammunition load of 50 rounds, while a small turret housed a 30mm MK 108 cannon designed to engage air borne targets again with a maximum turret elevation of 90°. The driver sat at the left front of the vehicle, the commander in the turret, while the loader and gunner were on the right.
Early drafts lacked the AA turret and were more akin to Typ 245 in shape and size, while also using a torsion bar suspension rather than truncated cone spring, although all featured cast armor for faster production. The engine was again mounted transversally on the rear, this time a 18L 500HP V10 engine, propelling the vehicle to a top speed of 57 KM/H. Frontal armor was angled at 58°, set first at 80 then 120mm thickness, while sides were 45mm thick except for the turret ones, at 80mm.
To maximize protection, the main gun had a large mantlet, although size limitations meant that maximum elevation was 2°, while traverse was 14° on each side and depression -7°. Several armament upgrades were envisioned, both in the form of a new gun (the 10H64 or a recoilless cannon) and in the form of a belt feeding system to increase the rate of fire.
Conclusion
Well, there you have it. As you can see, Ferdinand Porsche did not limit himself to superheavy monsters, he had a knack for lighter stuff too. Of course, these speedy vehicles did not make him famous, that only came later, after the war…
Calling the Porsche 254/2 as the “new” E-25. Small, fast, has no armor, and it has a rapid fire gun.
Also the 255 would be a great premium derp tank. Great frontal armor and a heavy gun with obvious limitations.
I dont think that 255 would work very well. It would either have awesome armor or very weak gun depending on tier where it would be placed.
I’m thinking tier 6 with regular MM or 7 with reduced.
No more limited MM Premiums as stated by the powers that be.
The 255 would have both great armor and gun but it will be hindered by soft-stats and terrible gun depression.
-7 degrees bad? Well…okay, it isn’t great, but it’s not necessarily terrible either for a vehicle with a low profile.
SS, what do you think on the matter of the 255? Please respond.
2 degrees of gun elevation? And people think the AMX 50 120′s 8 degrees is bad…
That’s why they may be better suited as premium tanks rather than a full line…
A fast firing derp would be something unique though
Yeah. Hell, with HEAT shells and a high enough fire rate it could potentially be even MORE OP than the E-25.
What an ugly tank
Yea, it’s ugly, but the front will bounce a lot of shots.
1st one is indeed ugly, but the latter three are actually good-looking. Camouflage, lightweight, and a rapid-fire gun.
55mm or 105mm howitzer? I smell even crappier pen than E-25 for a 7tier… I doubt that has any future, unless on lower tiers (but there are other premiums there already).
105mm derp with high ROF may not have a great DPM but it would rip to shreds low armored tanks and still cripple others.
High ROF? Like, 3sec reload, to keep up with E-25 capability, since HE effective dmg would still be ~100dmg per shot? I don’t believe WG is that generous.
Moreover, that gun would have huge demasking effect, so it’s a one-shot-wonder, than you have to pull back because you are spotted.
On top of that come worse accuracy and slow-flying shell.
With reasonable stats, this is 5tier material.
A fast firing derp can be great fun, even if it only does 100 damage per shot it will do damage and be a constant annoyance. If it’s accurate enough you might be able to hit thinner armour and do 120+ per shot on heavy tanks of tier 7 which isn’t bad for a presumably tier 6 tank. Since it is a derp gun it would be great for tracking tanks as well and do nice module damage to poorly armoured tanks.
This could potentially be nice for killing all those waffles since it would against them have more effective DPM than a lot of tier 8 tanks. But of course I’m only guessing here, it would be nice to have a derpy fast tank destroyer for sure.
The 55mm MK112 was also being developed for the Do335 Pfeil for the heavy anti bomber “Destroyer” version. However the muzzle velocity wasn’t that great and was lower than the MK103. It shared it’s development from the MK108 30mm gun.
Yes, in wot we’d need the longer 55.
I just saw the 245/1 again some days ago, but the new thing I found out is that there are scale models of it called “Jaguarundi tank”, and is said to be a concrete made tank, just an internet myth I guess?
Those could be made into semi-tree attached to armored TDs and perhaps allowing crossing into Waffles?
My idea was to merge with sturmpanzers and end with JP Maus
We can only dream of these tanks for now, sadly. We will see what wargamming comes up with in … a few years. :P
Belt-fed 55mm? Interesting ….
Honestly, I think the best choice for tier 7 premium replacement at this time would be the jagdpanzerkanonen and generally a lot of people wanted it to appear before the E-25 came along.
Well, you can always equip the 15cm on the Waffle and use all HE shells.
That’s pretty much an autoloading derp gun. Good for trolling purposes, I guess.
If by e25 replacement you mean a fast gimmicky tank that you have to spam HE or HEAT for any chance of doing damage then yeah this will do the trick.
Would love to see this in game
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/544/jagdleopers.jpg
Yes its from the German tank design contest but in reality there was conceptual design work of a Leopard based tank destroyer mounting the KwK 42 75mm L/70. It never progressed past a wooden mock up.
There was also a Leopard based SPG with a 105mm LeFH18 of some sort. It also never progressed beyond woonde mock up.
isn’t leo…tiny?
uh SS all the pics but the first are missing. even after refresh. help?