Strange military vehicle

biko · 21-12-2006 12:11pm #1

"So, what's the most unusual military vehicle you can think of? Maybe the Japanese airplane-launching submarine of WW2? Or perhaps the Soviet attempts to build a flying tank? Or perhaps the 1000 ton rolling fortress the Germans tried to build in WW2? All quite odd, I agree, but barely made it past the drawing boards. The oddest is a scooter armed with a 75mm cannon.

After World War II, there was little money for defense spending while the nations of Europe rebuilt their industry and society. When there was some cash to spend, one had to be creative to stretch it as far as possible. The French probably accomplished the most astounding example of that with the ACMA Troupes Aeról Portées Mle. 56. Deployed with their airborne forces, this was essentially a militarized Vespa scooter outfitted with a 75mm recoilless rifle. Five parachutes would carry the two-man gun crew, weapon, ammunition, and two scooters safely to earth, and the men would load the weapon on one scooter and the ammo on the other, then ride away. More impressively, the recoilless rifle could be fired effectively on the move by the best of the gun crews. Total cost? About $500 for the scooter and the recoilless rifle was war surplus. Were they successful military machines? Well, the French Army deployed about 800 armed scooters in wars conducted in both Algeria and Indochina."

Apparently, recoil was not a problem whatsoever, and this little scooter could (and did) wreak serious havoc.

silverharp · 21-12-2006 2:41pm

biko wrote:

Or perhaps the 1000 ton rolling fortress the Germans tried to build in WW2?

Any links for that? never heard of it before

did the brits have a proposal to build aircraft carriers out of ice bergs in WW2?

TerrorFirmer · 21-12-2006 2:45pm

silverharp wrote:

Any links for that? never heard of it before

did the brits have a proposal to build aircraft carriers out of ice bergs in WW2?

I didn't hear about actual aircraft carriers mind but there were exploratory ideas in landing strips created out of ice. As for this scooter, I've never heard of it..until now, that is. Quite comical, and to imagine it being fired on the move...:p

GreenHell · 21-12-2006 2:50pm

Imagine the embarrassment of been taken out of action by a vespa, that probably why you never heard of it.

Alkers · 21-12-2006 3:20pm

Doesn't look like it's easy to change the elevation?
I'd like to see it being fired on the move!
Those "aircraft carriers made of ice" were going to be made out of pykrete.
Heres a video:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/235665/2_million_ton_pykrete_aircraft_carrier_in_ww2/

RedPlanet · 21-12-2006 5:41pm

Sure they even had Panzerfaust (anti-tank guns) mounted on bicycles.
Those crazy krauts.

bus77 · 21-12-2006 6:08pm

I remember playing a mod for Battlefild 1942 with one of them in it. Did'nt know it was real

There was also a big mechanical spider btw, that ring any bells for anyone?

biko · 21-12-2006 9:04pm

GreenHell wrote:

Imagine the embarrassment of been taken out of action by a vespa, that probably why you never heard of it.

Sir, we were taken out by a Ve... err... hmm... biiiig tank

parliament · 21-12-2006 9:15pm

silverharp wrote:

Any links for that? never heard of it before

did the brits have a proposal to build aircraft carriers out of ice bergs in WW2?

its called pykrete, a mixture of ice and sawdust

Manic Moran · 22-12-2006 4:01pm

If you're interested, it's an M20 75mm recoilless rifle, of WWII vintage.

Anything the Vietnamese can do, the Americans can do better.

6x 106mm

NTM

tallus · 23-12-2006 11:30am

Manic Moran wrote:

If you're interested, it's an M20 75mm recoilless rifle, of WWII vintage.

Anything the Vietnamese can do, the Americans can do better.

6x 106mm

NTM

Jaysus I'd hate to be on the recieving end of a salvo from that thing !

Pyr0 · 24-12-2006 9:01pm

Ha exactly what I was thinking, a bit over powerd no ?

Manic Moran · 25-12-2006 2:42am

Well, you have to remember that it can't be reloaded from inside the vehicle. It's basically a six-shooter: Take your six shots, with whatever rounds happen to be loaded (APERS, HEAT, whateveR), and that's it.

NTM

magick · 25-12-2006 9:56pm

how about this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-28_Super_Heavy_Tank

Manic Moran · 26-12-2006 3:32am

The most interesting thing about that tank is the fact that though it's the heaviest armoured vehicle the US ever built, they managed to lose it in a Virginia forest for about twenty years.

Prototype's sitting in Ft Knox, it's not quite as big as you would think.

Russians came up with a smilar one post-war.
Objekt 279 (For snowy or marshy terrain). One example exists.

Other interesting Russian inventions are the Tsar tank of 1915 of which no example survives,

And my personal favourite, the KT-60 (A-40) Glider Tank. When the West created the Tetrarch and M22 Locust airborne tanks, they created the Hamilcar glider to transport them.

M-22 shown here)

The Russians thought about that for a second, and decided "Why make a glider to carry a tank? Why not just the tank into a glider?"

So they strapped wings to a T-60 light tank, and towed it behind a TB-3 bomber.

Only ever made one attempt at a flight: The TB-3 didn't have the horsepower to keep the somewhat unaerodynamic contraption airborne. Apparently it flew quite well, for as long as it stayed up. After landing, it jettisoned the wings, and drove back to base.

NTM

Dub13 · 26-12-2006 3:31pm

Manic Moran wrote:

The most interesting thing about that tank is the fact that though it's the heaviest armoured vehicle the US ever built, they managed to lose it in a Virginia forest for about twenty years.

LOL....any more detail's on this...?

Victor · 26-12-2006 3:49pm

tallus wrote:

Jaysus I'd hate to be on the recieving end of a salvo from that thing !

Standing behind it wasn't much safer.

Manic Moran · 26-12-2006 4:53pm

Dub13 wrote:

LOL....any more detail's on this...?

Not many. I've absolutely no idea how they managed to lose a 90-ton-assault gun, indeed, both had been reported as having been scrapped and destroyed. Then in the 1980s, some 40 years later (Not the 20 I originally, off-the-cuff recalled), some bloke in Virginia found this massive rusting hulk in the woods. Was brought to the Patton museum in Kentucky and cosmetically restored.

See here: http://johnsmilitaryhistory.com/armort28.html

NTM

jmayo · 03-01-2007 9:37pm

What about the little German half track with motorbike front wheel,
SdKfz 2 or short Kettenkrad.
Can't imagine what it woud be like to drive, saw one in museum in Vienna.
Actually not big at all, very narrow just room for few guys on back.

marcsignal · 03-01-2007 10:19pm

Dunno how this thing got off the ground but was used for recon on the eastern front

Manic Moran · 01-02-2007 2:14am

Found an earlier prototype for the vehicle in the original post.

Also a later version

NTM

Lazairus · 11-02-2007 10:35pm

Wtf
????

Clare gunner · 16-02-2007 10:11pm

Or perhaps the 1000 ton rolling fortress the Germans tried to build in WW2?

Think you mean the Maus[Mouse] tank? It was more like 150 tons.A Porsche design,with twin guns mounted in the Turret.It was a disaster from the word go.It was so big that it couldnt be rail transported.It tore up all the roads it travelled on,it vibrated building foundations apart.Used up huge amounts of vital war material in construction.Got stuck in everything ,bar the most driest ground,and was dead slow as well.Only three were ever built.

Clare gunner · 16-02-2007 10:14pm

[

QUOTE=Manic Moran]Found an earlier prototype for the vehicle in the original post.

I feel a Spike Milligan moment coming on here.:D

Capt'n Midnight · 18-02-2007 5:06pm

Clare gunner wrote:

Think you mean the Maus[Mouse] tank? It was more like 150 tons.A Porsche design,with twin guns mounted in the Turret.It was a disaster from the word go.

Was very very slow cross country too.
No there were designs using U-Boat diesels ( 3 of them ?) for a very large tank but never got off the drawing boards.

Wouldn't have worked either, the allies after D-day were in a position to point radar at cross roads to and launch artillery strikes. They also had liberators with radar used against submarines in the atlantic and against japanese shipping in the pacific. So it would have been nailed pdq.

Not vehicles but..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peacock - Chicken powered atomic bomb.

I'll dig up the link to the anti-submarine weapon whose lethal radius was greater than it's range.

http://www.luft46.com - many of you know about this already

marcsignal · 23-02-2007 8:26pm

heinkle he 111z ( z is for zwilling or twin )

Kaiser_Sma · 26-02-2007 5:03pm

follow up on the 1000ton tank the Landkreuzer P.1000 Ratte

Capt'n Midnight · 26-02-2007 10:15pm

Capt'n Midnight · 26-02-2007 10:33pm

Thre is the M520 amphibious truck

Anyone find those really really large amphibians the US had ?

Capt'n Midnight · 26-02-2007 11:33pm

LARC-60 (4x4) 60-ton Amphibious Cargo Carrier US http://tanxheaven.com/larc60/larc60.htm

01-BARC(LARC-60)Overloon.JPG

one for sale her http://www.warehamsteamship.com/larc-lx.htm But it's pink

biko · 27-02-2007 2:53am

Big Bertha 2 http://crazylinkz.blogspot.com/2007/02/worlds-most-impressive-gun.html

Schwerer Gustav and Dora were the names under which the German(world war 2) 80 cm K railway guns were known. They were developed in the late 1930s by Krupp in order tSchwerer Gustav and Dorao destroy large, heavily fortified targets.Krupp built a test model in late 1939 and sent it to the Hillersleben firing range for testing. Penetration was tested on this occasion. Firing almost vertically, the gun was able to penetrate the specified 7 meters of concrete and 1 meter of armour plate.The ammunition for the gun consisted of a heavy concrete-piercing shell and a lighter higSchwerer Gustav and Dorah-explosive shell. A super-long-range rocket projectile was also planned with a range of 150 km that would require the barrel being extended to 84 m. This rocket projectile would have enabled the bombardment of England.
In keeping with the tradition of the Krupp company, no charge was made for the first gun. However, they did charge 7 million Reichsmark for the second gun Dora, named after the senior engineer's wife.Designed in preparation for World War II, they were intended to be used against the Maginot Line. But instead of a frontal assault, the Wehrmacht outflanked the line during the Battle of France. One of the guns was used in Russia at the siege of Sevastopol during Operation Barbarossa. It was destroyed near the end of the war to avoid capture.

Strange military vehicle

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