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Apr 17, 2013

10,5cm Sfl. auf Geschützpanzer Mk.VI(e) - new German arty

Hello everyone,

today, a new batch of vehicles was announced for the 0.8.6 patch of World of Tanks. One of the most interesting ones is the lowtier German artillery, designated as "GW 10.5 CM Mk.IV(e)" by Wargaming - Mugsy (US forums) - this designation was also used on the EU server. Here's a screenshot:




This designation is slightly wrong. Someone messed up the V and the I. In reality, it was a Mk.VI light tank that this artillery was built on, not a Mk.IV. After all, the picture itself was named MkVI(e).jpg when I downloaded it, so I guess it's just a Wargaming typo.

Anyway, this vehicle is rather interesting, let's have a look at it closer.



The British Mk.VI light tank was the ultimate development of the long line of Vickers light tanks, going back to 1930 Mk.I and even further back to the Carden Lloyd tankettes. These tanks were very light recon vehicles (Mk.VIB weighted 5,2 tons) with thin armor and a heavy machinegun as its main weapon. In terms of 1940 they were obsolete, but they were produced nonetheless ( Mk.VIB was the most common version, from 1937 to January 1940, 914 were made, another model - Mk.VIC - was made until June 1940).

What happened was the British expeditionary force (BEF) took a number of these vehicles with them. In fact, the Vickers was the primary light tank for the BEF. Their performance was less than stellar however, they got torn apart by the Wehrmacht. Notably, insufficient armor and armament was cited as the reason of their failure.

Some Mk.VIB light tanks were left behind by the BEF during the Dunkerque evacuation and Germans captured them damaged, but more or less intact. It should be noted that even Germans, who happily utilised otherwise obsolete designs (such as some French light tanks) in secondary roles, found them completely useless and got rid of them quickly (some served as training targets for gun trials).

However, 6 were transferred to the German by the name of Alfred Becker, the commander of the Baukommando Becker unit. In 1940, 6 of them were rebuilt by the Germans to carry a 105mm leFH 16 howitzer and a MG34 machinegun.



The howitzer was enclosed in a thin (11-22mm thick) superstructure and the vehicle was open-topped. In fact, the superstructure was thicker than the hull armor. The new improvised self-propelled gun was crewed by 4 men and powered by the original Meadows V6 (87hp), allowing it to go as fast as 50 km/h on the road (but only 20 km/h in terrain).

Earlier it was believed that these SPG's were never actively used and spent their "life" in Belgium as training vehicles. However, now it seems they were transferred to the Artillerieregiment 227, fighting near Leningrad in late 1941, where they apparently survived until 1942. Despite being essentially improvised vehicles, the Germans were allegedly quite happy with them.

Sources: 
http://forum.valka.cz
I.Pejčoch - Obrněná technika

18 comments:

  1. This should be premium spg. They should put wespe in main arty line.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. wespe is good like it is, but i agree with this geschutzpz as an prem

      Delete
    2. Considering that there's two new arty tiers and three new German SPGs, it means that it's either an alternative (at tier III you have the StPz II and Wespe, for instance) or a premium- most likely the latter as it's based on a Brit tank and it's a bit of an oddity.

      -Platypusbill

      Delete
    3. They could buff wespe to tier 4 so bizon->sturmpanzer2->wespe... It would look much better imo.

      Delete
  2. Hmm.I wonder.Did Wg really got so pissed of by the 8.5 leaks that they started showing us on what they're working so there won't remain anything left to 'leak'?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I mean, for 8.5, they gave us official info only few days before the test-server went online.
      Now, even if the 8.5 isn't even released, they're giving us official info about the 8.6

      Delete
    2. That was my first thought too. We'll have to see what the supertest brings...

      Delete
  3. Following WG's kind of logic, this SPG will be introduced as a british premium vehicle ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, since Brits already have one, Sexton.
      German TDs under French flag was needed as there were no other satisfying low tier candidates for premium French TDs.

      Delete
    2. Sorry, but this is nonsense.

      If they were not able to find a true french one, they should have invented one (like they do it over and over again) or simply leave it out completely.

      There never was or is "a need" for premium artys at all and their existance simply shows, that profit beats everything at Minsk and they give a shit for their own opinion / statements.

      Delete
  4. It looks pretty cool for an improvised vehicle :) how does the LeFH 16 differ from the LeFH 18 ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those were completely different weapons. leFH18 was a post war L/28 construction that served in WW2, leFH16 was a vintage L/22 WW1 howitzer, that was given to Belgium as reparations after 1918 and was re-captured after the fall of Belgium in 1940 and used in secondary roles.

      Delete
  5. We are still going to see 5 arties in each and every T10 game. People will still play their current T8 as T10 arties. Every GW Tiger, Type E, T92, Obj 261 will still create a fuck fest at T10.

    The only thing that's going to happen is proly fucking up T9 too and turning it into a T10 5arties/side too every game too.Only thing that could change this situation radically, is that complete rebalance of arties they keep talking about.

    Ah hell i hope i wont be forced to sell all my T9 tanks too because of arties.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From todays Q&A: 'arty hardcap will be removed when the arties get balanced'

      So enjoy the remaining days, with ONLY five per team.

      Delete
  6. Oh my God it's adorable. Give me it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It could be on this way (I unknow):

    The Wespe rises one tier (to IV) and will unlock the Pz.SfI.IVb, will the "english" "replaces" the Wespe on tier III

    ReplyDelete

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