MISSION STATEMENT

This website is to serve as a catalog of historical information for various tanks, across various stages of development, created for use by the United States from Pre-WWII through to the 1970s. However, the primary purpose for this website is to illustrate a proposal for what an "endgame" could look like for the US tech tree in the game, World Of Tanks, and to show that there's still plenty of life left to breathed into this game.

My aim is to see as many tanks in the game about tanks as possible, and I hope to show that in a way that respects both the historicity of the tanks shown and the balance of the game overall. As such, I will not be going into great detail on individual statistics. Rather, I will only be showing the possible modules for each tank, changes that could be made to make it more historically authentic, a historical overview, and how the tank's playstyle may be represented in-game. I will also attempt to future-proof this by including alternate hulls, half-tracks, and wheeled vehicles.

This is certainly not perfect and everything is subject to change. This is still a work in progress, and updates are frequent if not daily. This is a fan project and a labor of love. Do enjoy.

Saturday, August 5, 2017

TS-8/32

Cross-sectional drawing of the TS-8 


The limited range and excessive weight of the M41 Bulldog were considered to be its greatest shortcomings. Shortly after it entered production in 1951, there were already motions being made to replace it. During the third Questionmark Conference in June 1954, six light tank proposals were put forth that emphasized an increased range and reduced weight. In order to fulfill this, the armor protection of all six tanks was reduced to a thickness of 1/2 inch. The front plates were highly sloped, but the sides were vertical.

Cross-sectional drawing of the TS-32

This tank, the TS-8/32, is a combination of two of these proposals: the TS-8 and TS-32. Both tanks utilized the same 76 mm gun in conventional turrets, both tanks had their engines mounted in the same frontal position, they had the same turret ring diameter, and they assumingly had the same top speed. So the TS-32 turret should be able to be mounted on the TS-8 hull. However, the TS-32 had a noticeably shorter profile than the TS-8. We can also easily borrow the AO-470 engine from the TS-10 for a third engine option.

This tank should be fairly similar to the revised M41 Bulldog. Differences between the two should be minimal. The most obvious change is having thinner armor than the M41 Bulldog, but that could easily be compensated for with improved mobility. Top speed and most of the armor is unknown, so that will also need to be a balance decision. Likewise, I don’t know what the actual 76 mm gun is. However, being ballistically equivalent to the M32, I think we can get away with bringing over both M32 guns from the M41 Bulldog, in addition to the T185. The T185 was the 76 mm gun in development at the time and, presumably, it was the one intended. This gun does not have an automatic loader.

Guns: 76 mm Gun M32 Early; 76 mm Gun M32 Late; 76 mm Gun T185

Engines: AO-470 (225 hp); AOI-470 (250 hp); AOI-628 (340 hp)

Turrets (Turret Armor (mm)): TS-8 (??/??/??); TS-32 (??/??/??)

Suspensions/Alternate Hulls, Total Weight (metric tons): TS-8 (14.97); TS-32 (15.88)

Hull Armor (mm): 13/13/13 (TS-8); 13/13/13 (TS-32)

Top Speed: ?? km/h

Crew: 4 (Driver; Gunner; Loader; Commander/Radio)
Parent: T21
Children: TS-10
See Also: TS-26

Sources:
Hunnicutt, R. P. Sheridan, 2015. 
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