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.

Monday, April 2, 2018

M24 Tensa

M24 Chaffee No. 16 of the Uruguayan armed forces. 

Uruguay's armored forces began with the acquisition of just forty M3A1 light tanks from the United States in November, 1944, as the US saw little use for these obsolete vehicles. The same process happened again during the Korean War in 1952, where they acquired seventeen M24 Chaffee light tanks as the US began to replace them with newer M41 Bulldogs. One of these vehicles (Number 16, as pictured above) was equipped with a dozer blade for urban operations during the Tupamaros movement from 1968 to 1973.

 In 1982, Tensa (Talleres Electromecanicos Norte, Sociedad Anónima), an Argentinian car manufacturing company, proposed an upgrade package for the M24 Chaffee to their government. When Argentina declined the upgrade, Tensa offered the package to Uruguay. One of Uruguay's M24s allegedly received the upgrade, but the project itself was not successful and no other tanks were upgraded. However, the entire fleet did see an upgrade between 1983 and 1987 from the Brazilian Bernardini company was hired to replace the original powerplant with a Saab-Scania DS-11 disel engine.

Which M24 received the upgrade, or what even the upgrade itself actually was, is something I've found very little information on. So fair warning: I'm going to get a little more speculative here than I'd like. But I'll keep things limited to the technology, location, and time period Tensa would have made their upgrade package.

 We might be able to squeeze in the French 90 mm DEFA D-921F1 rifled gun. This was a low pressure weapon that fired HEAT/HESH/HE ammunition, found on the Panhard AML armored car. This was a weapon (and vehicle) distinctly used by the Argentinians during the 1982 Falklands War. As Tensa is an Argentinian company, and we know in 1982 that Argentina did have access to this weapon, it's not outside the realm of possibility this weapon could be mounted to the M24 Chaffee. After all, Norway did a similar thing just 10 years prior with their NM-116. I would like to try and give the tank the 76 mm guns used on the FV101 and FV601, but Argentina did not have access to these tanks nor guns they carried, as far as I know.

 With this 90 mm gun and the aforementioned engine upgrade, the M24 Chaffee becomes just a bit viable for Tier VII. I think the tank itself (M24 Tensa) will be rather mediocre, playing like a worse version of the German SP I.C. However, with the inclusion of a dozer blade at the front, the tank might be able to stand out just a little bit. Maybe some side skirts as well?



Guns: 90 mm DEFA D-921F1

Engines: Twin Cadillac, Series 44T24 (296 hp); Saab-Scania DS-11 (325 hp)

Turrets (Turret Armor (mm)): M24 (38/25/25); M24 Tensa (38/25/25)

Suspensions/Alternate Hulls, Total Weight (metric tons): M24 TBS (16.47); M24 Tensa (??)

Hull Armor (mm): 30/25/19*

Top Speed: 70 km/h

Crew: 4 (Driver; Gunner; Commander/Radio; Loader)

 *Does not count the dozer blade spaced armor



Parent: Ram II
Children: X1A2
See Also: M24 Chaffee

Sources:
http://pavel70slama.blog.cz/1403/tanky-m24-chaffee-v-uruguayske-armade
http://www.defensa.com/uruguay/cesion-viejos-tanques-m-41-brasilenos-uruguay-depende-aprobacion
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