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.

Friday, October 20, 2017

T54 Medium

Wooden model of the T54 medium tank.

In December 1950, it was recommended that a 105 mm gun tank based on the T48 chassis be put into development. Two designs were proposed on July 6, 1951 which featured automatic loaders: the T54 and T54E1. The second used an oscillating turret, but the first used a more conventional design.

The gun selected was the 105 mm Gun T140, being essentially a lightweight version of the 105 mm Gun T5E2, although it used single-piece ammunition rather than two-piece. The T140 was inverted for use with an automatic loader. The tank which would use this weapon and mechanism was designated as the T54.
Drawing of the hoist mechanism for the T54 medium tank.

The T54 turret was assembled from a single piece of cast steel, highly sloped at the front with a large bustle at the rear for balance. Thanks to the hoist-style loading mechanism, the crew was able to remain in their conventional positions. Despite the large gun, the T54 turret had a small frontal target area than the standard M48 tank.

This tank is essentially the same thing as the old T54E1, just with a more conventional and robust turret. Given this tank's magazine was three times the size of the one in the T54E1, I would also like to simply give the T54 an extra shell.

Guns: 105 mm Gun T140 (autoloader)

Engines: Continental AV-1790-5B (810 hp)

Turrets (Turret Armor (mm)): T54 (108/70/89)

Suspensions/Alternate Hulls, Total Weight (metric tons): T48 TBS for T54 (49.90)

Hull Armor (mm): 110/76/35

Top Speed: 43 km/h

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



See Also: T54E2, T77

Sources:
Hunnicutt, R. P. Patton, 2015
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