KEMUZ: Strange Tanks

"QUANTUM SHOT" #127

When the military decides to get weird, it's gets REALLY weird

It all started in the Fourteenth Century. We have a record of a "pre-tank" machine, called "Fighting Unicorn".

This is a fragment of a page from the work of Mariano di Jacopo (aka Mariano Taccola) from Sienna. Apparently the body was full of very small soldiers, all running in step; the unicorn horn would be lowered to charge, or just to pound on the helmets of astonished infidels .
(via Barista Media)

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WORLD'S BIGGEST TANKS

World War I -
1. TZAR TANK

Read it and weep! Landships describes the Biggest Tank Ever Built! It is also the Most Strange Armored Fighting vehicle ever constructed.
"Lebedenko Tank", or Tzar tank (after tsar Nikolaj, who helped finance it) was also called "Netopyr" - vampire bat. Its history starts in 1914 with the engineer N. Lebedenko, who came up with the idea of a 40-ton battle machine, running on one small and two very large spoked wheels, almost 9 meter in diameter. The designers hoped that this configuration would make it possible for the vehicle to cross practically all obstacles. However on the initial trial run the small wheel got stuck in a ditch, and the weak engines did not help either.

Source: Tzar

UPDATE:
Here is another strange one (from France):
The "Machine Boirault" tested for the French Army in 1915 as a trench crossing vehicle:

(image credit: Steve Zaloga )

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World War II -
2. Stalin's Heavy Tank

art by Lobachev

This page has a fascinating article about Stalin's T-35 HEAVY TANK - multi-turreted monster, visually stunning in its huge dimensions.

T-35-2 on parade in Moscow. November 7, 1933.

The running gear of the T-35A tank:

Outwardly, the T-35 looked like the British A1E1 "Independent" five-turret tank:

Today, only one T-35 survives. It is on display in the Kubinka tank museum.

We deliberately omit Nazi Germany tank monstrosities, as they will be subject of a separate post. We will also speak about TOG series 1 and 2, created in 1940 by a team of former WW1 tank designers - in the forthcoming articles.

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Cold War -
3. American T95 and T28

Allies came up with a few GIANT TANKS, too. T95 and T28 had a shape somewhat similar to German "Maus" prototypes. This thread (in Spanish) discusses their history and has more images.

Only 2 tanks were finished, one just in time for Korean War. The armored plates in front were 12 inches thick!

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Have you heard of the Ferrari Tank?

No, not this one:

I am talking about ARMY FERRARI - F333E "Lizard"

The lucrative military contracts has proven to be irresistible to many luxury auto-makers. This article puts it this way:
"The Mercedes G-Wagen has been a staple of European and Asian militaries for two decades. Land Rover has been supplying military trucks for over 50 years. BMW sold motorcycles to the Nazis. Porsche designed the Tiger tank and the Wiesel AWC. The Lamorghini LM-002 was adopted by Saudi security forces. And yes, even acclaimed Ferrari got in on the action."

The Ferrari F333E Lizard was an odd little vehicle, it offered sports car performance with armored protection and special operations capabilities; had a reasonable price (one could buy several "Lizards" for the price of one Ferrari's top-end sports car) and provided a status symbol for some third-world dictators. Unfortunately it did not make any waves with the military, because of Ferrari's "absolute lack of experience in the military sales market".

During WWII US Army used "Cadillac" tanks:

Preview of Cadillac Power:
M-5 light tank powered by two Cadillac V-type engines and twin Hydra-Matic transmissions
Source: Plan59

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More of weird tanks: