Landships II

Vilkata · Brigadier

Shchitonoska - Based on FT-17?

Vilkata · Brigadier

Perhaps I should have phrased my question better. Obviously there is no way for us to know what was going on in Maksimovs head, or what a vehicle, that was never built and of which no plans exist, would look like.

I was simply wondering if you think my hypothesis was plausible.

---Vil.

Centurion · Legend

Plausible but not the only possibility. There were a number of Russian factories already manufacturing powered track units - as part of various half track vehicles. These could provide a relatively cheap and available source of tracks.

Vilkata · Brigadier

And for such a small vehicle, light-weight would be the name of the game.

The Russians were producing Kegresse style track units domestically correct?

Kegresse track units have rather large bogie wheels, four in each unit. Perhaps it was intended that each Shchitonoska vehicle be equipped with lengthened Kegresse units, consisting of 10 bogie wheels? The manufacturing of such a vehicle would be far easier than my FT-17 idea, as the manufacturing capability was already in place.

I just whipped up this image... If the Shchitonoska vehicle was to use lengthened Kegresse units, then this is what those track units might have looked like. It is worth noting that the bogies are very similar in size, in relationship to the length of the tracks, to Milsoms drawing.

I think your idea is far more likely than mine Centurion.

One thing that has puzzled me though, is do you think the Shchitonoska would have had curved armor as depicted in the sketch? The Vezdekhod had, or was meant to have, curved armor plates. So perhaps the idea of a little one-man kegresse tracked vehicle with fully curving armor isn't such an outlandish idea?

---Vil.

-- Edited by Vilkata at 22:34, 2006-10-20

Centurion · Legend

Thin curved armour plate isn't easy to manufacture so for example turrets with a curve at the period tended to be cast (and heavier) plate tended to be angular (however one firm in Britain had solved the problem - they made Admiralty pattern turrets for example). Often a curved plate turret would be thick boiler plate or the like. One wonders if Russian (Soviet) industry at the time was up to curved armour plate.

Vilkata · Brigadier

There were several improvised armored cars of the WWI era with curved armor, but it was always mild steel or boiler plate or the like, never proper armor plate.

At the time Maksimov designed the Shchitonoska, the Russian Civil War had been going on for around 2 years, and would continue on for another 3 years.

Presumably the Shchitonoska would have been used in the infantry support role, never being intended to go "over the top" in trench warfare the way the FT-17 and British tanks were. As such, the vehicles prime advesary would be troops with rifles and machine guns. perhaps Maksimov thought that cheap thick curved mild steel/boiler plate would best suit his vehicle. The vehicles name, "Shield Bearer", is also interesting. Could the vehicle have been intended for soldiers to hide behind, or on one side of it, using it as sort of mobile fortification? Or perhaps that "fin" in Milsoms drawing is actually an infantry shield, similar to the Krupp Light Tank?

The Shchitonoska was to be around 2.25 tons, with 10mm armor, presumably throughout the vehicle. British and American one-man tanks sported armor only from 5 to 9 mm, and in turn weighed around 1.5 tons. The much higher weight and thicker armor of the Shchitonoska could be an indication it was to use thick boiler plate in place of actual hardened armor.

---Vil.

-- Edited by Vilkata at 01:26, 2006-10-21