So what is the Super Conqueror? The “Super Conqueror”, in World of Tanks, is a new tier 10 British heavy tank that will be replacing the the old, but fake FV215b. Seemingly, it is a regular Conqueror with additional armor and spaced armor. I’d say that a decent amount of people don’t know what it is, most people know what it’s intended to be, and relatively few people know what it actually is and how it is represented in World of Tanks compared to real life.
The so-called “Super Conqueror”
The “Super Conqueror” that we see in World of Tanks is based off of a static target and a separate blueprint turret design. The name “Super Conqueror” refers to a particular Conqueror with additional protection (shown in the image above) used as a target, however the name isn’t real and likely never had one since it was a static target to be used to test various weaponry and was also never considered as a real combat vehicle. The closest thing to a name for this particular Conqueror is “Conqueror Tanks with Additional Ballistic Protection”.
In early 1957, the up-armored, static Conqueror was apart of a 2nd iteration of a series where anti-tank warheads were trialed, particularly the capped American T42 “Dart” HEAT warhead and a single uncapped experimental “Malkara” HEAT warhead, against armored tanks. This was to test whether they would be usable as ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles). The 1st iteration of the series used an up-armored Centurion 3 that was, and I quote, “substantially identical” to this up-armored Conqueror. Meaning, that there is a Centurion 3 up-armored the same as this Conqueror with the nose plate and mantlet being omitted on the Centurion 3.
The drawing on the left is the experimental British uncapped “Malkara” HEAT warhead with a copper hemispherical liner. The drawing on the right is the American T42 “Dart” HEAT warhead with an aluminum liner. The two drawings are not to scale with each other.
This particular Conqueror was rebuilt from prototype components. It was up-armored by welding five strips of 20mm applique armor across the Conqueror’s 130mm upper front glacis plate, bringing the thickness up to 150mm. In addition, it received 14mm Burster plates that served as spaced armor. The 14mm Burster plates weren’t unique to this Conqueror, Conquerors in service were readily capable of receiving them since they were stored at depots. The reason why it never was actively fitted was to protect them from damage.
This up-armored Conqueror was stowed with a mix of APDS, HESH, and empty cartridge casings for the trials. The crew positions in the tanks were filled with test dummies and live rabbits to simulate the effects of the warheads on a human.
Round 1 through 5 are photographs of the T42 “Dart” and its impact on the target. Round 6 is the experimental “Malkara”.
Five handpicked T42 “Dart” warheads were fired at the Conqueror and the results yielded that the performance of the warhead on heavy tanks were “extremely marginal”. It did not produce much mechanical damage both on the exterior and interior of the tank. In order for the warhead to produce a “kill” (the British, at the time, defined ‘kill’ as the main gun being destroyed, no crew is available to man the main gun, or an immobilization), it would rely on ammunition combustion and crew lethality via fragmentation and burns. Overall, the British concluded that the T42 would make an effective weapon if the aluminum conical liner was exchanged with a copper conical liner. The single experimental uncapped “Malkara” warhead produced a kill on its single trial, though it was concluded that a single trial is not enough to determine the lethality of the warhead.
The up-armored Conqueror after being fired upon.
In the end, the so-called “Super Conqueror” ended up being destroyed and forgotten with time until recently.
The turret
At face value, the turret of World of Tanks’ Super Conqueror looks identical or at least very similar to the up-armored Conqueror. However, behind the spaced armor and the regular Conqueror mantlet, the turret is completely different.
The turret that the “Super Conqueror” in World of Tanks utilizes was a real turret proposal that never materialized. The whole point of the proposal was to improve the ballistic shape of the Conqueror’s turret since the original turret was deemed unsatisfactory. The hatch to throw away spent casings were moved to the middle, right of the turret instead of the left, rear. The gunner was moved to the enlarged sleeker cupola, meaning that he was beside the commander. The frontal turret armor thickness were 13.5 inches (342.9mm) and the sides were 7 inches (177.8mm).
WoT’s Super Conqueror from a top perspective. As you can see, the turret is shaped very differently compared to the regular Conqueror and the cupola and hatch match the drawing of the turret proposal.
Overall, the armor protection of the turret seems rather promising.
Conclusion
As I stated in the beginning of the article, WoT’s Super Conqueror is a mix of two different things. The hull comes from an up-armored, static Conqueror that was used as a target and never intended for combat and the turret is a real proposal that would have improved armor protection. Historical-wise, it is not perfect, though it is better than the completely fake FV215b.
Sources
“Unconquerable” on Overlord’s Blog
Report No. T.R 2/2. “TRIALS AGAINST CONQUEROR TANKS WITH ADDITIONAL BALLISTIC PROTECTION PART 2 THE USE OF LARGE HOLLOW CHARGE WARHEADS”
