, Author at The Armored Patrol

Warning, picture heavy !

Hello everyone, I’m Erwin0859, and today I will present you an article translation coming from chars-francais.net, this time about the Laffly W 15 TCC. My goal is to post an article translation at least one time per week, sometimes maybe a bit more, depending of my available free time. But 1 per week should be a minimum, hopefully. These articles are aiming to highlight some vehicles which aren’t covered by WoT (yet), so in other words, vehicles of which not everyone is aware of.

Maybe forgotten because of the debacle, the Laffly W15 TCC mounted an armament which was very respectable for the 1940 battlefield. I’m talking about the 47mm model 1937 gun, also known as “ghost gun”, because there haven’t been many of them. And those who play the Somua S-35 in World of Tanks can tell how respectable this gun is 🙂

The Laffly tank destroyer has been created in an improvised way, under the pressure of May 1940’s events.

In order to make the production faster, the hull (initially there on the prototype) has been left and replaced by two armoured plates, protecting the driver. The gun’s shield has been extended on the sides.

70 vehicles have been made between May 24^th and June 17^th, 1940. Despite the excellent results, its late use sadly didn’t influence on the events.

14 anti-tank batteries of self-propelled 47mm have been equipped by the Artillery organization center of Nemours. Each battery had a platoon of tank destroyers including 5 Laffly W 15 TCC.

Armament : 47mm model 1937 anti-tank gun + 1 automatic rifle

Ammo capacity : 30 shells

Horizontal gun angles : 60°

Length : 5,40 m

Width : 1,90 m

Height : 1,80 m

Maximum speed : 48 km/h

Weight : 4,960 t

Crew : 3

Pictures of the prototype version :