Historical Articles - The Armored Patrol

Source: EU Portal

In the 1950s, a company called H.L. Yoh submitted several ideas for new tanks and vehicle improvements to the U.S. Army. Each of their projects featured unique shapes and innovative mechanics that seemed more or less feasible to implement. Collectively, these vehicles have been dubbed Yoh tanks. While they never reached the prototype phase or gained much attention from the U.S. Army, their unusual look and original features are well worth a closer inspection.

Let’s check out some of the ideas and proposals by the H.L. Yoh company that inspired the new branch of American heavy tanks in World of Tanks, even though not all of the ideas will find their way into the game.

Continue reading “The Curious Ideas of Yoh – Part 1” →

This is a German armored combat vehicle comparison chart (“Panzerkampfwagen Vergleich”), released in 1945. Here, we can see a distinct lineup of various vehicles side by side, starting from Deutschland / Germany, England-U.S.A. / Allied, and Russland / Russia. Light tank on the left, medium tanks in the middle, and heavy tank on the right, pretty conventional.

At first glance, there appears to be nothing out of ordinary with this chart. But soon you will notice a rather unusual vehicle at the end of the Allied tank lineup. Instead of exhibiting the combat-proven British Churchill Infantry Tank, the chart instead draws upon the design of an American T1 Heavy Tank, peculiarly nicknamed “Dreadnought”.

We can draw some conclusions based on this evidence:

The Germans were well aware of the existence of US heavy tank development since the beginning, particularly with the T1. This is based on the silhouette design. Taking shape on one of the earliest prototypes armed with commander’s cupola .30 cal machine gun and internally-mounted anti-aircraft .50 cal machine gun facing rearward. The prototype would most likely be the T1E2.
They expected to see combat against the T1 on the battlefield at some point. It was even designated as “M1”, denoting M for “Model”, a designation used by the US Army for inventories that have been approved for production. In reality, the tank never left the US soil due to transportation issues and general objection by the Army Ground Forces from using heavy tanks.
How they acquired data of the US heavy tank was rather straightforward, contrary to expectations. The T1/M6 saw frequent use by the US Army as a parade and propaganda tool in major US cities during the Second World War. The main purpose of it was to display the might of the US Armored Forces to general public, despite never entering combat at any capacity, and gaining support from war bonds in return. It would be no surprise if German Spies could easily obtain sufficient data on this behemoth of a tank.
However, the data they obtained were quite outdated (and also slightly incorrect), especially by this time and year. The tank’s final form for production was notably different from its prototype form, including omission of the redundant commander’s cupola machine gun and rear-facing anti-air machine gun. The production designation wouldn’t be M1. Instead, it would be called as M6.
“Dreadnought” was never an official name given by the US. It was the German who nicknamed it, hence the peculiarity.