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AEC Armoured Car Mk.III

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Cromwheel but Real Historical Overview: AEC of Southall were a bus and truck company, and its Matador artillery tractor was used as the basis of their new, private-venture armoured car. It was designed to be as well armed, and armoured as current Cruiser tanks in use by the army, and the frontal plates being well sloped helped to that end, though the same could not be said elsewhere on the tank. The AEC Mk.III was virtually identical the Mk.II with only the gun being changed from a QF 6-Pounder to a QF 75mm, allowing it to fire more potent US 75mm HE shells, in exchange for slightly lowered armour penetration capabilities. It fought alongside the AEC Mk.II and T17 Staghound in Europe, replacing US-built 75mm armed Half-tracks in some armoured car regiments. Source s : Wikipedia - AEC Armoured Car The World Wars.Net. - AEC Armoured Car

AEC Armoured Car Mk.II

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Speed Demon Historical Overview: AEC of Southall were a bus and truck company, and its Matador artillery tractor was used as the basis of their new, private-venture armoured car. It was designed to be as well armed, and armoured as current Cruiser tanks in use by the army, and the frontal plates being well sloped helped to that end, though the same could not be said elsewhere on the tank. The AEC Mk.II differed in many ways to its predecessor, most notably, the turret had changed to one resembling that of a Churchill Mk.III. It was armed with the powerful 6-Pounder gun, making it potent against most German armour at combat ranges, and the redesigned hull-front meant that it was better protected against incoming fire. It did however lose its capability to mount additional machine guns on the roof. Source s : Wikipeda - AEC Armoured Car The World Wars.Net - AEC Armoured Car

AEC Armoured Car Mk.I

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Valentine on wheels Historical overview: AEC of Southall were a bus and truck company, and its Matador artillery tractor was used as the basis of their new, private-venture armoured car. It was designed to be as well armed, and armoured as current Cruiser tanks in use by the army, and the frontal plates being well sloped helped to that end, though the same could not be said elsewhere on the tank. It was quite roomy by armoured car standards, and initially being equipped with a Valentine Mk.II’s turret and OQF 2-Pounder gun gave it adequate firepower and armour for an armoured car in 1942. It could also mount a Bren gun, or one or two Vickers K machine guns on the roof for anti-air capabilities or additional firepower against infantry, alongside the coaxially mounted BESA. A total of around 120-130 Mk.I AEC Armoured cars would be produced between 1941 and 1942. Source s : Wikipedia - AEC Armoured Car The World Wars.Net - AEC Armoured Car

Panzer IV F2/G (early)

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Upgrades people, Upgrades! Historical Overview: Pre-war, the Role of the Panzer IV was to act as fire-support for weaker tanks and infantry, using the 7.5cm KwK.37 L/24, their primary targets were fortifications and MG nests, for which they were supplied a HE shell, which was also effective against armour of the time. However, in the mid 30s, Germany received reports of tanks protected by upto 40mm of armour, and so they would develop an AP shell that could punch through that at upto 700m away. However, by 1940 and 41 standards, this was quite anemic. And when it came to facing Soviet T-34s and KV-1s, it simply wasn’t enough, so multiple projects were started to create weapons capable of defeating such armour. One of these resulted in the PaK.40, which was then modified to fit into the Panzer IV turret, as the recoil was too great and the ammunition too long, both were rectified by March 1942, and the Ausf.G was born. Source s : TE - Panzer IV Ausf.G

Panzer IV Ausf.G/H

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Panzer Vor! Historical Overview: With the introduction of the long barrelled 75mm KwK.40, the role of the Panzer IV shifted from mobile infantry support to being the back-bone of German armour during and after the middle stages of the war. In 1943, it was clear to German High Command that in order to make up for the losses suffered at the hand’s of the Soviets, production would need to be increased. The efforts bore small fruits, with Nibelungenwerke being able to increase production by 20 Tanks/month, however, this would later be stifled by reducing tank production in favour of StuG IVs and JPz. IVs. Further development of the Panzer IV led to the Ausf.H version. There is a misconception about the difference between it and the Ausf.G, commonly attributed to the barrel length. In reality, late production Ausf.G’s used the same KwK.40 L/48, and were identical to Ausf.H’s. One would be forgiven for asking “why bother changing the designation?”. Source s : TE - Panzer IV Ausf.H

Type 4 Ke-Nu

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Japanese Goblin Historical Overview: Since the Ha-Go was still under-gunned after the failure of the Type 3 Ke-Ri, an attempt was made to rectify the issue of the turret being too cramped. The solution it seemed, was rather simple, instead of re-fitting the Ha-Go with just 57mm Type 90/97 gun, the engineers at Mitsubishi simply took the turrets of Old Chi-Ha’s and placed them onto the Ha-Go hull. Since the Chi-Ha had been designed around the 57mm in the first place, this solved the cramped turret issue, and came with the added benefit of improved turret armour. However, the weight would once again creep up as a result of this, from early prototypes weighing in at 6.5 Tons, to Production models coming in at 7.4 Tons, the Ke-Nu would become slightly overweight at 8.4 Tons, reducing its top speed from 45km/h to 40km/h. Around 100 Ha-Go’s would be converted to Ke-Nu's between 1944 and 1945, though would see limited action only in Manchuria. Source s : TE - Type 95 Ha-Go Wikipedia - Type 4 Ke-Nu