Hello everyone, I have been researching the Belgian T-13 Self-Propelled Gun and I cannot seem to locate the elevation of the main 47mm Canon, now I am sure that this gun would be derived from the 47mm FRC anti-tank gun, and the elevation of the FRC is -3° to +20°, so would this apply to the one mounted on the T-13?, and if so would this also apply to the three variants? (B1, B2 & B3). Thank you for any help. Yan.
the 47 Mm cannon (Nicknamed the "Quatre-Sept" in the Belgian troops) was an anti-tank weapon. Did you notice that in the T13, when the Army wanted to acquire this kind of armor, the politician agreed the buy only if able to fire to the back only? (the politician made an assumption that we just needed a defensive army ... so, if it had been able to shoot on the fore side, it would have been deemed "an offensive weapon"!). The fact is that when modified with the turret and the cannon, the weight was far to high, and that was felt during the 18 day campaign: our troops had to abandon many of them due to transmission failure... hubbar49
There is one surviving one in the Belgium Tank Museum in the Royal Army and Military History Museum, Jubelpark 3. Brussels. http://belgian-tankmuseum.be/index.php/en/ They should be able to answer his question about the elevation of the cannon. Photos: http://tank-photographs.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/belgium-1940-carden-loyd-t13-b2-tank.html
I know, not the Belgian T13 (which I have an odd soft spot for), but I pottered again onto a nice glimpse of the other T13 here, US Trackless Tank concept: http://www.britishpathe.com/video/innovations-for-the-u-s-army
It was all about how other nations viewed your political stance; a nation with a numerically large army, and VERY recently declaring itself Neutral...had to appear to be Neutral Belgium actually had the "largest" land army in Europe in terms of the number of reservists in the army vs. the total population...especially after the disaster of WWI that Belgium experienced...and its sudden volte-face as a result of the (defence) budget crisis in 1935/36 from being a full partner in the Locarno pact to being a declared Neutral meant that everyone around them were closely watching their degree of Neutrality.
