Weird Hybrid

This would have made an excellent candidate for the quiz section. According to the caption of the picture it is an "Experimental T.24 with German 12 ton half-track suspension, 1941". Weird in more than one way as, to my knowledge anyway, the first pilot models of the T24 ( the T24 was standaridized as the M24 Chaffee in case anyone wonders ) wasn´t produced until 1943. This is the first WWII American-German hybrid I have ever heard about.

 

Yuck!!! It looks terrible!

 

WOW!


(sorry, that is all that I can say right now. I am totally amazed )

 

a funny looking tanks

 

It looks fake. The lighting looks different between the tracks and the turret.

 

No, I don´t think the photo is a fake. It is scanned from a publication made in the early seventies, so it´s definitely not a computer made scam. It´s not a high quality photo to begin with, and it has been slightly distorted by the scan.

 

Maybe not. I know the Maultier was a real big vehicle but not bigger than a Chaffee. The proportions are just too far off. Maybe its a fluke of the print like you said. Maybe it just looks strange.

 

Photographs can be faked without a computer.

 

It could be fake, but what would be the use of faking such a pic?

 

In any case the date 1941 is suspicious. And it looks like those Sd.Kfz. wheels are a model, look at the absence of any wear or damage.

 

Why fake any pic? Why is there a faked picture of a Ramtiger in a Soviet tank park?
Mischief?

 

I don´t think the photo is a fake.

1. The date : I think the date is just a typo. Why would an article about the M24 Chaffee which itself quite correctly states that the T24 pilot model first emerged in 1943 in a caption to a picture claim that it existed two years earlier ?

2. The size of the track compared to the size of the tank : I´ve compared pictures of the SdKfz 8 to pictures of the M24 and the tracks from the SdKfz 8 looks to be large enough for the M24 to me. The SdKfz 8 is huge and the M24 is not the biggest tank ever built.

3. The absence of wear and/or damage : This is an experimental prototype. It probably didn´t see much use at all, and the photo might have been taken before any testing was carried out. Compare this photo to photos of other prototypes and pilot models.

4. The light : The photo has been distorted. Look how the gun barrel vanishes into thin air. What appears to be light might just be distortions to the negative/print.

5. The article and the source of the photo : The article was printed in AFV Profiles No.46, 1972, and is written by Colonel Robert J. Icks. I believe the photo was from the authors own collection which is now in the ownership of the Patton Museum ( the Icks collection ).

6. Compare the tracks in the photo of the T24 to how the tracks look on a SdKfz 8. Notice how both the drive sprocket and the idler wheel have been lifted to fit the M24 hull and is in a different position compared to how they were fitted to the SdKfz 8. IF this photo is a fake, then somebody has really made an effort. Why ?

I rest my case...

 

One question.
Why did they make such a vehicle?

Yes, to test out the feasibility of the German suspension, but why with a Chaffee hull & turret - a tank itself under testing?
Why not on an appropriately weighted experimental hull, or the hull of an existing design?

 

Well, that still doesn't answer the question of why the American testing outfit ever fitted Sd.Kfz wheels to a Chaffee. This tank had perfect Christie suspension giving it a good top speed and mobility; why try a different (worse yet: enemy!) system?

 

Maybe the object under evaluation was not the T24/M24, but the suspension from the SdKfz 8 ?

 

Again - why use the Chaffee hull, especially as the suspension needed modification. Why not just either use the original German vehicle or a test rig.
It seems like a silly diversion of resources from an ongoing test program.
(yes - I will allow that this kind of silliness did happen... )

 

I can´t answer any of your questions I´m afraid, as the article doesn´t say anything about it ( which is why I started this thread in the first place ) . But the reasons to why they fitted the tracks from the SdKfz 8 to the T24 has nothing to do with authenticity of the picture, has it ?

 

Well yeah. If there is no real reason why anyone would make this hybrid, odds are higher that the picture is a fake. I don't see any reason to build this thing so I believe this is some modeller's joke or what. However, your source seems reliable so I don't know what to think.

 

I have gone through my books again, and I´m beginning to think that the picture is taken after the war, maybe as late as 1951. M24s were used for several experiments during this period, and perhaps our vehicle was a low budget solution to testing inter-leaved road wheels ?

 

Ah, a tank to fight the wee people!