Totschka's - Tank Turret Emplacements

[therantingsavant]

Just something to get the conversation started:

https://therantingsavant.blogspot.com/2019/03/tanker-tots-summary-vehicle-card-for.html

Old tank turrets (in this case a WW2 era T-34 turret) used as stationery emplacements by the depleted forces of the Twilight World.

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fRMK4t9JqXc/XHn580DBJAI/AAAAAAAABOs/RK3jcGDGw7wF152HDA04bHjOVulJXMYgwCLcBGAs/s1600/T-34%2BTOT%2BPanzerstellung.png

[Raellus]

Very nice work, Rantingsavant. Whenever/wherever the Soviets have more functioning excavation equipment and concrete than operational tank chassis, I suspect you'd find these- especially in defensive belts. I've featured plenty of disabled, hull-down MBTs in my campaigns, but I never thought to include any Totschkas. I will definitely keep this in mind for the future.

[Vespers War]

Very well done.

Another thing that might happen is the reintroduction of Fahrpanzers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrpanzer). These were late 19th-century light artillery pieces fitted into steel turrets with an iron cylinder for the two-person crew to sit in. The assembly was transported on carts between protective bunkers and concrete emplacements that left only the thick dome exposed, with the thinner cylinder behind the concrete, with either horses or narrow-gauge locomotives pulling the carts. There are some good drawings of how they were emplaced here (https://www.deviantart.com/wingsofwrath/art/FNG-Fortified-Line-Plate-I-525467838) and here (https://www.deviantart.com/wingsofwrath/art/FNG-Fortified-Line-Plate-III-525638811). Being able to shift and protect light artillery and heavy machineguns could be useful for cantonments.

[lordroel]

Just something to get the conversation started:


Nice work.

If i remember correctly, Austria also used turrets like this.

[Legbreaker]

Soviets were just continuing to do what everyone else had been doing for years. https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=14464
Interesting to note that hatches were not sealed, but used as originally intended to help maximise visibility.
Also, power isn't required to traverse the turret, it can be done manually, albeit somewhat slower than electrically/hydraulically. That actually gives me another idea - an alternate power source could easily be substituted in a static position - steam, water, man/animal power could all be employed to charge an accumulator.
https://youtu.be/aKmi0PN7LxM?t=502
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accumulator_(energy)

[therantingsavant]

Thanks for the comments all!


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[Gelrir]

Very interesting stuff, good work. There are (in real life) hundreds ... thousands? ... of World War 2 and Cold War tank turrets scattered around the Balkans in bunkers, or with the hull buried in the soil.

The electrical power requirements seem a bit high, though. A 60,000 watt night vision system ... the "active" part must be very active indeed.

I don't know how much electrical power is needed to run a turret traverse system, but this document would put it in the "under 10 kilowatts" category:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiP5fPoyoXhAhUDcq0KHQXgDh0QFjAEegQIBBAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublications.drdo.gov.in%2Fojs%2 Findex.php%2Fdsj%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F2051%2F108 4&usg=AOvVaw3mueLbNcuoQQvZA84Da0MZ

Second World War Soviet tanks mostly used electrical power for coarse traverse, manual cranking for fine traverse.

http://www.allworldwars.com/T-34%20Tank%20Service%20Manual.html

Apparently the auxiliary motor used on Panzer IV tanks drove a 2000 watt generator. Sherman tanks had a 1500 watt auxiliary generator, which weighed 63 kg and used 1.9 liters of gasoline (mixed with oil -- they were two-cycle engines) per hour. The Abrams eventually had various APU between 6 and 10 kilowatt output (apparently they originally were without one, and depended on battery power).

http://marvinland.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2018/09/Abrams-M1-APU.pdf


Again, I'm not sure exactly how well the auxiliary generator supports acceptably speedy turret traverse, along with radios, etc. but I imagine it's "in the ballpark". I know that some of the WW2 German tanks needed the main engine to "speed up" to traverse their turrets more rapidly ...

The big xenon searchlights that could be mounted on M48 tanks were 2200 to 2500 watts (sources vary a bit). I don't know about the power draws of Soviet IR equipment, but I doubt it exceeds a few kilowatts.

--
Michael B.

[therantingsavant]

Wow thanks Michael these are really useful links/articles - I’ll go back and correct the Vehicle Card and then repost it to the blog!

I really did guess to be honest so it’s great to have feedback and people adding their two cents and resources.

Finding weights of tank turrets is proving tricky - the M1 series weigh at least 20 tons as opposed to the generally lighter Soviet turrets (manageable with their engineering vehicles).





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[therantingsavant]

See above

[rcaf_777]

Found thses

[Vespers War]

I'm coming back to this because I found a useful article (https://erenow.net/ww/tank-turret-fortifications/8.php) discussing post-WW2 use of tank turrets in static defenses. Some that are mentioned would have almost certainly still been in use during the Twilight War, such as Austria's M47 and Centurion turrets that were in use in the late 1990s, Denmark's Centurion turrets that were scrapped under the CFE Treaty, Finland's T-54 and T-55 turrets that were installed in the mid-1980s, Italy's Sherman and Pershing turrets that started being scrapped in 1992, and the Soviets having various IS-series and T-54/55 turrets in static defenses until the late 1990s.

[James1978]

I came across a page with some pictures of the construction of one of the Swiss Centurion turret bunkers. The Swiss started building them from 1990.

I'd guess that in a world where the Cold War kept going and the entire world saw what PGMs could do in Desert Storm, anyone who built new tank turret fortifications would build ones more like the Swiss ones that just a turret sticking out of the ground.

LINK (https://www.fwk.ch/fotos/varia/centurion-bunkerbau/)
More Pictures (https://www.festung-oberland.ch/dossier/waffen/105-cm-centi-bunker/)