German BT-42 – New tier 5 German light tank in WoT 1.23.1
The BT-42 is a premium German light tank that will be available for testing in random mode by developers and supertesters in the next update 1.23.1.
Historical references
This tank has a fascinating history and design that dates back to the World War II era. The Finnish army captured about 20 Soviet BT-7 light tanks that were in good technical condition in the fall of 1941. They decided to use them for their own benefit and started a program to modernize them and convert them into self-propelled artillery units in the spring of 1942. They worked hard on the project and finished the first samples in September 1942. They gave the new vehicle the name BT-42. They converted 18 tanks in total from 1942 to 1943.
The main changes involved the turret. They fitted it with a British 4.5-inch (114 mm) field howitzer of the 1909–1917 model, which had a mantlet and a muzzle brake of the original Finnish design. These features made the vehicle more powerful and accurate. These assault guns saw their first combat action in the fall of 1943, when they shelled Soviet positions on the southern bank of the Svir River. They proved to be effective in this role. However, by January 1, 1945, only ten BT-42s remained in the Finnish army. They had already retired them from service and moved them to training units. They did not see any more action in the war. In the late 1950s, they scrapped these vehicles and they became history.
BT-42 – full preliminary stats – 100% crew
FIREPOWER
- DAMAGE 370/370/440 HP
- ARMOR PENETRATION 105/125/57 mm
- SHELL VELOCITY 357/357/357 m/s
- RELOAD TIME 10.64 s
- ROF 5.64
- Average damage per minute 1 (AP) projectile: from 2490 to 2086
- Average DPM 2 (APCS) projectile: from 2490 to 2086
- Average DPM 3 (HE) projectile: from 2961 to 2481
- AIMING TIME 2.7 S
- DISPERSION AT 100 M 0.55 M
- GUN ELEVATION ANGLE -5/25 deg
- AMMO CAPACITY 50 pcs
MOBILITY
- MAXIMUM FORWARD/ BACKWARD SPEED 52/23 km/h
- Movement spread (max): from 0.16 (8.32) to 0.20 (10.40)
- Wheel spread (max): from 0.16 (7.68) to 0.20 (9.60)
- POWER 500 h.p.
- SPECIFIC POWER 33.3 h.p./t
- WEIGHT 15t
- HULL TRAVERSE SPEED 46 deg/s
- TURRET TRAVERSE SPEED 14 deg./s
SURVIVABILITY
- TOTAL HIT POINTS 590 HP
- HULL ARMOR 20/19/13 rnm
- TURRET ARMOR 16/16/16 MM
- VIEW RANGE 360 m
- SIGNAL RANGE 300 m
source – wotexpress eu
