Swedish tanks part 27: Strv m/42-57 alt A.2.

Author SP15

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The Strv m/42-57 was just revealed as the first Swedish tank to be added to WoT and with these news I couldn’t help but write a short article on the matter. I have been working on a Swedish tree for three years now yet this came as a complete surprise to me. The Strv m/42-57 is one of those vehicles I have only briefly mentioned before in my strv 74 article, its a premium candidate I have never thought too much about. But there was something special about getting to see it for real in the game. I have also seen some confusion about this vehicle so I thought it would be a nice idea to give you a historical overview to try and clear some things up.

History


In the spring of 1954 the Swedish army were looking at options to upgrade their existing tanks. The adoption of the Centurion Mk.3 a year earlier had thrown a wrench into the plans of tank acquisition for the foreseeable future. This had caused a last minute cancellation of negotiations for the purchase and license production of 400 AMX 13 light tanks. With only 240 Centurion tanks available there was a need to come up with something to fill the gap until more could be purchased. There had already been attempts with re-arming earlier tanks, but these had been underpowered. With the Centurion now taking up the Strv m/42’s role it was decided to switch the re-arming efforts to the m/42 instead.

Earlier projects
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On the 15th of February 1954 army representatives met with engineer’s at Landsverk to discuss the possibility of rebuilding the Strv m/42. The army required that as much as possible of the original tank would be retained while the armament changed to a version of the Lvkan m/36-37 anti aircraft gun, this while keeping a maximum weight of 24 tons. Some changes were however to be made such as reinforcement of the suspension and changes to the steering gear. On the 18th discussions continued, this time with the different alternatives for upgunning as the main subject. Alternatives A.1. trough A.3. represented different turret configurations. There was also considerations for rebuilding the vehicles as TD’s in the same style as the Pvkv m/43, this was known as alternative B. These options were meant to be ready for production by 1957 and the rebuild program was thus called Strv m/42-57.

Alternative A.1.
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This was the conventional turret. This configuration would be able to keep the 15dg gun depression of the original turret while in theory at least keeping the same protection. This was the army’s preffered choice, and would eventually become the Strv 74.

Alternative A.3.
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This represented the “delat torn” (divided turret) concept developed and trialed in the mid to late 40’s by Sweden. Essentially the turret would be split into two half’s with a mechanically loaded gun in the middle. This was considered to be the worst alternative.

Alternative A.2.
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The alt A.2. represented the option of mounting a AMX type turret on the Strv m/42. This oscillating design would allow for a lighter turret with better stabilization. It’s main drawback compared to the conventional design was the worse frontal protection, and a drastic reduction in gun depression compared to the original turret. Ultimately concerns about the cost of having to change turret ring diameter meant that this alternative was not chosen.

In WoT

While im excited to see the first Swedish tank getting added to the game it is clear that there are problems with the vehicle. Though I want to state that all hard stats (armor, penetration, horsepower) are correct as far as I can tell. The model quality is also very good.

Currently there are some major problems with the Strv m/42-57. Going by the hard stats alone its a underwhelming vehicle. The low mobility and lack of armor means that the firepower must really compensate for these flaws, however currently this is simply not the case. The gun has mostly decent stats but what really lets it down is a laughably bad damage output of only 1300 DPM. This is 700! less damage per minute compared to the Cromwell. Something also needs to be said for the small magazine size of the autoloader and long reload time between shells, which means this vehicle does not even get a significant burst damage advantage either.

Keep in mind that these early supertest stats are subject to change. But I wanted to draw attention to them anyway since they really need to be addressed. In any case I do hope WG takes their time to work out these issues, and I do hope you enjoyed reading. If you did there is plenty more to come. In fact there is another article already on its way which will cover the Swedish light/medium line.

Source(s):
http://tanks.mod16.org/2013/11/23/meeti … -strv-m42/
http://tanks.mod16.org/2013/11/23/alter … -strv-m42/

See also:

STRV M / 42-57 ALT A.2. : STATS, SCREENSHOTS & VIDEO

 

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Swedish tanks part 27: Strv m/42-57 alt A.2.

33 thoughts on “Swedish tanks part 27: Strv m/42-57 alt A.2.

  1. everything is bad at first… worlds first computer, huge, bad… give it time for WG to polish this tank out in SuperTest… its going to be a niche medium no matter what they do, but it should be able to do its “niche” moderately well…

    1. sp15 says:

      Yeah i hope so. We will just have to wait and see. Although there are plenty of tanks that have gone trough supertest and still been bad.

      1. Terminus says:

        reload rait and drum reload (if they go with the auto loader) are often the most tweeked stats coming out of testing usually, i think this tank stand a good chance of being a pretty solid premium if its going to have the Tier VII 13 75s gun, I think morso then just this tank alone we can begin to speculate the characteristics of the swedish medium tree possibly by example of the A.2

    2. SMGJohn says:

      First computer was actually quit good for what it was intended for, it was a polished produced before being put into practise unlike what WG is known for.

  2. ndiver says:

    I don’t speak Swedish, but i saw in the documents that there is also an Alternativ B. concerning this tank. What was it?

    1. sp15 says:

      ” There was also considerations for rebuilding the vehicles as TD’s in the same style as the Pvkv m/43, this was known as alternative B”

      1. ndiver says:

        I just realized it as written in the text, but i missed it. Thanks for the explanation 🙂

  3. Is it just me or im seeying an AMX 57 and some mix of French and German tanks??.

    Anyway i was saying it back and would say it again. WG should make hybrid Polish / Israel tree because before ww2 there were many Jews in Poland (many talented constructors too) and Poland got low-mid tier constructions while Israel got high tier constructions, some of them probably made from same technicans.

    1. Anonymous says:

      Just one problem here…even if WG a very long time ago removed “WW2 tank game” from the description, it is still mostly base about that era. Israel didn’t exist as a nation during that time. Israel didn’t construct own designs until way later. Tanks prior to that were mainly US, UK and French types, also most in original design.

      The modified versions of the original tanks (ie. M4 versions M-50/51 etc.) suits better imho as premium tanks. Same thing with other modified versions. Own designs didn’t appear until late 1970s, which is waaay too late for this game.

      Finally, all nations are still based around the WW2 era. Poland would work, but as i said Israel didn’t exist until 1948 and wasn’t part of WW2 anyhow.

  4. Anonymous says:

    i admire that you ‘worked’ on your Swedish project for three years. it is still War Gamings game and last i checked they havent gone prat on their ‘historical accuracy’ card as of late. i imagine it will become harder and harder to remain truly historical as the tanks they introduce are from late-era tanks which they initially set out to

    1. Terminus says:

      More often then not these first tanks are ment as crew trainers for the tree that will come behind it, Does this signal that most of the high tier mediums in the swedish tred will be 3 man crews? That obv fits the bill of the strv.103 but will it work with the other tanks in the medium line?

      1. sp15 says:

        Replied to the wrong guy, but in any case this might be less of a crew trainer than it might seem for the near future anyway.

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