Tankettes

The size of weapon brings up some problems too - here is a great picture of the French UE being used by the Germans as a launcher for the 2.8/3.2 cm artillery rockets!

Not sure if it then becomes an SPG instead of a tankette or not - if we aren't careful about including conversions then a lot of tank destroyers become tankettes, which I don't think is right? Although if we include anything that was clearly a tankette in the original version then the whole genre becomes much more deadly and effective!

(also the Renault UE was primarily an unarmed tractor also so that damages one of my previous definitions if we want to include it, which I think we have to)

 

that's tricky, maybe we shouldn't include light armament as a req for a tankette, although it does certainly change it's role from reconnaissance to something else. The definition might solely then be based on weight.

 

I don't fully understand this hunt for a definition, though Wiki's is as good as any:

'Sub-light' seems good enough to me. The only reason for the 'Tankette' term to exist in the first place is likely the rather whimsical turn of phrase of Martel and his contemporaries.

 

My two cents
A tankette should have some sort of armament (No Renault UE at least in it's basic form) and not just slits for crew personal weapons
It should have an enclosed crew compartment (no carriers)
It should no weight more than 5 tonns
Il should not have heavy armour (say > 3cm plates)
It should have a crew of one or two
It must be fully tracked, additional alternative weels are ok 1/2 tracks no.

 

I would say that Muss just said everything in the top post guys
And I wouldn't count Goliath into a tankette, no way. The goliath is just a remote controlled bomb.
Ok, what about the russian T-27 ? Great tankette.

 

You're all right - we have maybe exhausted the definition discussion for now.

Interesting pic of a Carden Loyd MkVI in Japanese service (Type88) - shows the CL's really got everywhere

 

Oh and also here's the Renault UE in it's proposed armed version

 

That Renault UE looks just wicked!

 

Another early prototype - the Alvis Straussler (called a light tank incidentally) but i don't believe any were ever armed.

If anyone has any more info i'd love to hear - it's possible this was developed for the Hungarians but can't find any positive notes on that

 

That one is a bit strange too. The Austrian ADMK Wheel-cum-Track Tankette "Mulus".

 

That is one odd-looking vehicle! Quick google search shows 1.56 tons- wow, seems rather on the heavy side for such a small vehicle.

Wonder if some of them were ever used as ad-hoc tank destroyers, as I've seen with some other similar small vehicles. Strap on a couple panzerschreks, and bam, improvised and entirely odd TD!

:cheers:

 

Here's a picture of the mulus mounted with a machine gun - not found any dressed up as a tank destroyer but i bet they were at some point.

 

And heres some Thai VCL tankettes armed with the QF 2-lb anti aircraft gun, which must make them some of the most unusually armed ones around

 

Anyone got any information about this one? Apparently it was called the T17, Russian but that's as much as I could find

 

And a couple more photos of the Straussler - apparently it was a Hungarian prototype

 

That Straussler looks great!
Nigel, cheers for all the infos and feedback!

 

Thanks for starting the thread Alex - Heres a selection of some of the Czech tankettes - i'm surprised none of these went further than a few models.

As far as i can figure these are the P1 and the T1 and the Si-T1 although it's not totally clear from what i could find which is which. (don't take the picture titles as gospel!)

 

The P1 and T1 [first two pics ? ] look allot like Polish TK's in design, but their armament looks better. The T1 has two MG's, which is great. The third one Si-T1 reminds me allot of CV 33!

 

Agreed. The 2 mg concept is a bit odd i think - after all they went from 1-man tankettes to 2 man because the 1 guy couldn't drive and shoot at the same time - maybe they figured the driver at least had a gun to shoot when they were parked, which makes it seem much more a defensive design. I think the Italians had a better solution with the CV-33 giving the gunner control of both guns?

 

Turns out the Straussler did get armed - I think it loses the tankette classification