• 4 months ago
In this episode we take a look at Czechoslovakian vehicles, such as the Lt vz.34, PUV-6, M53/59 Praga and many more!

Vehicles in this episode
Introduction 00:00
Lt vz.34: 06:31
Lt vz.35: 11:13
Lt vz.38: 15:05
T-54 (Czech variants): 19:24
S3 Light SPG/PUV-6: 21:26
M53/59 Praga (Added in Sky Guardians update): 25:33
ST vz.39/V-8-H: 29:09
Conclusion: 33:07

International Tank Tech Tree series
Argentinian Tanks: https://youtu.be/Z6p0kXANlrI
Austrian Tanks: https://youtu.be/cha99aucLPY
Australian Tanks: https://youtu.be/Z-P0xkdHQZQ
Belgian Tanks: https://youtu.be/IPUmZ1TFaIs
Canadian Tanks: https://youtu.be/dlkyfIcukqs
Czechoslovakian Tanks: https://youtu.be/OgGtRi07OIM
Egyptian Tanks: https://youtu.be/TXeQki7i854
Finnish Tanks: https://youtu.be/1SzQl9kRQiE

Sources:
Bishop, C (2000) WWII: The Directory of Weapons. London, Greenwich Editions
Hoggs, I.V. and Weeks, J. (1980) The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Military Vehicles. London, Quarto Publishing Limited
Askey, N. (2013) Operation Barbarossa: the Complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis, and Military Simulation Volume I or Operation Barbarossa: the Complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis, and Military Simulation Volume IIA. United States, Lulu Publishing, Pages 63-64
Bishop, C. (1999) The Directory of Modern Military Weapons. London, Greenwich Editions, Page 141
http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/czech/Skoda_CKD_LT-Vz-35.php
http://www.achtungpanzer.com/panzerkampfwagen-35t.htm
http://www.aviarmor.net/tww2/tanks/czech/skoda_puv6.htm
http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/08/22/skoda-praga-sp-iib/

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Game: War Thunder ⬅️

#warthunder #czechoslovakia #czech #tanks #toreno
Transcript
00:00Hello everybody, Toreno here, and welcome to this much delayed episode of my proposed
00:04International Tank Tech Tree series. I haven't actually recorded one of these in a while.
00:10The simple reason was I went on holiday, got back, and I've just been really busy since
00:15I've been back, since August really, just haven't had time to really sit down and record
00:19a whole episode. I do apologise for that. This episode, like I said, I was busy, so
00:25it's sort of been recorded over the past month or so, you know, just when I've got a few
00:29minutes here and there. You can probably tell from some parts of the episodes, because unfortunately
00:33I did have a bit of a cold while recording some of it. Just to get a little bit of housekeeping
00:38out of the way before we get onto the episode proper, I've started making some changes to
00:42the tech tree. As you can see, I've actually started making them into proper folders. You
00:47can see here the L180 folder, and it's got all the L180 variants, some of the R35, Panhard
00:54EBR, 75mm variants, all in a folder. It makes it look a lot more neater. We've also got
01:01the new news that tanks are going to be going up to the 1970s, I believe it is, and planes
01:07are going to be going up to the 1960s. That was something we found out, I think, in August
01:12or early September. Obviously I started this tech tree quite a while ago, so obviously
01:18I've missed out on some of the earlier countries, vehicles that they could have had. For example,
01:24Austria could have had a tank destroyer, Belgium could have had a 90mm armoured car,
01:29Canada probably could have had some vehicles. I'll probably start introducing the more modern
01:34vehicles from the next episode onwards, so with Egypt. All the tanks from Czechoslovakia
01:40and before are still going to be to the old standards, only up to the 1960s or 50s I think
01:46it was, which is unfortunate, but I will go over those new tanks that could be added for
01:52the countries before Egypt in another episode. Let's get on to the episode, which as tradition
02:01starts with a bit of background history of the country we're looking at, which is Czechoslovakia.
02:07During the time period of War Thunder, which starts with vehicles from the 1930s, Czechoslovakia
02:12was quite a young country. It was only formed at the end of World War I, out of the ruins
02:17of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and it lasted till the 1990s when it finally became the Czech
02:23Republic and Slovakia. You still get some people who call it Czechoslovakia for some reason,
02:29but it was quite a powerful country because when it was formed it had quite a lot of the industry
02:33from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which obviously made it quite powerful and gave it quite a big
02:38arms industry, and this by extension gave Czechoslovakia the resources needed to produce
02:44tanks, and they did produce quite good tanks. Well, there were some designs that weren't that
02:48great, but on the whole they were generally good, decent designs. If we go to the LTVZ folder here,
02:54the LTVZ-35 and the LTVZ-38 are already in game as the Panzer 35t and the Panzer 38t,
03:02and they're pretty good tanks. They're only tier one, but you know, for the time they were actually
03:07in service, they were about the equivalent of the Panzer III, I believe, and could hold their own
03:11against most allied tanks. The Panzer 38t was actually developed quite a lot. It's the basis
03:18of the Hetzer, which was in service right up until the end of the war. It was even in service after
03:23the war, so they did build a pretty good design, which admittedly that wasn't as a gun tank as the
03:29Hetzer, but you know, it was a long-lived design, and remember they only were designing tanks up to
03:351938, because Czechoslovakia was of course occupied before the war. As part of the Munich
03:41Agreement, Czechoslovakia had to give up a big chunk of the country, because the allied nations
03:48basically hoped Hitler would just sort of give up, or at the very least they'd get a chance to rearm,
03:54and Czechoslovakia unfortunately was kind of thrown under the bus and suffered quite a bit
03:59because of the occupation. They didn't occupy the whole country in one go, the Germans waited
04:06until 1939 to occupy the rest of the country, and obviously Czechoslovakia remained occupied
04:12until the end of the war. The actual initial occupation, I don't think there was much fighting,
04:16except at, my apologies if I mispronounce this, Czechoslovakian barracks, where about 250
04:24Czechoslovakian soldiers held out against 1,200 Germans, suffering two wounded while
04:30killing numerous Germans in return. After this much, Czech equipment was taken by the Germans,
04:36as mentioned earlier, and used in the German army. The Czech resistance groups were also active
04:41during this time, which led to quite bad reprisals by the Germans, resulting in thousands of deaths.
04:47Czechoslovakians also fought alongside the allied armies during World War II, and
04:52eventually Czechoslovakia was liberated by the allied forces, mainly Soviet forces,
04:57though I believe the Americans also took parts of the country at the end of the war,
05:01but ultimately the country, well Czechoslovakia, became influenced by the Soviet Union,
05:07sort of came under their sway, communist government ended up in power, and it became
05:11part of the Warsaw Pact. During the time it was part of the Warsaw Pact, Czechoslovakia was allowed
05:16to produce armoured vehicles, although most of these were to Soviet designs, but they were
05:22allowed to produce a few domestically designed vehicles, one of which we'll see later on,
05:26and things carried on pretty much the same until 1968, when the Prague Spring occurred,
05:32which was basically a period where lots of reforms were passed, such as getting rid of
05:37censorship, which improved freedom of speech and decentralisation of the government,
05:43but unfortunately this kind of annoyed the Soviet Union, and they promptly invaded along with other
05:48Warsaw Pact nations and occupied Czechoslovakia. As a result of this, Czechoslovakia basically
05:54remained part of the Soviet sphere of influence until 1989, with the Velvet Revolution, which
05:59resulted in the communist government being overthrown by the Czechoslovakian people,
06:05and four years later, Czechoslovakia was dissolved, it became the Czech Republic and
06:11Slovakia. Like I said earlier, some people do still seem to think Czechoslovakia is around,
06:17and do refer to Czechoslovakia, but no, it has been dissolved since 1993, it's just the Czech
06:22Republic and Slovakia. So that was just a brief history on Czechoslovakia, so let's get straight
06:28into the episode. Now the first Czechoslovakian vehicle we're going to look at is the LTVZ-34,
06:38which is going to be the beginning of the LTVZ folder in the tech tree. Now as the name suggests,
06:43the LTVZ-34 is the predecessor of the LTVZ-35, which is already in-game slightly modified as
06:50the Panzer 35t, which we'll talk about in a little bit. Now unfortunately I've had to rely
06:56on online sources because my books don't actually list this tank, because it was only built in very
07:01limited numbers and it's kind of overshadowed by the LT35 and the LT38. However, from what I've
07:07read it's actually very similar to the LT35. It has the same gun, but it has less armour,
07:14it only has a maximum of 15mm of armour compared to the LT35's 25, and it's a bit slower. In my
07:22book the LT35's are listed as doing 25mph, the LT34 is listed as doing 19mph. Now like I said,
07:30the LT34 has the same gun as the LT35, so we're going to really quickly go into War Thunder
07:36itself and just check what the stats are for the gun in-game. So here we have the LT35,
07:41or the Panzer 35t as it's called in the game, because this is the captured German variant
07:46with a few minor differences. Now you can see there's four different shells, there's High
07:50Explosive, APCBC, Armour-Piercing-Capped, Ballistic-Capped, APCR and the APC, Armour-Piercing-Capped.
08:01Now three of these, the Armour-Piercing-Capped, APCBC and the High Explosive have the T designation,
08:08which from what I recall is the German designation basically saying Czechoslovakia.
08:13So these three I'm guessing are captured shells. The Panzergrenadier IV, the APCR round,
08:19doesn't have a T designation, so presumably this is something the Germans created themselves.
08:25As this is going to be part of the international tech tree as a Czechoslovakian vehicle,
08:30we probably wouldn't get the Panzergrenadier IV, or the APCR, so it'd probably just be the APC,
08:36APCBC and the High Explosive. Now Armour-Piercing-Capped, Ballistic-Capped,
08:42at 0 degrees 10 metres does 55 millimetres, at 2000 it does 20, so reasonably good.
08:50Armour-Piercing-Capped, now this does at 0 degrees does 47 millimetres at 10 metres,
08:57and 17 at 2000. But as you can see the APCBC round is basically superior to the APC in pretty
09:04much every way, so this would be a reasonably good gun, should be able to deal with, you know,
09:10it's already used on the Panzer 35t, so it should be able to deal with, you know, very early tier
09:15tanks already in the game. Now the last major stat we need to look at is crew, and there was only
09:20three crew. There was a driver, some sort of bound machine gunner or radio operator, and the commander,
09:26who had to aim the gun, load the gun and just generally command the tank.
09:31Now the low amount of crew for the LT34 is a massive disadvantage, because basically the way
09:36kills work in War Thunder Ground Forces, you're counted as killed if there isn't any crew to fill
09:42the driver and the gunner seats at the same time. Obviously you've only got three crewmen as it is,
09:48so one in the gunner seat, one in the driver, so if you lose one of them, you know, you've got
09:54one replacement and that's it. If you lose two crewmen in the same shot, you've basically lost
09:59your tank, well, you know, you're counted as killed. Add to that the thin armor, which is
10:04vulnerable to pretty much all weapons in the game, including the .50 caliber machine gun used on the
10:09American tanks, you know, you've got a pretty easy to knock out tank, although like I said,
10:14it's got a pretty good gun, so that should even the odds a bit. So where would I put this tank in
10:19the tech tree? Well, like I said, it's the predecessor of the LTVZ35, in fact it's the top
10:25of the LTVZ folder, and the tank that comes after it, the LT35, is already in the game as the Panzer
10:3135t, as a battle rating 1.0 tier 1 reserve tank. I presume, well, it would make sense to put this as
10:39a battle rating 1.0 tier 1 tank as well. You could possibly have the LT35 as an additional reserve
10:47tank, or possibly put that at 1.3, may be a little too high for it perhaps, but I don't think it would
10:55do too bad there, but basically 1.0 for this tank I think would be the best place for it. You know,
11:01you'd have to use it for ambushes and flanking shots because it's thin armor, but it's got a
11:08pretty good gun, like I said, the gun's already in game, and I think the tank would be, you know,
11:12pretty good in War Thunder. Now the next tank is the successor of the LTVZ34, the LTVZ35.
11:21Now from what I understand, it did have some problems, technical problems, when it was first
11:25developed. I believe it also had some problems to do with some innovative features, for example
11:31compressed air was used to assist steering and transmission, which didn't particularly work all
11:36that well in the cold, but it's a pretty good tank, and like I said, it's already in War Thunder as
11:41the Panzer 35t, so we're going to quickly look at it in War Thunder. So here you can see the
11:48Panzer 35t, which is the LTVZ35 after the Germans had taken over it and made some modifications,
11:55and it would be quite similar. It would be pretty much the same, you know, pretty much the same
11:59armor. Interestingly, this bit of armor here is actually better than on the Panzer 38t, so you
12:06know, just a fun little tidbit. But there are a few kind of major changes in the inside,
12:12namely to do with the crew and the ammunition. You may remember the LTVZ34 had three crew.
12:18Now here you can see there are four crew on the Panzer 35t, but apparently this wasn't how it was
12:25with the Czech version, like when the Czech Slovakians actually started making it. Apparently
12:31they stuck to the three crew members, with the fourth crew member being added in later on by the
12:37Germans, which led to a reduction of ammo. I didn't know about this, I only found out about it by
12:42mistake, but I did some searching. I found a few different sources. For example, page 63 of
12:49Operation Barbarossa, the complete organizational statistical analysis and military simulation,
12:54volume 2a, Tanks Encyclopedia and OctonPanzer. So I found a few different sites and books that
13:03all kind of suggest, or they state, that basically the fourth crew member was added in later on,
13:09which led to the ammunition being reduced from 78 to 72. And you can see here there are 72 shells,
13:16so that would suggest there is some truth to it. And this would make the LTVZ35
13:24different from the Panzer 35t, because obviously less crew means it's a bit more vulnerable,
13:30which you know, it would mean there is some difference between the LTVZ35 and the Panzer
13:3535t. Not a massive difference, but still, I think it would be nice to have the LTVZ35 in game,
13:43although I could also understand why Gaijin might not add it in, because obviously externally these
13:49tanks are very similar. Well, they are basically the same tanks, just the Panzer 35t's German
13:55service with modifications. So they'd be very, you know, they'd look exactly the same basically,
14:00except for different markings perhaps. That wouldn't be very good for realistic battles or
14:05simulator battles. And just having one less crew member and a few extra shells, Gaijin might think,
14:11you know, isn't worth having it as a separate tank. I would like to see it added in simply
14:17because it is a Czechoslovakian tank, and you know, it would be like adding France in,
14:23but only adding their vehicles as captured vehicles on the German side. But you know,
14:28I would like to see it, but I could understand why it might not be added in. Battle rating,
14:33it's battle rating 1, the Panzer 35t. I did say earlier it could go up to 1.3, the LTVZ35, but
14:41um, well the Panzer 35t could go up to 1.3. The LTVZ35 would probably have to say battle rating
14:481 as well, because it has less crew members. I would like to see the tank added, but I could
14:52understand why, you know, it probably wouldn't be added. But I thought I'd add it on this list,
14:57you know, just so you're aware that there are some differences between the LTVZ35 and the Panzer 35t.
15:06Now the next tank on our list is the LTVZ38, and I'm a little less sure about adding this
15:11into War Thunder as a separate vehicle, because while it was developed by Czechoslovakia,
15:16it was never used by them. It was still in production, maybe a few had got to their units,
15:21but it was never in operational service, and Germany was the main user, so which,
15:27I'm a little bit unsure of adding it as an international tech tree vehicle,
15:31or as part of the Czechoslovakian part of the international tech tree. It could possibly go in
15:36the export slash foreign vehicles category, because it was never really used by Czechoslovakia,
15:43but I've put it here for the moment, because they were the ones who produced and designed it,
15:48and the only other user was the Germans, obviously, who aren't going to be in the
15:52international tech tree particularly. But we'll look at it in War Thunder quickly,
15:57and we'll check the stats of it. So here we have the Panzer 38t, which is the LTVZ38 in German
16:05service, and like I said earlier, well, it's basically the same as it was in Czech service,
16:11well, it wasn't really in Czech service, but like I said earlier with the LTVZ35,
16:17this area is actually weaker on this model, despite it being, you know, the next model,
16:23only 30 millimeters effective thickness compared to something like 60 on the LTVZ35.
16:30I'm not sure why that is. It has a slightly better gun, it's still 37 millimeter, but it's a 38t
16:38rather than 34t. Again, armor-piercing capped shells, and armor-piercing capped ballistic
16:43capped. The APC shell at 0 degrees 10 meters does 59 millimeters penetration at 2021. APCBC
16:5310 meters 0 degrees to 68 millimeters and at 2000 to 25. Again, I don't think we'd get the
16:59Panzer Grenadier 40 because that does seem to be a German shell, although it's also the most
17:05effective shell. But again, the Panzer 38t, or the LTVZ38, sorry, is different in that it should,
17:14again, only have three crewmen. Again, I've got that information from Operation Barbarossa to
17:22Complete Organization Statistical Analysis Military Simulation Volume 2A, page 64,
17:29which states that three ammunition bins were removed to make room for the extra loader.
17:35And again, I can't remember exactly, but I think the three ammunition bins being removed equals
17:42about 18 shells being removed, which in Czech service it would have about 108 shells. So again,
17:51more ammo and, you know, it would have one less crewman, which would make it technically more
17:56vulnerable. And again, while I would like to see it added, I could understand why Gaijin might not
18:02have it added, because again, it looks pretty similar. Well, it's basically the same tank,
18:07but without German modifications. It would look extremely similar to the Panzer 38t.
18:14If we look at information quickly, yeah, the information doesn't seem to show any external
18:20changes, although it says there's increased armor of the ball mount machine gun and different
18:26radios, which again, won't affect us. So the tank would, you know, they'd look pretty identical,
18:32the tanks would. So it would cause a lot of friendly fire incidents. While I would like to
18:38see the tank added, I could completely understand why Gaijin might decide not to add it, because it
18:43would cause, you know, too many problems and it's not different enough. But I thought I'd add it
18:47here just in case, even if it's used as a event vehicle, you know, that would be quite good,
18:54you know, a limited edition event vehicle or something. And again, battle rating 1.3 seems
19:01about the right place for it, not, can't really see it being any higher than that. And yeah,
19:06like I said, I wouldn't mind it being added into the game, but I could completely understand why
19:11Gaijin might not. But I thought I'd add it to the list again, just so you was aware that the Panzer
19:1638T and the LTVZ 38 aren't, you know, exactly the same tanks, or they're the same tanks, but they
19:22have, you know, they do have differences. Now the next potential vehicle or two I'm not really sure
19:29about, it's T-54s that were built in Czechoslovakia, and they are the T-54A and T-54AR.
19:37Now usually for vehicles that are from other countries, I'd put it in the foreign slash export
19:42slash lend-lease category, but these were actually built in Czechoslovakia and had
19:47Czechoslovakian modifications, so it kind of makes sense to put it in the Czechoslovakian
19:52tank category. However, there's only really two variants that make sense, the T-54A and the T-54AR,
20:00and unfortunately they're not really that different from the main Soviet T-54. The modifications on
20:06the T-54A, for example, are mainly to do with the engine access and reducing track shredding,
20:11and the T-54AR is basically a T-54A with a folding snorkel for going under rivers,
20:18which would be quite good if you could, you know, just go under rivers or under the lake
20:23component or something, but, you know, it's not really that practical and it's not really that
20:27different from the T-54A. Although, interestingly, on the German tech tree, the Panzer III M,
20:33according to the description in-game, is a Panzer III L with waterproofing as well, so
20:39there is a precedent for just creating new tanks with really minor differences,
20:44such as, you know, being able to go under rivers and such. So, I'm not really sure if these tanks
20:50should be added into the game because, obviously, they are basically the same as the T-54A already
20:56in-game, although it would perhaps be good if you had some sort of Warsaw Pact versus NATO
21:02situation, you know, you're not going to have any chance of friendly fire because, presumably,
21:06the Czechoslovakians would be on the same side. The battle rating would presumably be the same as
21:12the T-54-1951, which I think is battle rating 8 at the minute, although I know they're going
21:17to be changing them in a week or two, so that might be changed. But, yeah, I suppose these
21:22could be considered for being added in, but not a massively high priority, if I'm honest.
21:27Now, this next vehicle caused me a whole heap of trouble trying to find any information about it.
21:32All I could find was the information in my book, the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Military Vehicles,
21:39which stated it was called the S3 light self-propelled gun, and there was three variants
21:43of it, a 37mm gun, 66mm gun variant, and a 37.2mm gun variant. But I did some looking online,
21:53and completely by fluke, I managed to find the exact same picture, and it turns out my book was
21:59basically completely wrong. It was made in 1980, so they probably didn't have access to the archives,
22:05had the wrong information, but it was actually called the PUV-6. Unfortunately, I had to rely on
22:12online sources, but the online sources, FVArmor.net and the For The Record blog, state that it used a
22:1970mm, uh, 70mm, uh, Skoda Z140mm anti-aircraft gun, with a length 71 barrel, which could fire
22:28shells at a thousand meters a second, uh, 40 rounds per minute. They also state it was supposed to be
22:34used as a dual-purpose weapon against aircraft and ground targets, and as such, at 2,500 meters,
22:40could actually penetrate 32mm of armor. The Bofor 40mm gun, in-game, uh, with armor-piercing
22:47tracer shell, um, can penetrate 24mm at 2,000 meters, but has a muzzle velocity of only 874,
22:56so it's possible they said one could penetrate about 30mm at 2,500 meters.
23:01However, the gun had some problems, I'm not entirely sure, but apparently it was quite
23:06inaccurate, and the PUV-6 itself was very unreliable, um, so the gun was never adopted,
23:12and the PUV-6 just remained a one-off prototype. As you can probably guess from the picture,
23:17it didn't have that much armor, only something like 10-12mm of armor, um, speed was about 25
23:23miles per hour, and crew, I think, was about five or six. So, where would this vehicle go in the
23:28tech tree? Uh, well, the variants in my book, I'm not really going to deal with in great detail,
23:32because I think the book's got it wrong, I don't think they particularly existed, but,
23:36uh, just while I'm talking about it, I would put the 37mm at battle rating 2-1, Tier 1.
23:42The 66mm gun variant, I believe the 66mm gun was a K-10 or K-16, a gun used by the Austro-Hungarian
23:50Navy, fired a 4.5kg armor-piercing shell at about 880m a second, so probably Tier 3-2,
23:59uh, not sure on battle rating, because I don't know the, uh, effect on armor it would have,
24:04uh, but the actual anti-aircraft gun, the PUV-6, which I believe did exist,
24:10well, it's actually really hard to tell, um, the actual vehicle suggests to me Tier 1-2,
24:17because it's a pre-war vehicle, but the gun is actually better than most of the Bofors guns
24:22already in-game. Indeed, the only vehicles in War Thunder that really have similar penetration,
24:28uh, with regards to self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicles is the Kugelblitz at battle rating 7,
24:32the ZSU-37 at battle rating 4.7, and the ZSU-57 at, um, 7.7. Um, the ZSU-37 would probably be
24:44the nearest sort of thing, and that's at Tier 4, um, so I'm really undecided. I suppose Tier 3,
24:50because it was actually meant as a dual-purpose weapon, so could fill a sort of, um, tank destroyer
24:56role as well, but honestly it's quite hard to decide where it should go, but I think in the
25:01end it either has to go in the self-propelled anti-aircraft line at Tier 3, battle rating 4-4.7,
25:07where it won't do too effectively against ground vehicles, you know, but will still
25:11stand a bit of a chance, or it can go in the premium line, um, you know, as a premium, and
25:16honestly I'm not sure how else to do it. It would be nice to see this vehicle added in,
25:21it's quite an unusual vehicle, uh, spent a long time trying to find any information about it.
25:26Hopefully it helps anyone else who's looking for information on it, and, you know, I think
25:30it would be a nice unusual vehicle to have in the game. Now, the next vehicle we're looking at is
25:35the M53-59, which is a Czechoslovakian self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle built after
25:41World War II. It's armed with two 30mm cannons, and these have a theoretical fire rate of about
25:47450 to 500 rounds per gun, with a practical rate of fire of about 150 rounds per gun,
25:55because once you take into account reloading and such. According to my book and online sources,
26:01it could carry between 600 and 900 rounds of 30mm ammunition, and it carried two types,
26:07armour-piercing incendiary and high-explosive incendiary. The armour-piercing incendiary can
26:12penetrate 55mm of armour at 500 metres, uh, it's got a muzzle velocity of about 1000 metres a
26:19second, and it can fire its shells to about 6300 metres, although I believe the actual effective,
26:25um, range is about half of that, so about 3000 metres. Moving on to armour, uh, my books and,
26:32uh, online sources don't really say how thick the armour was, but, um, quoting from my book
26:36The Directory of Modern Military Weapons, uh, the engine is at the front of the vehicle and
26:40provided with full armour protection from shell splinters and small arms fire. Unquote. The only
26:46other information on the armour in my book is that it was an armoured cab, so presumably, uh,
26:52protected from shell splinters and small arms fire, like with around the engine, and that there
26:57was an armoured shutter that would be pulled down during combat in front of the windscreen to
27:01protect the driver and the commander. The maximum road speed was about 37mph, uh, it would have been
27:07a lot slower cross-country, in fact my book actually specifically mentions that it had quite
27:11bad cross-country mobility. Um, crew, uh, my book says there's six crew, and some of the online
27:17sources say there were four. My book The Directory of Modern Military Weapons says, quote,
27:23the driver's seated on the left and the commander on the right, and that the latter has a hemispherical
27:28plexiglass cupola in the cab roof for all-round observation. Unquote. Uh, you can sort of see the
27:33cupola at the, um, right of the cabin. It then goes on to say, quote, to the rear of the commander
27:39and driver are the two ammunition members who sit facing the rear. Unquote. So the book's presumably
27:44on the assumption that there's four people in the cabin and two people on the gun, um,
27:49while the online sources seem to suggest that they're all in the cabin and they only go onto
27:53the gun when the actual fighting starts. Uh, the book sounds a bit more sensible for in-combat
28:00situations, but again I could be completely wrong. So we know there's at least four crew,
28:05presumably up to six though. It would make sense to have two ammunition people to actually help
28:10with loading the gun. Uh, you know, I can't see the gunners being able to do that all on their own
28:15while actually firing the gun as well. Though of course I'm not an expert self-propelled anti-aircraft
28:20vehicle, so I could be completely wrong. Um, so where would I put this about rating and tiering
28:25wise? Uh, we would have to go tier five because it has a decent rate of fire, I think. Um, again,
28:31depends on the reload rate. Gaijin might have different sources that suggest a different rate
28:35of fire when taking reloading into account. It'd probably be about rating, I don't know,
28:41seven to eight? I don't know. Compared to other tier five self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicles,
28:46it would be quite a small caliber weapon used on the vehicle, but ultimately I think rate of fire
28:52is going to be more important at that tier because you're going to be dealing with quite fast jets.
28:57It could go down to tier four if needed, although it would be a bit weird having a post-war vehicle
29:01at that, um, tier. Um, but honestly I think this would be a very nice vehicle to have for
29:06Czechoslovakia and nice, a nice vehicle to have in the game in general. Now the next vehicle we're
29:12looking at is a tier one premium, the STV Z-39, which was a prototype Czechoslovakian medium tank.
29:20I've also seen it referred to as the V-8H. Um, I don't know if that's because it's a prototype and
29:24it got a different designation when it was ordered into production, uh, but I'll refer to it as the
29:29STV Z-39. Um, and I've had to rely on online sources a bit, well mostly, because none of my
29:35books really list it because it's a prototype vehicle that was never put into mass production.
29:41And as far as I'm aware, all the sources agree it used a 47 millimeter gun. Unfortunately they
29:46disagree whether it used an A-9 or an A-11. Unfortunately there's not a lot of information
29:52about the 47 millimeter guns online. However the Panzerjäger I, a German tank destroyer,
29:59did use a 47 millimeter Czech gun and according to tanksencyclopedia.com at about 500 meters it
30:06could penetrate about 45 to 50 millimeters of armor. Now it's possible the 47 millimeter gun
30:12on the Panzerjäger I isn't the same one put in the STV Z-39 because Czechoslovakia did build
30:18more traditional anti-tank guns, the 47 millimeters. However it does tally up with
30:23some penetration statistics I've seen by, um, Silentstalk on the For the Record blog for the
30:28A-9 gun. So it's possible some of these were put on the Panzerjäger I. Um, even if it's not, um,
30:35I think it gives us a rough ballpark at least on how effective the tank would be. Of course it
30:40depends on whether it got the A-9 or the A-11. I actually did a bit more reading up and apparently
30:45it was meant to have the A-9 but then they started testing the A-11 and that was found
30:49to be superior but they just didn't get time to put it on the tank or the tank was never actually
30:54put into production. Production was cancelled or never started but so it could, so it could
30:59theoretically have both guns but it was only fitted with one to my knowledge. The maximum
31:04armor I believe is about 32 millimeters which is an improvement on the LTV Z-38 which I believe
31:09is about, well in-game it's 25 millimeters maximum, 15 millimeters minimum. I'm guessing
31:15minimum armor would be around that, about around that, um, thickness as well though I can't confirm
31:20it 100 percent. According to aviarmor.net the maximum road speed is about 27 miles per hour.
31:27Doesn't say what it would be, uh, cross-country which would presumably be slower. Interestingly
31:32the crew is actually four. Um, if I'm looking at Aviarmor again it says that there was a driver,
31:38gunner, commander and radio telegraphist with the driver and the wireless operator telegraphist
31:44being in the hull and the gunner and commander being in the turret. So they did actually start
31:50adding additional people into the turret with this design. You may recall in the earlier designs
31:54there was only one person in the turret who was in charge of operating the gun, loading it and
31:59commanding the tank. So, um, obviously they seem to have actually started adding extra personnel
32:06into the turret. Um, where would I put this tier in battle rating wise? I've put it up in a premium
32:12category because only one or two of these were actually made. Um, tier one, tier one seems the
32:19most sensible place to put it. Probably battle rating 2.3 or 2. Um, if I put it any higher than
32:27that it's going to start going against T-34s and Shermans. Um, as it is the M3 Lee is 2.7 so,
32:34you know, 2, 2.3 so it could occasionally see those vehicles but mainly lower tier vehicles.
32:40But, you know, I think that would be a good place for it about 2, 2.3. So hopefully this tank can be
32:46added into the game or into the tech tree. Um, like I said I've put it as a premium because there are
32:51lots of Czechoslovakian vehicles and only one or two of these were actually built. Um, but I think
32:56it gives the Czechoslovakian part of the tech tree, you know, a good, um, tank for, um, against some of
33:02the tougher enemies and I think it would be a good addition into War Thunder. So now that we've
33:07looked at Czechoslovakian tanks where would Czechoslovakia itself fit in with regards to
33:12events? Well the main event I can think of is Czechoslovakia v Germany in 1938. Uh, perhaps the
33:19Munich agreement is not signed and all the allied nations team up to take down Germany along with
33:24Czechoslovakia. Perhaps the Munich agreement is signed but Czechoslovakia fights back,
33:29perhaps on its own or with Soviet support. Remember Germany would be very limited in what
33:34tanks it could use as well. Uh, at the time they only had a few Panzer IVs and Panzer IIIs
33:39and a lot of these would have been prototypes so they wouldn't be too effective and they would,
33:44you know, they were very early variants. It would be mainly Panzer IIs against LTVZ
33:4934s and 35s as well as maybe a few LTVZ 38s and, you know, a smattering of other vehicles.
34:00It would be a very even fight and I think Czechoslovakia would do very well in this event.
34:04In NATO vs Warsaw Pact events you could also put Czechoslovakian vehicles as part of the Warsaw
34:10Pact to give more variety amongst that faction. Um, you could possibly add the Prague Spring.
34:17As far as I'm aware it was mostly non-violent resistance at the time. I suppose you could do
34:22an alternate reality where the Czechoslovakians fought back but then it is going to be mostly
34:28with Soviet vehicles and it could get very confusing. Plus I think it would probably
34:33involve a lot of vehicles that haven't actually been added in game yet. Uh, the Prague Spring
34:37taking place in 1968 so you would have Soviet forces with the T-62 and T-64 against Czechoslovakian
34:44forces armed with T-55s and whatever else they can find really. But there was just some ideas
34:51of events that could be added for Czechoslovakia. I think Czechoslovakia would be very good in
34:56War Thunder. I think that you could get some good Czechoslovakian themed events for War Thunder
35:01and I do hope the nation and the vehicles which were part of Czechoslovakia can be added into
35:06War Thunder or vehicles that were already in War Thunder under other nations can have a chance to
35:11serve under a Czechoslovakian flag so to speak. But anyway that's it for this episode. Again
35:17apologies for it taking so long to be released. As you can see the next episode will be about
35:21Egypt or Egyptian tanks. You can see there's only two there at the moment. I might be able
35:26to get one or two extra ones in there but I think it's going to be quite a short episode.
35:30Again apologies in advance for that. But anyway I hope you enjoyed the episode. Leave a like if you
35:35did. Subscribe if you like these sorts of videos. Leave feedback. Could always do with more feedback.
35:40And yeah thanks for watching. I'll see you next time. Also if you enjoyed that episode then don't
35:46forget to click the links to check out my other proposed tank tech tree series for War Thunder.

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