In this regard, and reasoning about alternative options
in technology, as well as in history in general, they train logic, benefit consciousness in future decisions.
Per se. (Sergey)
Tanks of alternative history. Don't be surprised: in 2015, the covers of the American magazine Popular Mechanics became the subject of Tom Burns's doctoral dissertation submitted to the Texas Institute of Technology. It was titled very remarkably: "Useful Fiction: How Popular Mechanics Increases Technological Literacy Through Magazine Cover Illustrations." Burns successfully defended his dissertation and proved that, yes, looking at bright illustrations, mostly in red, fantastic cars depicted on them, people think that … "this is possible" or, on the contrary, they think "why is it impossible", but in both cases they develop and train their imagination and imagination.
In 1902, based on the experience of the war with the Boers, the Englishman Roberton Simms proposed and built a large four-wheeled armored car with powerful armament, which consisted of Maxim's 37-mm cannon "pom-pom" and two machine guns. Engine power 16 hp with. was clearly insufficient, however, the car could still drive on the road. It was planned to place the armament on it in two swivel towers, but the armament installed behind the shields was considered temporary.
It is interesting that if the designer had guessed to put the hulls of his armored car on the tracked chassis of the Holt tractor, then all the glory of the creator of the world's first tank would go to him. Moreover, his "tank" could well have been used at the initial stage of the First World War. But the hull from above would have to be covered with a "roof" with a slope in both directions (so that the German grenades would roll off it!) And slots for the towers.
Mendeleev's tank
Some VO readers who commented on the material "Russian tanks from an alternative reality" remembered "Mendeleev's tank" (naturally, not a father, but a son), and they wanted to consider it as a possible candidate for promising Russian tanks. But no! In no reality would such a scenario simply not work.
The tank was designed to be very heavy, the gun on it was too powerful, the engine was too weak, so if it were built, it would not even budge.
In addition, it had a completely unfortunate bow design. Its shape was such that he could not overcome vertical obstacles. In short, it was pure fantasy.
Although, yes, on the cover of Popular Mechanics magazine, if he got there, it would look very impressive, and I would even say … exciting, especially if the artist had drawn it correctly. And whether he went or not, it would not matter. Let the experts deal with this. For ordinary people, this is the tenth thing.
But it would be possible to strengthen the armament of the British (and American tank) MkVIII without any problems.
For example, in the following way: by installing an English 83, 8-mm field cannon in the bow semicircular sponson, and machine-gun turrets from the British Austin armored cars on the side sponsons. Having cut through the "windows" in the side walls of the caterpillar bypass, it was possible to very seriously increase the firing sector from the bottom. And the presence of 8 onboard machine guns, 4 of which could also shoot back and forth, would significantly increase its firepower.
Accordingly, the armament of the French SA.1 "Schneider" tank could also be strengthened. It would be enough to widen it a little, and place 75-mm infantry guns in sponsons along the sides. Such a tank "If" (from the English "if" - "if") in any case would remain bad. But, at least, I would shoot at the enemy more often.
Porokhovshchikov's all-terrain vehicle
And, of course, how not to remember the good old "All-terrain vehicle" Porokhovshchikov in this regard.
By the way, the fate of the inventor was tragic. And he suffered not from inert tsarism, which hindered the development of domestic engineering, but from the state of workers and peasants, for which, at the end of his career, Porokhovshchikov already created projects for the White Sea Canal, sitting in a concentration camp. He was then released to be arrested again in October 1940. Well, they shot him as an enemy of the people after the start of the Great Patriotic War, on July 28, 1941.
They were shot, but then canonized during the years of struggle for priorities in all spheres of life, when Russia turned out to be the homeland of steam and gasoline engines, a rolling mill and an electric arc lamp, a balloon and an all-metal airship, a helicopter and an airplane, a telegraph and a tram, a bicycle and a caterpillar tractor, announcing in 1949 its creator the world's first "working tank".
But here everything, however, is very simple. To become such in practice, and not on paper, Soviet editions, "Vezdekhod" did not need much. Namely: two tracks and space inside for two people - the driver and the gunner in the tower. Well, how such an "all-terrain vehicle" could look like, and with minimal deviations from the basic model, is clearly seen in the figure given here.
It is worth noting here that even the efforts of solid engineering teams sometimes cannot create something more perfect that only one person can come up with.
This was the case, for example, with Walter Christie's tank. After all, he tried to sell it to the US government and sold it in the end, but it was never accepted into service. But … the American military understood that he had great potential. And therefore, in order not to pay Christie, specialists from the State Department of Armaments tried to create their own model of such a tank. And as a result, they created the T4, T4E1, T4E2 tanks, and then the "T7 cavalry tank on the basis of the standard M2 tank, but with a wheeled-tracked chassis with cast" rubber "and on automobile" pneumatics ". And nothing came of them in the end. Better than what Christie himself once did, they never managed to create!
But the one who could really turn around with alternative armored vehicles was the German designers during the Second World War. Yes, they created many adopted models that successfully (or not too successfully) fought, but, besides them, there was also a phenomenally large number of machine projects, many of which existed only in drawings, some in the form of wooden models, and some - in metal.
For example, the FAMO Pz. III tank. A chassis with staggered wheels of designer Heinrich Ernst Kniepkamp was installed on it. They tried it, but did not release it in this form. We installed such a chassis on the Tiger and Panther.
Numerous experiments were carried out in Germany and with the armament of tanks and self-propelled guns.
In particular, a wooden mock-up of the Pz. IV tank was created with a very unusual set of weapons: a 30-mm autocannon and two (on the sides of the turret) 75-mm recoilless guns with revolving drum loading. In theory, he could shoot at the armor targets with two shells at once, using a 30-mm cannon for zeroing, and shoot quickly, firing shell after shell. But … something went wrong with this "special tank".
It would seem that having an excellent Panther tank, German designers should have calmed down and put all their efforts into making its production even more widespread. But no! They literally flooded the Arms Directorate with projects of a wide variety of combat vehicles on its chassis. Moreover, they probably understood, or, in any case, should have understood that Germany simply did not have enough time, raw materials, or labor to produce them.
But nevertheless, they continued to create and build wooden models, and some experimental machines even managed to be made in metal. Well, if all this was ordered by the military to engineers, it is completely beyond the bounds of probability, because they should have known what exactly they need for the war.
Drawings by A. Sheps.
