Stranger Than Fiction Armor

[cyberia]

From the files of the incredibly strange in armor warfare comes this little beauty...

The Ball Tank Concept

The "Ball Tank" was a concept from an engineer in Texas, United States.
The above drawing was featured in the July 1936 issue of Popular Science Magazine. The Ball Tank was described a high-speed "tumbleweed tank" with a spherical hollow steel driving cab, enclosed by a rotating outer shell. The inventor stated that the tank’s spherical shape presented the "smallest possible target for enemy bombs or shells, and all but direct hits would glance off its curved sides."

Far fetched? Well the photos below indicate some one took the design serious.

The Tank Ball Reality

Very little is known about this WWII "spherical droid" - captured on the Eastern Front (in Manchuria) in 1945 and currently on display in Military Museum in Kubinka, Russia. The Soviets claimed it was German built, although no proof has ever been offered and no explanation what German equipment, however weird, was doing in Manchuria.

The Tank Ball shown above had 5mm armor protection, driver's cab and was powered by a two-stroke one-cylinder engine. Conjecture is this machine was used as a reconnaissance vehicle, but no proof of that exists either.

You can't make this stuff up.

[Jim O]

Interesting. But again, if of German origin, what was it doing in Manchuria unless sent in pieces via U-Boat.

Do you have any technical specs on the device and the engine?

[cyberia]

Originally Posted by Jim O

Interesting. But again, if of German origin, what was it doing in Manchuria unless sent in pieces via U-Boat.

Do you have any technical specs on the device and the engine?

I wish, Jim. Everything that is thus far known about it, or at least admitted to, I posted.

Just makes the story that much stranger, Huh?

The only thing I can make out as far as markings is what appears to be a small plate on the front below the eye slit. But that could be museum applied.

There will be more really strange stuff coming.

[cyberia]

War Tank on One Wheel

Although there is no attribution, we can only guess this came to us from the same guy who dreamt up the Tank Ball.

From Popular Science Magazine, November 1933 - "Housed inside the armored body, the operator will steer the single main wheel by means of two small auxiliary wheels at the rear... by attaching propelling fins to the main wheel, the tank can be turned into an amphibian capable of plunging into a stream... As the tank rushes upon a trench or obstruction, the operator will drop the tubes so they dig into the earth and the whole machine will vault through the air to the other side! Without the armored body or the crutches, it is designed for highway use."

I saw something like this on South Park, only with a few extra "features".

[Jim O]

It's a big armored tricycle!

[cyberia]

Originally Posted by Jim O

It's a big armored tricycle!

With crutches!

[lufttiger]

Some people with creative minds.

[cyberia]

From the Land of the Rising Sun we have this unique specimen:

The Japanese "Horned" Flamethrower...
I kid you not!

Horned Flamethrower

When this vehicle was found abandoned in northern Luzon US Marines wondered if they had to fight it would they have needed a bazooka or red cape.

Inspection showed this the hull of this Japanese full-tracked, armored vehicle
was constructed in 1939, but that the interior parts, such as the flame-throwing equipment and the motor, were built in 1940 and 1941.

With an over-all length of 19 1/2 feet, and width of 7 feet, the vehicle was approximately 5 feet high. This low silhouette was broken only by a small "conning tower" which rose about 5 inches above the otherwise completely flat top. Perhaps the most outstanding feature, which was found on some of the vehicles, is a horn-like fork arranged over the tracks on each side of the tank front. These forks, gave the tank a weird and distinct appearance and were presumably intended for uprooting mines or tearing down barbed wire in advance of the tank.

The armament examined was not particularly formidable, consisting of two Type 97 7.7-mm tank machine guns in addition to the flame-throwing apparatus.

The vehicle was entered by two hatches—one in the top of the conning tower, and the other on top of the tank hull at the right rear corner.
The thickest armor plate—1 inch—was found on the front surface of the tank hull, while the sides, rear, and engine covers were 1/2 inch thick. The hatch covers and the top armor, except for the engine covers, were only 1/4 inch thick. This hull armor has the appearance of being face hardened.

This tank, unlike other Japanese models, was mounted on a leaf-spring suspension, with four springs on each side of the tank hull, mounted in pairs parallel with the length of the vehicle. Each side of the tank had eight boggie wheels mounted in pairs, two pairs on each end of a pair of leaf springs. The drive sprocket is at the rear of the tank, and the idler wheel at the front.

The tank was powered by an air-cooled, 6-cylinder, in-line, Diesel engine. Highest reading on the speedometer was approximately 25 miles per hour, indicating a top speed somewhere under that figure.



[Side view of the flame-thrower tank which mounts five flame guns.]

[lufttiger]

The Devil Tank!

[Panzermacher]

I first saw that tank...and thought of the game "Warhammer 40k"