Posts Tagged: 1951
Rebuilding strv m/41 into a TD
This document (dated 1951-01-20) discusses different possible way of rebuilding obsolete strv m/41 (license-built Czech TNH) into a tank destroyer armed with a modified 7,5 cm lvkan m/37 AA gun, which has very similar ballistics to the regular 7,5 cm pvkan m/43. Both turreted and fixed gun installations are discussed.
Archive reference: SE/KrA/0062/D/01/016:H/F I/24
The beginnings of project EMIL
I’ve previously posted about project EMIL here; more specifically, a complete project summary with contents from various times during the project’s life. These 1951 documents however mark the very start of the project, suggesting that KAFT put six people to work for about a year in order to develop the project a loose idea to reasonably complete plans for a tank. There’s nothing new specs-wise here, just some project history.
Archive reference: SE/KrA/0062/D/01/016:H/F I/24
Minutes of meeting at Bofors 1951-05-30
Minutes of a meeting held at Bofors on May 30th and 31st 1951, regarding current projects. Most interestingly, a “new tank gun” is discussed, with some different alternatives presented.
Archive reference: SE/KrA/0062/D/01/016:H/F I/24
Report on current anti-tank weapons and development trends (1951)
This FOA report (dated 1951-01-23) summarizes the current state of anti-tank weaponry in the world, as well as current development trends. It contains some discussion on whether future anti-tank weapons should be based on kinetic projectiles or HEAT, and finds that in either case, the current Swedish anti-tank weapons are completely insufficient to fight current Russian tanks.
Contains penetration data for number of Swedish weapons (such as 37 mm pvkan m/37, 57 mm pvkan m/43, 7,5 cm strvkan m/41 and 7,5 cm pvkan m/43).
Archive reference: SE/KrA/0062/D/01/016:H/F I/24
Aberdeen Proving Grounds test report for an AMX-13 prototype
A report in English from the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, covering their initial evaluation of what seems to be an AMX-13 prototype (the report just calls it “French light tank”). Original project number is TT 2-674.
The report seems to have wandered a long and winding road to end up in the archive where I found it. It’s originally dated 1951-02-17, and mentions that the testing was done in October to December of 1950. Somehow, it then ends up in the Top Secret (“kvalificerat hemligt”, of particular importance to the safety of the realm, cannot be shown to anyone without the approval of the head of the Department of Defense) archive of the Swedish Royal Army Ordnance Administration, the Vehicle Bureau, in late November of 1951. It sits there for a few years until it’s eventually downgraded to “regular” secret and discussed at the Vehicle Bureau in October of 1958, and that’s where I found it.
The photo appendices are sadly of a very bad quality; they seem to have copied them using some arcane machine that gave terrible quality. Appendices D, E and G are missing, either because they were illegible because of said copying machine, or because they weren’t included in the archive.
Archive reference: SE/KrA/0266/002/01:H/F I/19