Hungarian medium tank 40M Turán I The license for a light tank was obtained from the Swedish Landsverk uniform. The same company was asked to develop a medium tank. The company did not cope with the task and in August 1940 the Hungarians stopped all contacts with her. They tried to find a license in Germany, for which a Hungarian military delegation went there in April 1939. In December, the Germans were even asked to simply sell 180 T-IV medium tanks of the Second World War for 27 million marks, however, they were refused even to provide at least one tank as a sample. At that time, too few Pz.Kpfw IV tanks were produced, and the war was already underway and a “blitzkrieg” was ahead in France. Negotiations with Italy for the sale of the M13/40 medium tank dragged on and, although a prototype was ready for shipment in August 1940, the Hungarian government had already acquired a license from the Czech company Skoda. Moreover, the Germans themselves sent Hungarian specialists to the factories of the already occupied Czechoslovakia. In February 1940, the High Command of the Wehrmacht Ground Forces (OKH) agreed to the sale of an experienced Czech T-21 tank and licenses for its production. Medium Tank T-21 "Turan I". History of creation. Back in 1938, two Czechoslovak tank-building firms - ČKD in Prague and Skoda in Pilsen came up with projects for a medium tank. They were branded V-8-H and S-III, respectively. The military gave preference to the CKD project, giving the future tank the army designation LT-39. The designers of the Škoda plant nevertheless decided to beat the competition and began work on a new S-IIc medium tank, later called the T-21. It was essentially a development of the famous 1935 S-IIa (or LT-35) light tank. The Hungarian military got acquainted with this machine in March 1939, when they occupied Czechoslovakia together with the Germans. By collusion with the German leadership, the Hungarians were given the eastern part of the country - Transcarpathia. There, two damaged LT-35 tanks were captured. The Hungarians liked them very much. And the Skoda, now working for the Germans, found an almost completed sample of a medium tank T-35 similar to the LT-21 (at least in terms of the chassis). In favor of the T-21, experts from the Institute of Military Equipment (IVT) spoke out. The Skoda management promised to hand over a prototype to the Hungarians at the beginning of 1940. Tank LT-35 The Hungarian Ministry of Defense was thinking about buying 180 tanks from the company. But Skoda was then busy fulfilling orders from the Wehrmacht, and the Germans were not at all interested in the T-21 tank. In April 1940, a military delegation went to Pilsen to receive an exemplary copy, which on June 3, 1940 was taken by train from Pilsen. On June 10, the tank arrived in Budapest at the disposal of the IWT. Its engineers preferred to equip the tank with a Hungarian 40 mm gun instead of the 47 mm Czech A11 gun that was supposed to be. The Hungarian cannon was adapted for installation in experimental tank V.4... T-21 tests were completed on July 10 in the presence of Defense Secretary General Barty. It was recommended to increase the thickness of the armor to 35 mm, install Hungarian machine guns, equip the tank with a commander's cupola and make a number of minor improvements. In accordance with German views, three crew members were to be accommodated in the tank turret: the tank commander (completely exempt from gun maintenance for his direct duties: target selection and indication, radio communications, command), gun gunner, loader. The tower of the Czech tank was designed for two people. The tank was to receive a carbureted eight-cylinder Z-TURAN engine from the Manfred Weiss plant. On July 11, the tank was shown to the directors and representatives of the factories that were to build it. Hungarian tank "Turan I" Click image for larger version The final license agreement was signed on August 7th. November 28 medium tank 40.M. "Turan" was adopted. But even earlier, on September 19, the Ministry of Defense issued an order for 230 tanks to four factories with distribution by factories: Manfred Weiss and MV 70 each, MAVAG - 40, Ganz - 50. Performance characteristics Hungarian tanks Toldi-1   "Toldi" I Year of construction 1940 Combat weight, t 8,5 Crew. 3 Body length, mm 4750 Length with gun forward, mm   Width 2140 Height, mm 1870 Reservations, mm   Body forehead 13 Hull board 13 Tower forehead (deckhouse) 13 + 20 Roof and bottom of the hull 6 weaponry   Gun brand 36.M Caliber in mm / barrel length in calibers 20/82 Ammunition shots   The number and caliber (in mm) of machine guns 1-8,0 Anti-aircraft machine gun — Ammunition for machine guns, cartridges   Engine, type, brand carb. “Busing Nag” L8V/36TR Motor Power, hp 155 Top speed km / h 50 Fuel capacity, l 253 Range on the highway, km 220 Average ground pressure, kg / cm2 0,62 Toldi-2   “Toldi” II Year of construction 1941 Combat weight, t 9,3 Crew. 3 Body length, mm 4750 Length with gun forward, mm   Width 2140 Height, mm 1870 Reservations, mm   Body forehead 23-33 Hull board 13 Tower forehead (deckhouse) 13 + 20 Roof and bottom of the hull 6-10 weaponry   Gun brand 42.M Caliber in mm / barrel length in calibers 40/45 Ammunition shots 54 The number and caliber (in mm) of machine guns 1-8,0 Anti-aircraft machine gun — Ammunition for machine guns, cartridges   Engine, type, brand carb. “Busing Nag” L8V/36TR Motor Power, hp 155 Top speed km / h 47 Fuel capacity, l 253 Range on the highway, km 220 Average ground pressure, kg / cm2 0,68 Turan-1   "Turan" I Year of construction 1942 Combat weight, t 18,2 Crew. 5 Body length, mm 5500 Length with gun forward, mm   Width 2440 Height, mm 2390 Reservations, mm   Body forehead 50 (60) Hull board 25 Tower forehead (deckhouse) 50 (60) Roof and bottom of the hull 8-25 weaponry   Gun brand 41.M Caliber in mm / barrel length in calibers 40/51 Ammunition shots 101 The number and caliber (in mm) of machine guns 2-8,0 Anti-aircraft machine gun — Ammunition for machine guns, cartridges   Engine, type, brand Z-TURAN carb. Z-TURAN Motor Power, hp 260 Top speed km / h 47 Fuel capacity, l 265 Range on the highway, km 165 Average ground pressure, kg / cm2 0,61 Turan-2   "Turan" II Year of construction 1943 Combat weight, t 19,2 Crew. 5 Body length, mm 5500 Length with gun forward, mm   Width 2440 Height, mm 2430 Reservations, mm   Body forehead 50 Hull board 25 Tower forehead (deckhouse)   Roof and bottom of the hull 8-25 weaponry   Gun brand 41.M Caliber in mm / barrel length in calibers 75/25 Ammunition shots 56 The number and caliber (in mm) of machine guns 2-8,0 Anti-aircraft machine gun — Ammunition for machine guns, cartridges 1800 Engine, type, brand Z-TURAN carb. Z-TURAN Motor Power, hp 260 Top speed km / h 43 Fuel capacity, l 265 Range on the highway, km 150 Average ground pressure, kg / cm2 0,69 T-21   T-21 Year of construction 1940 Combat weight, t 16,7 Crew. 4 Body length, mm 5500 Length with gun forward, mm 5500 Width 2350 Height, mm 2390 Reservations, mm   Body forehead 30 Hull board 25 Tower forehead (deckhouse)   Roof and bottom of the hull   weaponry   Gun brand A-9 Caliber in mm / barrel length in calibers 47 Ammunition shots   The number and caliber (in mm) of machine guns 2-7,92 Anti-aircraft machine gun — Ammunition for machine guns, cartridges   Engine, type, brand Carb. Skoda V-8 Motor Power, hp 240 Top speed km / h 50 Fuel capacity, l   Range on the highway, km   Average ground pressure, kg / cm2 0,58 The layout of the tank "Turan I" Click on the image to enlarge 1 - installation of a course machine gun and optical sight; 2 - observation devices; 3 - fuel tank; 4 - engine; 5 - gearbox; 6 - swing mechanism; 7 - lever of the mechanical (backup) drive of the swing mechanism; 8 - gear shift lever; 9 - pneumatic cylinder of the tank control system; 10 - lever of the drive of the swing mechanism with a pneumatic booster; 11 - machine gun embrasure; 12 - driver's inspection hatch; 13 - accelerator pedal; 14 - brake pedal; 15 - pedal of the main clutch; 16 - turret rotation mechanism; 17 - gun embrasure. Turan basically retained the layout of the T-21. The armament, ammunition and its packing, the engine cooling system (as well as the engine itself) were changed, armor was strengthened, optical instruments and communications were installed. The commander's cupola has been changed. The Turana 41.M gun was developed by MAVAG on the basis of the 37.M 37.M tank gun designed for the V.4 tank, the Hungarian anti-tank gun (which in turn was an alteration of the German 37-mm PAK 35/36 anti-tank gun) and Skoda licenses for the 40 mm A17 tank gun. For the Turan cannon, ammunition for the 40-mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun could be used. Machine guns 34./40.A.M. "Gebauer" company "Danuvia" with air-cooled barrel tape power placed in the tower and in the frontal hull plate. Their barrels were protected by thick armor casings. Armor plates were connected with rivets or bolts. Click on the photo of the tank "Turan" to enlarge Tank "Turan" during the crossing. 2nd Panzer Division. Poland, 1944 "Turan I" from the 2nd Panzer Division. Eastern Front, April 1944 The eight-cylinder engine for Turan was produced by the Manfred Weiss plant. It provided the tank with quite decent speed and good mobility. The chassis retained the features of the distant “ancestor” of the S-IIa light tank. The track rollers are interlocked in carts of four (two pairs on their balancers) with a common horizontal leaf spring as an elastic element. Driving wheels - rear location. The manual transmission had 6 speeds (3 × 2) forward and reverse. The gearbox and the single-stage planetary rotation mechanism were controlled by pneumatic servo drives. This facilitated the efforts of the driver and reduced his fatigue. There was also a duplicated mechanical (manual) drive. The brakes were both on the driving and on the guide wheels and had servo drives, duplicated by a mechanical drive. The tank was equipped with six prismatic (periscopic) observation devices on the roof of the tower and commander's cupola and on the roof of the front of the hull (for the driver and machine gunner). In addition, the driver also had a viewing slot with a triplex in the front vertical wall, and the machine gunner had an optical sight protected by an armor casing. The gunner had a small rangefinder. All tanks were equipped with R/5a type radios. Since 1944, "Turans" received 8-mm screens against cumulative projectiles, hung from the sides of the hull and turret. Commander's variant 40.M. “Turan” I R.K. at the cost of some reduction in ammunition received an additional transceiver R / 4T. Her antenna was installed at the rear of the tower. The first Turan I tanks left the Manfred Weiss factory in April 1942. Until May 1944, a total of 285 Turan I tanks were produced, namely: in 1942 - 158; in 1943 - 111; in 1944 - 16 tanks. The largest monthly production was recorded in July and September 1942 - 24 tanks. By factories, the distribution of built cars looked like this: “Manfred Weiss” - 70, “Magyar wagon” - 82, “Ganz” - 74, MAVAG - 59 units. Sources: M. B. Baryatinsky. Tanks of Honvedsheg. (Armored Collection No. 3 (60) - 2005); I.P.Shmelev. Armored vehicles of Hungary (1940-1945); G.L. Kholyavsky "The Complete Encyclopedia of World Tanks 1915 - 2000"; George Forty. World War Two Tanks; Attila Bonhardt-Gyula-Sárhidai László Winkler: The armament of the Royal Hungarian Army.