The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

You can see this as a follow up on The Coffee drinkers arsenal: Swedish weapons during WW2

But this time, with vehicles!

Tanks

Stridsvagn fm/21
http://www.pansarmuseet.se/21-7.jpg
Sweden bought several (10 to be precise) of these tanks in secret from germany after WW1, they where shipped in parts, and built up in sweden.
Even though the tank only served in the swedish army until 1939, thus not during the WW2, the fm/21 was a basis for another tank:

Stridsvagn m/21-29
http://www.pansarmuseet.se/21-2.jpg
5 of the 10 fm/21 tanks were modified and modernized, with a new engine and lights. However, the m/21-29. all these five served until 1939 when the war broke out.

Tankett Carden-Loyd Mk. V
(I just "had" to show this one)
http://www.pansarmuseet.se/CL5-1.JPG
A Tankette used to tow a 37mm AT-cannon. This is said to be the only example ever produced. The creators of the tankette, Vickers-Armstrong, were asked about it, they said that they had never seen anything about it, neither photos, plans or anything else.

Tankett Carden-Loyd Mk. VI
http://www.pansarmuseet.se/CL6-1.JPG
This was just like the Mk. V used to tow a 37mm cannon. but it was later used to mount a 57mm recoilless rifle as can be seen on the picture in my following post



Stridsvagn fm/31

This tank was developed in 1931 and was at that time an incredible modern tank. This was because it had both wheels and tracks, the change from tracks to wheels could be done in 30 seconds, and even while it was on the move. However this quickly became outdated, and having both wheels and tracks proved to be very expensive. so the concept of wheels/tracks were abandoned.

You can see it mounted on wheels in my following post

Stridsvagn m/37

In 1936, the swedish army had a total of 10 tanks, all of these were outdated. And since germany was building up their army, sweden was in need of new armor.
The solution was to buy 48 examples of the czeckoslovakian tank AH-IV-S. These were all produced in sweden and done by may 1939.

Stridsvagn m/39

This tank was basically an updated version of the m/38. it had thicker armor, the machineguns have been moved to the right side of the main gun, making the tank-commander reloader of both the machineguns and the main gun (as well as commander of course). A small hole was also added in the front, allowing one crewmember to fire a submachinegun out the fron of the tank, this proved however to be unneccesary and were soon covered by more metal.

Stridsvagn m/40L
http://www.pansarmuseet.se/40L-1.jpg
Yet another updated version of the previous tanks. The main differences between the m/40L and the m/39 is that the m/40L had thicker armor, as well as a hydraulic gear-box, thus eliminating the need for the clutch-pedal in the tank.
As well as the earlier versions, this tank had one 37mm Bofors cannon and two machineguns.

Stridsvagn m/40K

This is the same tank as the earlier, only produced in Karlstad (therefore the K in m/40K). But I wanted to show this anyway, as shown in the picture, efforts were made to allow it to drive underwater. with snorkels and a hatch for the crew to climb up to the surface of the water.

Pictures can be seen in my following post

Stridsvagn m/41 S I and S II
http://www.pansarmuseet.se/41-SI.jpg
When the war had broken out, sweden ordered even more tanks from the Czeckoslovakian company Ceskomoravska Kolben Danek. But since Czeckoslovakia was occupied by germany, germany seized all 90 tanks while they were on the way to sweden. But the tanks did not have any turrets, since these were to be mounted in sweden. instead Germany ordered 90 37mm cannons from Skoda and mounted them on the tanks. These tanks were then used in Operation Barbarossa as PzKpfw 38(t) Ausf S (S for Schweden - Sweden)
Sweden instead decided to buy the license to the tank, and produce it themselves. 116 of the S I version were produced, and 104 of the S II, the difference was that the S II had thicker armor and a stronger engine.

Stormartillerivagn m/43

the first 18 of these tanks were built on the chassis of the m/41 S II. but after that they were constructed from scratch.
This tank had a 7.5cm cannon, and was used as an artillery piece. a few years later it was used as infantry-support
36 were used in total.

Stridsvagn m/42
This tank was made in several different variations, I will show of these and also some "funny" pictures of it.

The m/42 was made in 3 different variations.
100 examples of m/42 TM were built, these had an electromagnetic gear-box and 2 Scania-Vabis 603 motors, with 162 horse powers.
125 examples of m/42 TH were built, these with an hyrdaulic gearbox and 2 motors (the same type as the TM).
and 57 examples of m/42 EH were built, these with an hydraulic gearbox and one Volvo A8B motor with 380 horse powers.

The eleoctromagnetic gearbox was not reliable enough, so 70 of the TM tanks got a mechanic gearbox and was then called m/42 TV. the remaining 30 were rebuilt to m/42 TH, giving a total of 155 m/42 TH.

Of all of these variations, 26 tanks were rebuilt to "commandertanks", where the right machinegun was a fake one, and instead a 70 W radio was put there. To make these tanks not stand out from the others, all of the tanks were given small antennas.


The m/42 was sometimes also built to travel across quite deep rivers.
(pictures of this can be seen in my next post)


Attempts were made to allow the tank to place bridges, the idea never made it though, since it was to clumsy and the to narrow.



Two of all the m/42 were also fitted with a crane, allowing them to tow up to 10 tons. (picture of this can be seen in my followin post)


Pansarvärnskanonvagn m/43
The m/42 were not effective enough as a tankhunter. and on the chassis of the m/42 an immobile top was added, to make it better against other tanks.
http://www.pansarmuseet.se/pvkv-9.jpg

It did however had an open top, making the crew vulnerable. but this was soon fixed and a roof was added




Luftvärnskanonvagn fm/43

the LvKv fm/43 is an anti-air tank built on a m/40K chassis. It's armed with 2 Ivakan m/36 cannons
It weighed 17 tons, drove at 36 km/h, had a crew of 4 men, open roof, and 12-15mm thick armor.

It was very hard to maneuver due to it's length in compared to its width. and due to the weak motor compared to it's weight, and it would often get stuck.



That's all info I can find right now. If I do find more, I will be back with it.
You can probably also expect a thread about swedish aircraft and the swedish fleet during WW2 later in this week.


Aww... I can't include more than 15 images, and I currently have 26. I will remove some of the pics from this post, and post them in the next, with a title mentioning what tank it is.


Disclaimer(?):
YES, I do know that sweden wasn't directly involved in the war (other than volounteers in finland). but this is just for fun.

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

Here are the pictures that didn't fit in the first post.



Tankett Carden-Loyd Mk. V

Spoiler:

http://www.pansarmuseet.se/CL5-2.JPG

Tankett Carden-Loyd Mk. VI mounted with a 57mm recoilless rifle

Spoiler:

http://www.pansarmuseet.se/CL6-pvkan.JPG

Stridsvagn fm/31 on wheels

Spoiler:

http://www.pansarmuseet.se/HB-3.jpg

Stridsvagn fm/37 in streets today

Spoiler:

http://www.pansarmuseet.se/P10.JPG

Stridsvagn m/40K with snorkels

Spoiler:

http://www.pansarmuseet.se/40K-vad-3.jpg
http://www.pansarmuseet.se/40K-vad.jpg

Stridsvagn m/42




m/42 underwater

Spoiler:

http://www.pansarmuseet.se/42-vad-3.jpg
http://www.pansarmuseet.se/42-vad-1.jpg

m/42 with crane

Spoiler:

http://www.pansarmuseet.se/bbv42-2.jpg

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

Last pics whows very interesting tanks, looks modern.

Good job

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

Very nice!

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

Thanks:)
as I said, I will do aircraft/fleet as well, if interest is shown.

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

I love Vollmer his little tank.

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

Neutral countries have the best stuff. :-(

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

I love the looks of the Stormartillerivagn m/43. :D

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

I agree. That is my favorite as well.

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

the Stridsvagn fm/31 on wheels is sweet looking. It reminds me of the daimler.

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

I'll give you some more of it then:)


and this is the very first prototype of the Stormartillerivagn m/43:




It does:) I like it too.
another one of it:

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

Neutral countries seem to make being adorable a priority when it comes to vehicles.

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

Awesome collection of tanks and tankettes but it was such a shame Sweden never went to war :(

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

That seems somehow wrong.... xD

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

Why do you think these countries are neutral? who would want to destroy adorable equipment!?
Hmm.. what are you getting at:)
but look at it like this; the tanks wouldn't be as well preserved if sweden went to war!

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

No shame in not being involved by dipping our nose in such matters. It's foolish!

It seems that we had some cool armor back then. Not really a Leopard 2 but it's better than nothing ain't it?
Can these be found in a museum anywhere? Däcksparka a little would be fun! :)

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

Yes they can. all of these I've shown can be found there, plus a lot of other tanks and vehicles, from ww1 tanks to a leopard 2.
Pansarmuséet

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

IIRC Sweden may not have gone to war but didnt a number of Swede's fight with Finland as Volunteers?

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

Yes, they did. there was a discussion about that in my previous "swedish arsenal" thread.
http://forums.filefront.com/fh-off-t...uring-ww2.html

Re: The Neutral war: Swedens vehicles of war
 

Thousands of volunteers (~10000) and also inofficially several airplanes. They also sold and traded equipment and ammunition and made room for thousands of Finnish children refugees.