With the upcoming line of British tank destroyers on the way, we can all expect some well known and exciting vehicles to take into battle, notably the Challenger, a heavily modified Cromwell mounting the near-legendary QF 17-pounder tank gun; faster, nimbler and lower than the Sherman Firefly, the A30/Cruiser Mark VIII “Challenger”, while hampered by delays was introduced just in time to see service in the final months of the Second World War. That is not the whole story though, the A30 Challenger, designed by Birmingham Carriage & Wagon Company, was not Britain’s only response to the increasingly larger and more sophisticated armour being produced by Germany during the war, but one of several designs, that emerged in the early 1940s. In late November/early December 1941, the British General Staff issued specifications for an ‘Assault’ tank and allocated the General Staff number A29 and was handed over to Rolls-Royce to design while Birmingham Carriage & Wagon Company was allocated the General Staff number A30.

　　隨著英國(guó)坦克殲擊車(chē)的道路上即將到來(lái)的路線，我們都可以期待一些知名的和令人興奮的車(chē)送上陣，特別是挑戰(zhàn)者，一個(gè)沉重修改克倫威爾安裝近傳說(shuō)中的QF17磅反坦克炮;更快，更敏捷，比螢火蟲(chóng)更低，A30/巡洋艦馬克八世“挑戰(zhàn)者”，而被延誤阻礙介紹的時(shí)候，正好看到服役在第二次世界大戰(zhàn)的最后幾個(gè)月。這不是故事的全部，雖然，在A30挑戰(zhàn)者，伯明翰運(yùn)輸及旅行車(chē)公司設(shè)計(jì)，是不是英國(guó)的越來(lái)越大，越來(lái)越復(fù)雜的鎧甲在戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)期間所生產(chǎn)的德國(guó)唯一的反應(yīng)，但一些設(shè)計(jì)之一，在出現(xiàn)40年代初。十一月底/1941年12月上旬，英國(guó)總參謀部頒發(fā)的“突擊”坦克的規(guī)格和分配的總員工人數(shù)A29，并移交給勞斯萊斯的設(shè)計(jì)，而伯明翰運(yùn)輸及旅行車(chē)公司已分配的總員工人數(shù)A30 。

　　Rolls-Royce, although not as renown as Nuffield (Crusader) or Vauxhall (Churchill) was no stranger to tank design. Other than developing the Meteor engine, which powered many British tank designs, Rolls-Royce’s Clan Foundry in Belper also was involved in the redesign of the Cromwell Mark III tank. Clan Foundry used this experience to concieve the A29, which they had christened as ‘Clan’ after the foundry, where it was made.

　　羅爾斯·羅伊斯公司，雖然不如知名的納菲爾德(十字軍)或沃克斯豪爾(丘吉爾)是不陌生的坦克設(shè)計(jì)。除了開(kāi)發(fā)流星引擎，動(dòng)力許多英國(guó)坦克設(shè)計(jì)，勞斯萊斯的家族代工的貝爾帕也參與了克倫威爾Mark III的坦克進(jìn)行重新設(shè)計(jì)。用這個(gè)經(jīng)驗(yàn)鑄造的A29，這是他們的代工廠，在那里它被做了之后，命名為“家族”。

　　The tank, developed by Rolls-Royce – although based on the Cromwell – was a behemoth, at 9’ 7” tall (2.92 m) and an estimated 43 long tons 5cwts (50.65 tons), of which 16 long tons was armour (the side by side sketch for the A29 and A30 are to two different scales). The front of both the hull and turret were 5” (127 mm) thick, and the side hull, including armour skirt, was 3?” (88.9 mm) thick. Like its rival design, the Challenger, it also was armed with a 76,2 mm QF 17-pounder gun, mounted in a turret similar to (but not exactly the same as) the one of Challenger (once again, it is worth noting the difference in scale of the two drawings). Although it is not mentioned in the written material, it is safe to assume that the Clan would invariably have an internal mantlet, adding to the frontal turret’s overall thickness like other contemporary British mantletess tanks.

　　該坦克由羅爾斯·羅伊斯公司開(kāi)發(fā)的 - 盡管根據(jù)克倫威爾 - 是一個(gè)龐然大物，在9“7”身高(2.92米)，估計(jì)有43長(zhǎng)噸5cwts(50.65噸)，其中16長(zhǎng)噸為鎧甲(中側(cè)和側(cè)面草圖的A29 A30是兩個(gè)不同的尺度)。的船體和炮塔的前面是10“(126毫米)厚，并且側(cè)船殼，包括裝甲裙，為3.5”(88.9毫米)厚。像其競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手的設(shè)計(jì)，挑戰(zhàn)者，它也被裝備了76.2毫米QF17磅炮，裝在類似(但不完全相同)炮塔挑戰(zhàn)者之一(再一次，值得注意的是在這兩個(gè)附圖中的比例之差)。雖然沒(méi)有在書(shū)面材料中提到，它是安全的假設(shè)，該家族將總是有一個(gè)內(nèi)部的盾，增加了炮塔前部的整體厚度像其他英國(guó)當(dāng)代mantletess坦克。

　　The A29 Clan was to be propelled by a Rolls-Royce Meteor engine, up-rated to 700 bhp, which would give the Clan a top speed of 30 mph (48.3 kph) and power to weight ratio of 13.82 hp/tons. All this added armour and a heavier gun and turret of course came at cost, the weight was far higher than the existing Cromwell suspension could bear. Rolls-Royce’s solution was a new separate twin track suspension design, each track was 11” (279.4 mm) thick for a total of 22” wide tracks (558.8 mm), which would give the Clan excellent terrain passability. Inevitably, issues arose with the new, complicated suspension system, which caused delays in the programme, pushing the expected development finish all the way past February 1943. This proved to be the A29 Clan’s undoing and the project was cancelled in favour of the simpler A30 Challenger design. Rolls-Royce attempted to address these suspension issues with yet another design, the A31, but it too was cancelled.

　　在A29家族是由勞斯萊斯流星引擎推動(dòng)，最高額定為700馬力，這會(huì)給家族30英里每小時(shí)(48.3公里)和動(dòng)力的最高時(shí)速與重量13.82馬力/噸的比例。所有這些附加裝甲和更重的槍，當(dāng)然炮塔來(lái)了在成本，重量遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)高于現(xiàn)有的克倫威爾懸掛可以承受的。羅爾斯·羅伊斯公司的解決方案是一個(gè)新的獨(dú)立的雙軌懸浮式設(shè)計(jì)，每首曲目為11“(279.4毫米)厚，總共22”寬軌(558.8毫米)，這會(huì)給家族優(yōu)良的地形通過(guò)性。不可避免的是，問(wèn)題出現(xiàn)了新的，復(fù)雜的懸掛系統(tǒng)，造成延誤的程序，推動(dòng)發(fā)展預(yù)期完成一路過(guò)去的1943年2月這被證明是A29宗族的撤銷，該項(xiàng)目被取消了贊成簡(jiǎn)單A30挑戰(zhàn)者的設(shè)計(jì)。羅爾斯·羅伊斯公司試圖用另一種設(shè)計(jì)方案中，A31解決這些懸掛的問(wèn)題，但它也被取消了。

　　A29 Clan

　　Weight: 50.65 tons

　　重量：50.65噸

　　Height: 2.92 m

　　高度：2.92米

　　OA Length: 7.47 m

　　OA長(zhǎng)度：7.47米

　　Width: 3.2 m

　　寬度：3.2米

　　Contact Length: 5.58 m

　　車(chē)身長(zhǎng)度：5.58米

　　Clearance: 0.5 m

　　間隙：0.5m

　　Engine: Rolls-Royce Meteor V-12 700 bhp, petrol, 13.82 hp/tons

　　發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)：勞斯萊斯流星的V-12700馬力，汽油，13.82馬力/噸

　　Top Speed: 48.3 kph

　　最高時(shí)速：48.3公里

　　Tracks: 279.4 m x2 (558.8 mm)

　　履帶：279.4米X2(558.8毫米)

　　Armament: 1 QF 17-pounder (171/239/38mm), 1 unspecified coaxial machine gun

　　武器裝備：1 QF17磅(二百三十九分之一百七十一/38毫米)，1個(gè)非指定同軸機(jī)槍

　　Armour: 127/88.9/???

　　裝甲：127/88.9/?

　　In game, the A29 Clan would prove to be an interesting and probably unusual tank. Given its 17-pounder armament, it really can’t be tiered anywhere below tier 6, so likely tier 6 or 7. As for its classification it is called an ‘Assault tank’ and a ‘Heavy Cromwell’ in different documents, this would fall under the category of heavy tank in my opinion, especially given its 50 ton weight. While 127 mm of armour is no slouch, it is also fairly flat but then again so is the the 100 mm hull of the Tiger I and the 120 mm vertical plate of the IS and KV-3. Probably the most interesting armour feature of the A29 Clan are the sides. While you’re definitely not going to get 558 mm of side armour from your tracks (they will likely get a nominal 40 mm of armour value like the similarly double tracked American T95) they will definitely ruin somebody firing HEAT’s day. The combination of a heavy armour skirt the large distance between it and the actual tank hull will pretty much nullify anybody trying to fire HEAT or HE directly into your tracks.

　　在游戲中，A29家族將被證明是一個(gè)有趣的，也許不尋常的坦克。鑒于其17磅的裝備，它真的不能分層下的任意位置第6級(jí)，所以有可能第6級(jí)或7至于其分類，它被稱為“攻擊性戰(zhàn)車(chē)”和克倫威爾在不同，這會(huì)屬于重型坦克在我看來(lái)范疇，尤其是考慮到成立50噸的重量。雖然127毫米盔甲是沒(méi)有懈怠，這也是相當(dāng)平坦，但話又說(shuō)回來(lái)所以是虎的100mm的船體和IS的120毫米垂直板和KV-3?？赡苁茿29家族中最有趣的鎧甲的特點(diǎn)是兩側(cè)。而你肯定不會(huì)得到558毫米從軌道側(cè)面裝甲的(他們可能會(huì)得到一個(gè)標(biāo)稱40毫米護(hù)甲值的像類似雙跟蹤美國(guó)T95)，他們肯定會(huì)毀了某人射擊熱的天。沉重的鎧甲的組合裙大的距離，并在實(shí)際的坦克船體之間會(huì)幾乎抵消任何人想熱化火，或他就直接到你的軌道。

　　The 17-pounder is a gun we should all be familiar with by now. 171/239/38mm penetration and 150/150/190 alpha. Now a very high alpha but more than makes up for it with its good penetration and soft stats (accuracy, dispersion, rate of fire etc.).

　　17磅的炮，我們都應(yīng)該很熟悉了吧。二百三十九分之一百七十一/38毫米滲透和150/150/190阿爾法。現(xiàn)在是一個(gè)非常高的字母，但超過(guò)彌補(bǔ)了它以其良好的穿透力和脆皮(準(zhǔn)確度，分散性，起火率等)。

　　Another excellent feature is the Clan’s speed, while the p/w ratio is on the lower side (13.82 hp/tons) a top speed of 48.3 kph is rather good for such a heavy tank and its double tracks should provide excellent terrain resistance in-game which would make it a very mobile heavy tank (also probably very fun to ram light tanks with!).

　　另一個(gè)優(yōu)秀的特性是他的速度，而(13.82馬力/噸)的48.3公里的最高時(shí)速是這樣的重型坦克相當(dāng)好，它的履帶適應(yīng)能力十分優(yōu)秀。游戲里，它成為一個(gè)速度非?？熘匦吞箍?也可能是非常有趣的公羊輕型坦克用!)。

　　I hope you enjoyed the article, hopefully I piqued your interest with the A31 because that will liekly be subject of my next article!

　　我希望你喜歡這篇文章，希望我激起了與A31的激情，期待我的下一篇文章!