today we're just going to have a look at
the a39 tortoise now you can see this is
a whopper of a vehicle which are coming
in here just under 80 tons it was
designed in the first place to be an
assault gun it was there to carry a
large weapon against fortified positions
the idea being it was thought of in
about 1943 that when we go back into
Europe to invade Europe the German army
would have made many defenses when we go
into Germany there was a siegfried line
we're going to need a very heavily
armoured tank of some sort to be able to
batter down those defenses and help the
infantry to attack them so you could
almost look at this vehicle has been one
of the last in the series of the
infantry tanks now do we really call it
a tank it hasn't got a traversing turret
in the usual way so technically by this
time we're calling Tanks vehicles with a
turret that can go 360 degrees so an
assault gun or a self-propelled
artillery piece is really the correct
term for this vehicle now they make only
six of these before they cancel the
project the war ends in Europe in May of
1945 they've gone through 18 designs for
this vehicle the Knuffle organization
that put it together they finally build
the 18th design they only finish six of
them and they're finishing them as the
war ends one is taken out to Germany
after World War two and his trial there
they realize the gun on it they fit a 32
pounder gun which is about ninety four
millimeters very powerful gun
it fires a huge shell 32 pounds for the
armor-piercing round very accurately for
a great distance so it's a very very
effective tank killing gun and they
actually did firing trials at one points
against Panthers and other thousand
meters this round went straight through
a panther so very very effective the
rounds however for a 32
pounder they're huge so they for the
first time start putting two-part
ammunition into tanks and by that what
we've got is in other words the
projectile goes in first and that's
forward by the casing that contains the
propellant that blasted out the end
there's a muzzle brake on the end of the
barrel and there's also a collar which
is a counterweight because this huge gun
is actually mounted in a gimbal mount 20
degrees either side it doesn't have the
usual trunnions that most guns have on a
man fleet they fit bees and machine guns
a ball mount on the side - in the turret
as well in a separate Coppola and they
actually crew this vehicle with 7 crew
so you've got Commander two loaders this
time and a separate machine gunner in
there as well and inside that vehicle
compared to most tanks we've got here
and you can almost hold a party in it
it's got a massive interior powered
along by a meteor VIII of meteor 5
engine which gives about 600 horsepower
it's mobility actually wasn't that bad
on the road top speed about 12 miles an
hour so that wasn't too bad going around
cross country it drops enormously when
you've got 78 tons
despite the width of the tracks you've
still got a bit of a problem going
around the place but don't forget this
wasn't designed for speed it was
designed for a slow steady very thickly
armoured vehicle attacking fortified
positions that thick armor in places
it's over 8 inches thick on the front on
this massive great casting which was
quite an engineering feat in itself
so engine in the back is propelled along
on these very wide tracks and the
suspension system is actually a torsion
bar suspension on double bogies so the
torsion bar comes across and you've got
pairs of wheels on each side protected
by this massively thick armor so it's a
tank that was really at the end of this
design process assault gun type tanks it
doesn't see service they try one out in
Germany but they bring the sick
of them once they finish this trialing
process never go into service we've got
the last remaining complete one here we
have run it at one of our events and
there's another a wreck over one of
these tortoises on a range still in
Scotland but that was it so it was a
very one-off British tank story
you