field modifications are a common feature of the battlefield these have taken on many forms
over the decades with anything from bed frames to flamethrowers being fitted to tanks in an
attempt to increase their combat capabilities or protection one of these many methods was
the use of concrete to increase protection for the tank in this video we'll be discussing the
effectiveness and history surrounding tanks with concrete armor with the help of a special guest
throughout history there have been countless tanks all designed to kill but not all
have been a success what happened to the ones that never made it and why did they fail
my name is coneofarc join me as we journey through time uncovering failed projects and forgotten
creations in cursed by design modifying tanks is a tough business and it's important to keep hydrated
while you do so but the last thing you want after hours of backbreaking labor mixing concrete is to
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now let's get into the video i do need to make a quick disclaimer before we start however
due to the fact that the majority of these tanks are field modifications as I mentioned in the
beginning there isn't a huge amount of readily available information about them so I'll be doing
my best to give you as much as I can find I'll also be limiting this video's scope to world war
ii tanks although I may make a follow-up video talking about more modern implementations of
concrete and other strange modifications to start with we'll talk about what is probably the most
successful use of concrete which i believe to be that of the Sturmgeschutz by the late stages
of the war the Stug's protection had begun to lessen as more powerful guns were fielded
despite numerous upgrades to the armor of the tank it's understandable that many crews would
still have taken anything they could get to make themselves feel just a little bit safer
this led to many crews adding concrete to the superstructure of their vehicles both the Germans
and Finns are known to have done this with one of the most famous examples being a Finnish Stug or
Sturmi as they were called which is on display at Bovington these modifications varied in placement
and thickness but the majority were added along the upper front of the superstructure which gave
the Stug a very rounded look thanks to the smooth concrete although not as effective as
armor plate the concrete did slightly increase the survivability of the tanks and it had the benefit
of being far cheaper and easier to acquire than the rapidly shrinking supplies of steel
often these tanks also carried some sort of extra plating on the sides to protect from anti-tank
rifles some even using logs which could also be used if the machine became stuck as with anything
though the added weight increased strain on the transmission and other drive components
whether this severely impacted the reliability of the vehicles is unclear since as i mentioned
earlier information on this topic isn't the most detailed regardless though the crew must have
felt that it was at least better than nothing as there are no shortage of photos showing Stugs with
concrete including a captured one being used by the Americans for the next tank I'll be passing
it over to our special guest my friend Pom Pom she has a bit of an obsession with the T-34 so I'll
pass you over to her for this next one as early as 1941 a program to increase the T-34's armor to 60
millimeters was under development this led to what is known as the shielded t-34 which saw limited
production from 1941 through 1942. however the outbreak of the war shifted focus from these up
armored tanks in favor of just making a bunch more tanks although soviet command was likely more than
happy to continue sending swarms of t-34s with weaker armor if it meant higher production numbers
as the war slogged on other attempts were made to make these poor tanks less vulnerable one of
these attempts was from a designer by the name of Tsyganov at first they tried to pour concrete
directly onto the armor tests reportedly showed that this increased the chance of ricochets from
blunt projectiles however it was a time consuming process to get the cement onto the tank since that
had to be done by hand in their next attempt to make concrete a viable option they welded a
steel structure onto the hull and turret of the t-34 they would then use this frame to attach
pads of reinforced concrete some sources say that they also tried a method of mounting the concrete
directly to the armor plates but no photos exist of these the photos that have survived shows two
different tanks with added concrete another material experimented with was known as ice
concrete by installing a frame of wood to the tank materials like sawdust or gravel could be added
with water which would then freeze reportedly this is actually able to stop a German Pak 40
to the side of the tank with a thickness of only 80 millimeters of the mixture unsurprisingly this
bizarre idea was never adopted due to some of the major issues it caused to the tank the concrete
added an enormous amount of weight to the tank with most sources indicating as much as four tons
this would have resulted in issues with the mobility of the t34 although this was
a relatively cheap alternative to using steel plates like the shielded t-34 used it would
have increased the protection by a similar amount no production was ever seen although
the prototypes could possibly have seen use after these various projects flopped Tsyganov would go
on to work with plastics and other materials in attempts to find a cheaper alternative to steel
this would be one of the earliest examples of a type of composite armor being tested
hello my name is pompom I'm Cone's friend and i'm starting my very own tank history channel
with him called TankParty my first video is going to be an in-depth presentation on the
history and performance of the t-34-57 one of my favorite tanks thank you for having me
thanks for sharing that funky design with us Pom hopefully we can have you back in a future video
with that out of the way we're left with the last documented use of concrete in WW2 i could find as
with the other countries the us tried multiple methods to increase their tank survivability
such as sandbags or even salvaged armor like on the super pershing sandbags were eventually found
to not increase the protection by a significant amount while still adding weight and strain to
the tank's internals this resulted in the crews turning to the next easily accessible material
since these were entirely field modifications there's no definitive way that the crews added
the concrete to the tanks but i can give you some examples the most common in the European theater
was to just pour the concrete directly onto the armor although this did not entirely prevent
penetration by enemy warheads it did reportedly reduce the effectiveness of them if they hit
this resulted in a higher survival chance for the crew and was a quite common modification by the
later days of the war reportedly the 750th tank battalion had to spend hours using jackhammers
to remove up to 6 inches of concrete from their tanks at the end of the war before turning their
tanks in a photo even exists of concrete being added to a Sherman jumbo this was likely more
to protect it from panzerfaust and other infantry anti-tank weapons than against other tanks though
there also exists a photo of an m26 pershing with concrete poured onto the whole front
the European theater wasn't the only battlefield that saw the use of concrete though tankers in the
pacific also experimented with various ways to use it this was partly to protect against the Japanese
47 millimeter which could destroy a Sherman through its relatively weak sides by attaching
wooden boards along the side with a gap which was then filled with concrete the crew could be better
protected this also had the benefit of preventing magnetic mines from being attached to the tank
this was far from the only interesting way that crews tried to protect their tanks from Japanese
infantry and i may do a deeper dive into this topic in the future so let me know if that sounds
interesting to you however once again the concrete proved problematic due to the increased weight
especially considering these tanks had to be transported in naval craft after their use on
the various islands not to mention the much more difficult terrain posed by the islands themselves
so what can we learn from all of these different uses of concrete in some uses it clearly was a
good way to at the very least make the crews feel a little more secure which would help with morale
but in reality it would do very little to actually protect the tank from an enemy
tank or tank destroyer infantry anti-tank weapons were a bit of a different story and it certainly
helped against things like magnetic mines as with most projects to increase the tank's protection
though it posed more of a hazard to the tank's drivetrain and mobility than it was probably worth
thanks so much to pom pom for helping out on this video please do go check out her channel if you
like this video don't forget to hit the like and subscribe buttons if you enjoyed this video and if
you did why not go watch the entire playlist that will be popping up on your screen right now thanks
once again to the coldest water for sponsoring the episode and i hope to see you in the next video