Quote:
Originally Posted by oragus
Just a thought.
Depending on the "what if" scenario: If the "what if" is the war did not end in 1945 or Patton got his wish, the US attacked the Soviets to push them out of Europe, these heavies would have gone production as soon as possible.
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Okay. Let's put our thinking caps on.
per Hunnicutt:
14 SEP 1944: OCM 25117 recommends development of a new heavy tank series (T29) with four pilots.
The reason that the T29 series "frankensteined" into so many variants is because AGF saw a chance to test all sorts of new technologies, such as fire control, transmissions and new engines to succeed the wartime Ford GAA/GAN/GAC.
In a wartime situation, all of the T29+ onwards tanks would have the same engine situation, a Ford GAC V12; and the only difference between all of them would be the main gun (105mm Hi Velocity, 120mm Hi Velocity, or 155mm Moderate Velocity) and ammunition stowage plus modifications to the gun sighting system (different reticles for different ammunition ballistics).
I once did a study of equipment lead times at my website:
LINK
Basic lead times for US tanks from rough start of design to production models rolling off the lines is:
M3 Medium: 397 days
M4 (75mm) Medium: 441 days
T14 Assault: 472 days
M3 Stuart Light: 285 days
M5 Stuart Light: 313 days
M24 Chaffee Light: 397 days
M6 Heavy: 939 days
T23 Medium: 579 days
T26 Pershing: 550 days
Giving an average of 486~ days or a median of 441 days. Putting those together and averaging them gives us 463~ days.
Given a 14 SEP 1944 "Go" order for the T29 series, you'd see the first production quality T29s rolling off the production lines around 21 December 1945.
Time to combat was roughly the following in the US Army:
M24 Chaffee: First Production April 1944, issued in France in November 1944: 214~ days.
M26 (T26E3) Pershing: First Production November 1944, issued to ETO in January 1945: 61~ days.
For an average/median time to combat of 137~ days.
A "rush job" deployment as with the Pershing means they arrive in the ETO around 20 February 1946; while a more leisurely Chafee style deployment means ETO arrival 23 July 1946.