Which
is the heaviest tank in the Tank Museum?
At 80 tons this record is held by
the massive British tank TOG 2 of 1941. Built by Fosters of
Lincoln to the design of The Old Gang (TOG) who had designed
tanks in the First World War
it turned out to be a complete failure.
Probably
the heaviest tank ever was the German Maus of 1943 which weighed
188 tons. A sample vehicle survives in the Russian tank museum
at Kubinka. Back to FAQ index
Which
is the fastest tank in the Tank Museum?
Probably the Alvis Scorpion, if
it can be classified as a tank.
It has a top speed just over 80 km/h. The fastest wartime tank
was almost certainly the British Cromwell which was
The Cromwell at Speed
credited
with a top speed of 64 km/h but as early as 1932 the American
designer, J Walter Christie, built an experimental tank which
did 96 km/h on its tracks and 192 km/h on wheels only, over
a measured quarter mile. Among modern main battle tanks the
German Leopard 2 (not currently on show) is probably fastest
at 72 km/h. Back to FAQ index
Which
tank in the Tank Museum has the thickest armour?
Modern armies are very shy about
discussing the thickness of armour on their tanks. The Jagdtiger
has frontal armour of 250mm. Its British equivalent, the Tortoise,
carries armour 225mm thick but strictly speaking it is not a
tank.
The Black Prince
The King
Tiger's armour was 180mm thick on the front of the turret while
the British Black Prince had 152mm on the front of the hull.
On modern tanks it is not so much a question of thickness as
the use of different materials. Back to FAQ index
The Russian T-72
Which
tank in the Tank Museum has the largest gun?
The wartime German Jagdtiger, which
in reality is a self-propelled gun, carries the biggest weapon
of any AFV in the Tank Museum,
it mounts a 128mm gun.
Of the
turreted tanks the Russian T-72 leads with a 125mm weapon but
back in 1948 the American heavy tank T30 was built mounting
a 155mm gun. Back to FAQ index
