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The Whatziss revealed.

By The Armorer on February 23, 2011 | | Comments (14)
Truman-19510217.jpg
Raging Tachikoma got the answer yesterday - the prototype M41 Walker Bulldog, seen here in a photo-op with President Truman in 1951.  That was a good one.  Like I said yesterday - if I had been presented with the first picture, I would have said US-built tank, because we had a propensity for complex castings for rangefinders back in the day. On prototypes - they were invariably simpler in production vehicles.  Then if you had shown me yesterday's picture, I would have doubted myself and scoured the 'net looking for prototypes of Swedish vehicles, like the IKV91.

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14 Comments

By OlafTheTanker on February 23, 2011 10:18 AM
Good one, I was convinced that either the pic was inverted due to the TC cupola being on the "wrong" side and the loader's shell ejection port being where you would expect a TC to be, or it being a product of some East-Jabip nation..

Now that I see the driver's hatch is on the correct side, this must have truly been an odd-ball one-off?
 
By Raging Tachikoma on February 23, 2011 11:36 AM
I have to be honest, it took me nearly an hour and ahalf of googling to find that picture, the magic word turned out to be prototype. But I was figuring it was from one of the seemingly inumerable T series experimental mediums that we built in the fifties.  I spent alot of time trolling through pictures of various german tanks from WW2 to the present, becuase I immeadately thought that something that fiddly looking had to be teutoniic in origin.
 
By Cannonshop on February 23, 2011 1:05 PM
Well, I'm 0/0 (or is it -3 for 3) on e'ery Whatsit so far...damn glad I didn't go into Intel or something.

 
By PrimEvil on February 23, 2011 1:51 PM
 Oh, phoo! I was really barking up the wrong tree on that one.
It was a matter of scale!! No cat-hairs!!
 
By Grimmy on February 23, 2011 3:50 PM
Boy oh boy. Am I glad my comment didn't take, yesterday.

I was aaaallll over the place. I chased the bull while swimming with the red herrings.

The things that threw me:

That little triangle at the bottom front of the turret. That sent me at German and Czech stuff. Angles were all wrong, and Jerry stuff didn't slope down toward the nose... nor have pintle? exposed behind the gunshield.

So, I went all over the place with US light tanks. Nothing there.

Then the second pic and that line where the track cover joins the hull... From the pic, I thought that line came down across the front at an angle. I'd seen something like that somewhere. A sort of V line that met at the bottom of the front just above the the line where the bottom glacis joins the top.

That sent me all over the weird makings of the USSR prior to WW2. Then all over the IS and JS stuff.

No joy there either.

I even went at the old French stuff.

I did look at the Walker Bulldog but couldn't see a match. I got stuck too hard on that gizmo on the side of the turret, that funky little triangle in the bottom front of the turret, and that line along the hull (which I totally miscalled).

I suck.
 
By John of Argghhh! on February 23, 2011 4:01 PM
You don't suck, Grimmy - what made this one *hard* was the fact that is the prototype turret.  The production turret looked almost nothing like it.

Like I said - had I been coming at this like you guys, I woulda said "something US" on the first day, and then, "Dammit, that looks Swedish!" on the second day.
 
By Neffi on February 23, 2011 7:27 PM
Prototype?! It's already got four kill rings on the barrel...!
 
By BillT on February 23, 2011 8:31 PM
Those are the markings for the USMC version, showing where the bayonet stud will be mounted...
 
By Justthisguy on February 23, 2011 11:06 PM
This is totally off-topic, but I think I absolutely must clue all of y'all in to the most awesomely smarta$$tical blog comment thread in recent memory. It's over at SayUncle's place. I have participated, but my snark and sarcasm does not compare favorably with what others have done there, nor with what real experts at that kind of thing, such as BCR and Unka Bill could accomplish.

See: http://www.saysuncle.com/2011/02/23/getting-back-at-tsa/comment-page-1/#comment-285667



Where are Sanger M and Big Tobacco now that we need them!  They are expert smartasses, both by patrimony and training!

 
By Justthisguy on February 24, 2011 12:55 AM
Oh, to get back on topic; that is a kewl and manly mantlet on that thing. It will surely save the mechanism of the gun from being destroyed when somebody shoots a hole in a thinner part of that tank.  As the saying goes, the moving foxholes do attract the gaze.
 
By Justthisguy on February 24, 2011 12:59 AM
P.s. Judjing from the lighting in the pic, the way everyone was dressed, and the generally sour-pussed expressions on most of their faces, that photo op happened on a cold wet unpleasant day.
 
By Quartermaster on February 24, 2011 6:56 PM
 And here I thought the question was about teh device in the pic, and not what it was attached to. My bad.
 
By og on February 25, 2011 9:50 AM
I was out of town and had to miss this one. though I googled like crazy trying to figure it out. An awesome and typically technically difficult Whatzis, totally devoid of trickery, though I do see a few cat hairs in there.
 
By MikeD on February 25, 2011 10:12 AM
My dad was a Walker Bulldog commander.  I'll need to send this to him.  Thank John!