What is this T 29?
This T29 is an American tank. This can be categorized as a heavy tank. When you take a look at the outer appearance of this tank, it looks so similar to the previously designed German tank, the Tiger ll. Even though this tank was built with so many useful things, it did not make any difference in the wars. Because this tank was not finished building during the European war periods.
Use of T29
There are a few arguments about this tank. Some say it was a waste of money and time and efforts of the engineers. Because it was not used to defend the nation. But engineers don’t agree with that. They say this was so much useful as a testing tank.
How was it useful as a testing tank?
The engineers could try so many things on this tank. So, they could be so much useful in other tanks. Like several guns, radios, turrets, engines, and many more other things. They tested various engineering concepts and artillery components on this tank. So, it was useful.
Origin of T29
The project of this T29 was started in the March of 1944. And the place of origin of this tank is considered the United States. This was designed and built as a heavy tank by the engineering unit of the united states army.
History
When we take the history of T29, we can talk about it under two categories. The production history and the service history. First, let us talk about the production history.
The production history
This tank took just a year to design. They were in a hurry to use this in war but they couldn’t finish designing this on time. The period they took to design this tank is recorded as from 1944 to 1945. Even though they did not use this in war, they built 8 of these tanks.
Variants
There were several variants of this tank. Unlike the variants of other tanks, this had its variants. They were named T29, T29E1, T29E2, and T29E3.
Manufacturer
This tank was manufactured by a company called ‘the Pressed Steel Car Company and it was manufactured under the supervision of the engineers of the Detroit Arsenal tank plant. It was the largest tank manufacturing plant during the time.
The service history
Now let us look at the service history of the tank, T 29. There is nothing much to say about the service history of this tank. As previously said, this was not used in any of the wars. So, this was used in trials only.
General information about T 29
When we talk about the general information of this tank, we can discuss it under several topics such as the armor, crew, mobility, mass, length, width and height, etc. Let us take a look.
Armor
The armor type consisted of two designs. They were the cast homogeneous armor and the rolled homogeneous armor. This rolled homogeneous armor was used at the sides and the rear of the hull armor. Now let us take a look at the thickness of the armor. Let us divide it into three categories named, the hull armor and the turret armor, and the cupola.
Hull armor
This hull armor was about 102 mm thick from the front and 76 mm thick from the sides. The back of the hull armor was 51 mm thick. Finally, the roof of the hull armor was about 38.1 mm thick.
Turret armor
The front of the turret armor was about 158.7 mm thick and the sides of the turret armor were also about 158.7 mm thick. The back of the turret armor of the tank was about 102 mm thick and the roof was about 38.1 mm thick.
Cupola
The overall thickness of the cupola of this tank was about 152.4 mm thick and the roof of the cupola was about 38.1 mm thick. So, we can see that the overall thickness of the whole roof is the same. It was 38.1 mm thick in every aspect.
Crew
Now let us take a look at the crew of the tank. This tank was designed to put five crew members minimum. They were the commander, the driver, the gunner or the loader, and the two radio operators. It was said that they were pretty comfortable in there not like in other war tanks.
Mobility
When we talk about the mobility of the T 29, there are several facts that we should put our attention to. Let us take a look.
| Engine power | 500 hp |
| Speed limit | 44.6/20 km/6 |
| Traverse | 46 deg/s |
| Power / WT ratio | 17.54 hp/t |
| Pivot | No |
Dimension
When we talk about the dimension of the T 29, it was huge indeed. And when we talk about the length of this tank, it was about 32 ft 9 inches. And with the gun forward, it was about 37 ft 11.5 inches. And the width was about 12 ft and 9 inches. And this was over the sand shields. The total mass with the full combat load of this tank was about 141 500 lbs.
