WesWorld

April, 1936

As the winter of 1936 turned into the spring of 1936, the US political winds were changing. The popular mood was surly: even though the country had weathered the latest years of the Dust Bowl, and the Taft-Hartley-Long law had helped to quiet the worst of the country's labor unrest, the threat of continuing hard times in the farm states and continuing (if less violent) battles between labor and management cast a pall over the country. The first peacetime draft in US history had gone off smoothly, the plans that had been laid down for it having been in place (with minor updates as needed) since 1915, but it had STILL been a draft, forcing young men to put aside their plans and jobs to report to become soldiers. There was work for most, and the year dawned with the hope that the terrible drought that was creating the Dust Bowl would lift, but there was no telling the future. The rise of wages, due to the new minimum wage law and the effects of increasing unionization, was slowly pushing up prices, and the rumbles of inflation could be heard in the halls of the great banks.

The Democratic Party, winners of the last two Presidential elections, was trying to decide who to nominate to succeed Franklin Roosevelt for a run at the White House that they had every belief they would win. After all, the Republicans had been routed in the preceding elections, and they still seemed out of touch with the popular mood, even though they'd moved away from the isolationist, laissez-faire stance of the 1920s.

The Republican Party, not surprisingly, had a different view of things. The Democrats had involved the country in an entangling alliance (NATO) that threatened to draw the US into conflicts that did not concern it halfway around the world. The Democrats had also, at long last, managed to get the US into the League of Nations, which had already dragged US Marines into a peacekeeping mission in Bolivia. The new deficit spending on the military, combined with the new minimum wage law and the new laws making it much easier for unions to certify and harder for companies to keep unions out, were heating up inflation, causing short-term pain for the banks and posing a longer-term threat to farmers and companies as the banks raised their rates for future loans. These boded ill for the Democrats, if not in 1936, then in the near future.

The Social Democrats, mostly ignored by the Big Two, thought that they had a chance. The Democrats would be putting up someone new, as FDR had served the two terms allowed by Washington's precedent, and the Republicans would be putting up someone preaching the tired doctrine of capital, offering little to the working man. If Huey Long could catch lightning in a bottle, he had a chance. The risk, of course, was whether he could run for President AND Senator from Louisiana at the same time. Certainly there was precedent: he'd run for Senator while he was governor, won, and waited to take up his Senate post until the work he'd started was well underway in the state. But it was a risk: if he wasn't able to win the Presidency AND lost his Senate seat…… the leader of the Social Democrats would be out of national politics, at least until a new seat opened up.

...oh no.

Hmmm a Long shot eh?

That would certainly break with the US past as we know it.

Weel, no matter who wins, there's going to be a break with the past as we know it: without the Great Depression and a threatened war on the horizon, FDR wouldn't run for a third term.

May, 1936

The USAAC, on the strength of the performance of the single XP-38 prototype, has placed an order for 11 YP-38 aircraft.


June, 1936

The USAAC has placed an order with Curtiss for 524 P-40s. These are expected to replace all current single-seat fighters. Douglas has received an order for 220 A-20 light bombers, while Martin has received an order for 80 A-21s (the historical Martin Maryland, not historically purchased by the US).

The U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics has published a request for proposal for new single-engined fighters. The request called the maximum obtainable speed, and a stalling speed not higher than 70 mph (113 km/h). A range of 1,000 miles (1,610 km) was specified. The fighter had to carry four guns, or three with increased ammunition. Provision had to be made for anti-aircraft bombs to be carried in the wing. These small bombs would be dropped on enemy aircraft formations.


July, 1936

GE has broken ground on a new production plant for their turbochargers for aircraft engines. With the planned rate of growth in the USAAC, and the USAACs preference for turbochargers over superchargers at altitude, GE foresees brisk sales well into the future and the current plants were at capacity.

The Pratt & Whitney engine corporation has demonstrated a new member of it's Wasp family, the R-2800. Engines are expected to be ready for delivery to customers by late in the year. Meanwhile, not to be outdone, Wright is showing design work on a 42-cylinder liquid cooled radial engine.


September, 1936

After the primaries and the conventions, the competition for the 1936 presidential elections was set: the Democrats were running Vice President John Nance Garner to replace FDR, the Republicans were running Alf Landon of Kansas, and the Social Democrats were running Huey Long on his "Share Our Wealth" platform. To the surprise of the "major" parties, the maverick Senator from Louisiana was showing surprising strength in states outside his home state, and there was beginning to be concern at the highest levels of both parties that they might have underestimated his appeal.

August 12, 1936 - West Point

Army Chief of Staff General Malin Craig was being shown a large wooden model of a tank, of a size distinctly larger than the M2A4/M3 light tanks currently equipping the US Army.


"So, this is what the proposed medium tank would look like?"

"Yes, sir. It has a crew of 5 men, driver, co-driver, gunner, loader, and commander. Total weight is just under 24 tons, powered by a 300 horsepower engine, giving it a top speed of around 23 miles per hour. The main armament, in the main turret here, is a 3" howitzer, with a .30" machinegun in a coaxial mounting. A total of 5 .30" machineguns are carried: the coaxial machinegun, the commander's machinegun in the cupola atop the turret, a machinegun here in the front plate of the vehicle operated by the co-driver, and two more here in the front plate beside the co-driver, operated by the driver. 80 rounds of 3" and 4000 rounds of 0.30" are carried, between the hull and the turret."

"Do the sponson machineguns rotate or train?"

"No, sir. We looked into that, but it added complexity and weight, and to make full use of that we'd need a larger crew."

"It looks impressive enough, how well is it protected?"

"The armor ranges from 2" on the front of the vehicle and the turret to 1" on the rear of the vehicle. The hull and turret are 3 large castings: the turret itself; the front, sides and top of the hull; and the hull rear and bottom. The castings should make for easy production, once the molds are made up. The rounded shape, besides being easy to cast, also helps to deflect shells."

"How tall is it? It's definitely looming."

"Right at 10 feet, sir."

"So the commander, if he's looking out the top hatch of the cupola, he'll be up over 10' in the air?"

"Yes, sir."


[The above is the WW US M-3 medium tank, which is essentially an early M-4 Sherman with traces of the M-3 Stuart light tank in the sponsons and the M-3 Lee/Grant medium tank in the commander's cupola for a 0.30" MG. Both the sponsons and the cupola are likely to be dropped in later versions.]

What use are the machine guns in sponsons if you can only aim them by moving the tank?

Like on the M-3 light tank, they're there mostly as a suppression weapon. Just as on that vehicle, they'll end up being removed in the near future, but since they were installed on the M-3 light tank, I figured the same team of US designers would put them on this vehicle.

Ie, they're not very useful, but give a historically correct flavor.

Behold, I see a country making historically-justified design decisions without reverting to the use of Foresight Knowledge & Technology Co. expertise! *Pins a Medal of Exceptionalism on Hrolf.*

Totally in line with U.S. thinking of the time. They LOVED to put as many MG's as they could on their tanks, the M-2 and M-3 designs come to mind.

Yep. Also, see the historical M-3 medium tank, which had 2 fixed 0.30s in the left side of the glacis plate. This was on a design accepted in 1941, so after the events of 1939-40 have occurred. It's not until the M-4 is accepted that the fixed MGs go away from US medium tank designs.

Quoted

Originally posted by Brockpaine
Behold, I see a country making historically-justified design decisions without reverting to the use of Foresight Knowledge & Technology Co. expertise! *Pins a Medal of Exceptionalism on Hrolf.*

Strange remark

Quoted

Originally posted by Vukovlad

Quoted

Originally posted by Brockpaine
Behold, I see a country making historically-justified design decisions without reverting to the use of Foresight Knowledge & Technology Co. expertise! *Pins a Medal of Exceptionalism on Hrolf.*

Strange remark

For some, yes it is.

So how is this more historically more justified than the other WW tanks? A army that hasnt fought a major war since the 1860´s drops its pet ideas about tanks and goes straight for an tank inspired OTL by the Pz III/IV performance in France 1940

That tank could be explained as a Matilda Infantry Support tank equivalent. I think the three inch gun should be low velocity gun. The latest designs by Gothia are only a year old in WW time so they are still new and not everyone has digested that ideas. Even the Germans and Dutch are fielding tanks with main guns in the 50mm-60mm range IIRC. Just my two cents.

Quoted

Originally posted by howard
What they do have in WW is the Andes War and sideline observation of WW I, plus J Walter Christie.

Don't forget watching the much more extensive tank battles of the South American War...

Where the consensus was that no guns bigger than 50mm was needed and the medium tanks were slaughtered.
So again how is this "Historically justified" and deserves a medal when you heaped scorn on the other mediums?

Note that I have no problems with the US M-3 clone.

I agree with Howard. That why I said the tank makes sense as an infantry support tank, the main gun being low velocity for infantry support; the tank itself have the dimensions to be upgraded later on after the lessons of the war and maybe some maneuvers are digested by the US Army.