Armada BT series Tanks part 2

Cookie Sewell

Immediately following on the heels of the Armada Book Number 9 on the early BT tanks is this one, Part 2 of what appears to be three-part series,which concentrates exclusively on the BT-5 and its derivatives. As with all of these excellent books, there is a short synopsis at the front in English, and abbreviated English language captions under each illustration. Seven vehicles receive color broadsides, and there are numerous plans and illustrations with callouts (alas, all in Russian) plus a goodly bit on the tank's operational use in combat  Unfortunately, many of the really interesting parts are NOT translated or well described. Most bizarre and interesting was a section on pages 16 and 17 which described a concept for a centrifugal machine gun armed BT tank. The tank was provided with a powerful electric motor which drove a flywheel at high speed. A hopper was then to feed 13.5mm steel balls into the flywheel which would zing them out the front of the mantelet at speeds of 360 meters per second. The volume of fire was expected to be between 4,000 and 6,000 rounds per minute. But, range was estimated to not be more than 1,000 meters, the balls could not penetrate armored or hardened targets, the generator and flywheel increased the weight of the tank by 1,200 kilograms, and the engine was not reliable enough (life expectancy before overhaul was less than 100 hours) to provide the power needed to run the generator and motor and make the thing work.