Lower the tank - (G)

E 10 - project of a light tank weighing about 10 tons.

Work on the creation of the E-10 began in 1944. It should have been maximally unified with the rest of the E-series tanks, while being as technologically advanced in production and not requiring large resources. The project of the tank was created by the firm "Kloeker-Humboldt-Deutz", which had never before worked on the development of armored vehicles. It was planned to replace this light tank with a tank Pz. 38 (t) and cars on its base, as well as the fighter of the tanks JagdPanzer 38 (t) «Hetzer».

The design of the E-10 in general is similar to the design of light German tank destroyers "Hetzer". In order to save weight, reduce the number of parts and reduce the overall height of the tank, the tower as such was decided to be deleted. As a result, the body of a rather simple shape received a strongly inclined upper frontal armored car, in which a 75-mm cannon 7.5 cm PaK 39 was mounted (as on "Hetzer").

Support rollers were arranged in staggered order, four on a board with a diameter of 1000 mm each. Their suspension consisted of external levers, attached to the body, using washers as springs. With the help of hydraulic drive it was possible to adjust the height of the clearance: it varied within 200 mm. Thus, the total height of the tank was in the range of 1400-1600 mm.

Due to the modest size it was necessary to abandon the standard for German tanks and automatic control systems - now the hydrodynamic transmission was located behind, next to the engine. This simplified its dismantling and maintenance, and in addition, it allowed to increase the space of the combat compartment. Engine compartment and rear armored plates were planned to be made completely removable so that it was possible to dismantle the engine and transmission with a single unit.

As the main types of power plant was planned to use gasoline engines "Maybach HL 100" with water cooling capacity of 400 liters. from. or "Argus" with air cooling capacity of 350 liters. from. The design speed of the E-10 would be 65-70 km / h when driving on the highway.

The work on the E-10 project ceased after a few months. Its estimated mass was about 15-16 tons, although it was supposed to be ten-ton by condition. The absence of a tower precluded the possibility of a round-robin attack without turning the whole car, and the suspension and transmission were not well mastered by the industry, which would create obstacles in the deployment of mass production.

No prototype of the light tank E 10 was built. [1]