Pc.KTr.37 Tas

The Pc.KTr.37 Tas was a Granzerian medium tank design of the Second Great War. It was developed to counter contemporary Stasnovan and Gorbatovic tanks such as the which outperformed most Granzerian armour of the time. Until 1944 it was also the heaviest armoured vehicle in the Granzerian arsenal, and often filled the role of a heavy tank prior to the introduction of the Pc.KTr. 68. It was considered one of the best medium tanks of the war, alongside its very similar Elesarian counterpart, the.

Although both the Tas and Pantera were loosely based on the same initial joint Granzo-Elesarian prototype, known in Granzerian nomenclature as the WK-1701. The Tas was vastly different both in terms of armour, armament and internal design, retaining only a loose external resemblance to the Pantera. The Tas incorporated the PL 43M main gun, a licence production of the Tennish TBA tank gun, with greater penetrative and high explosive properties compared to the 76 and 75mm guns used by its counterparts.

Design


In 1941 Granzery already realized that its tank productions were mostly obsolete and had little chance of survival against Stasnovan medium tanks. To solve the problem, a number of stopgap measures were immediately taken to rectify the issue, including the introduction of the long-barrelled Sárközy III medium tank and Ppsz 216 tank destroyers, which would be capable of matching modern Stasnovan armour. However at the same time the Institute of Military Technology (KTI) and Elesarian designers began work on a new medium tank incorporating the sloped armour of the T-34 with the upgraded engine and drivetrain. Although this project was ultimately scrapped later that year, the efforts would go on to inspire both the Elesarian Pantera and Granzerian Tas.

In test trials the Tennish 76.2mm gun was tested against both Elesarian 7.5cm and Granzerian 80mm tank guns, and was found to be the most effective at dealing with sloped armour and would be capable of defeating all but the heaviest tanks in the Stasnovan or Vazandian arsenal. Other changes compared to the Pantera included marginally thicker armour with a more extreme sloping angle, greatly increasing its effective armour thickness. These changes were primarily to compensate for the Granzerian lack of heavy tank designs, and would allow the Tas to perform the role of a heavy tank if the situation demanded it.