Bullet armor

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The spherical armor in the Kubinka Museum
Ball armor in side view

The spherical tank is an unusual and extremely rare armored vehicle from the time of the Second World War .

German spherical tank

Only one copy still exists today. Today it is in the collection of German armored vehicles in the Kubinka Tank Museum . The spherical armor is only described there as "exhibit no. 37". The vehicle has been changed since its capture, the drive was removed and it was repainted or repainted. In 2000 the original paintwork was restored.

The history of the vehicle is practically unknown as no documents were captured and no markings can be seen.

Only five points seem certain:

  1. It is a German-made vehicle that was shipped to Japan .
  2. It was used as a light reconnaissance vehicle.
  3. It was captured by Soviet troops in 1945 , presumably in Manchuria .
  4. The outer armor is only 5 mm thick.
  5. The vehicle was powered by a single-cylinder two - stroke engine.

The functionality of the vehicle can only be inferred from its exterior. It seems to be a one-man reconnaissance tank, equipped with an armored outer wall and a viewing slot. The drive was probably located under or behind the driver. At the rear there is a steerable wheel to shift the center of gravity behind the axis of the two track wheels and to support rotary movements that are carried out with the track wheels.

In stationary operation, the tank could probably serve as an armored refuge or makeshift bunker. Based on the available image material, it cannot be determined whether firearms could be used from the tank and whether there was an opening for firearms below the viewing slot.

Similar tanks

One-man tank Bouclier roulant

A tumbleweed tank was described in an article in Popular Science magazine in 1936. A Texan inventor had presented this tank design. It was considerably larger than the German spherical tank - it was supposed to offer space for three people, three machine guns, equipment and a motor.

Forerunners of small movable armor for one person existed in the First World War . In France, such tanks were introduced under the name Bouclier roulant .

literature

  • Robert Dale Arndt Jr .: Strange Vehicles of Pre-War Germany & the Third Reich (1928–1945) . 2006, IRP Publication

Web links

Commons : Ball Armor  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tumbleweed Tank. (No longer available online.) In: Popular Science. June 1936, archived from the original on December 23, 2014 ; accessed on November 11, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Les Boucliers roulants. In: humanbonb.free.fr. Retrieved November 11, 2014 (French).