The Praying Mantis - as a modern day´s robot tank might be a more practicl idea. Low silhuet sneaking through the landscape - maybe release a drone and then raise it´s head when a target was within range to shoot and duck to disappear again :)
The concept of direct fire is so diminshed by now, I don't really see the point. Just having another "normal" SPG using "normal" guided ammo is going to beat out the investment.
Loved this, thanks. But seriously, they ALL look like the sort of things we used to draw back when we were kids. Of course we didn't have to worry about real-life things such as sinking straight into any ground that the things had to travel over, even paved roads. Kids' imaginations are wonderful and boundless, but adults who seriously try to push the same ideas, well, they have to have a screw loose somewhere. NB - shout out for HG Wells' 'The Land Ironclads', a truly prophetic short story in its time. His version has the machines moving on hydraulic legs, striding over trenches and such, and foresees war reduced to mere mechanical slaughter. Though the form may have been quite different, he lived to see many of his most horrific predictions come true, and not enough of his positive ones.
The Brits, being the inventors of the Tank, erred in many ways very early in trials, however their rhombus tank of various marks, were sheer genius for a first ever real tank. Much more work was needed, but Churchill held back any rearmament efforts way too long. Without the diplomatic acquiescence of Chamberlain and the following phoney war period, Britain would have been in a total bloodbath.
I like those videos a lot. Can't wait for the French one, given how creative they are with cars and planes, I guess they had some out of the box thinking with tanks as well. (French engineers are the best) I also really, really love those childish upscale a thing you really shouldn't upscale ideas. "How about we take a sopwith camel but the size of the empire state building with fifty 20inch naval guns on each of the four wings! That'll show the Boche who's boss!"
And ships, before the Dreadnought kicked in they started designing like 535324 designs of Warships, its a prettty cool story, makes up for some weird looking battleships
When talking about weights in tons, you should probably specify which ton you're using. You put that a Mark I weighed 31 tons, but that's 31 US tons. Which is 27.6 Imperial tons (what the British use/used) or 28.1 Metric tonnes.
Your channel is criminally under subbed. I watched a couple of your videos and didn’t even notice the view count and sub number and was shocked just now. You create some of the best history content I’ve seen on RU-vid, please keep up the great work sir!
Not British in particular but just inventors of any nation "pushing the boundaries" to see what is possible... For every British "Unrotated projectile rocket barrage" was a "German wind Kanone" .
Surprised you didn't mention the British "CDL" or "Canal defence light" tanks that were designed to support night attacks against enemy positions and which directed a narrow but very wide bean of intense strobing carbon arc lighting at enemy troops. 300 were ordered by the British and the US also developed their own versions.
If they - at least - made the mantis with a camouflaged tree like armored trunk beside a regular driver position it may have been a - somewhat - useful scouting vehicle. Drive there at night, raise the "tree" ( if at least near any wood) and scoot the next night. Fake trees were used in WWI relatively sucessful and a mobile version may have been of some use. But this abomination ....lol
No 1. So it is safe to say that Kahn truly did have massive balls bu then again, he was a product of Eugenics.... Oops may have got the wrong Kahn there... Star Trek, Wrath of Kahn (Ricardo Montalban) and Star Trek (reboot) Into Darkness with Benedict Cabbagepatch) 'Kaaaaahn!!!!!
#4: I haven't been to Egypt, so it's hard to picture a pyramid to imagine the size of that tank. What's something that size, that more people have seen?
@@StevieB8363 yeah, haven't seen that, either, neither has most Americans. How about something that most people have seen. Like football fields, or semi trucks… Not for me, I'm pretty good at imagining large objects from just the dimensions in feet or meters, but most people aren't very good at that. This is only a possible improvement for the general audience.
The preying mantis would have been very very useful in Normandy 1944. The bocage hedges proved a very difficult obstacle, and a way of raising an armoured MG gunner over the tall hedges would have greatly helped assaulting these obstacles. What a shame.
I realize this is probably foolish of me but a part of my brain insists that the Praying Mantis design is onto something. Like, not the way it is, but a extendable crane of sorts with a assembly to mount a recoilless rifle or ATGM launcher alongside optics? Park the vehicle it is mounted on behind a ridge or a bunch of trees, unfold the gun system, extend it over the crest/treetop and you'd be good to go - relatively save from return fire, low risk for the operators, proven tech base, kinda cheap. Then again, I suppose you could have much the same effect by sticking a guy with a javelin launcher on top of a fire engine.
My favorite weird tank that actually worked is still the old Swedish one that merged the turret and just adjusted the whole damn tank like a stretching cat!!! 😂
Downscale Cory's design (#5), include better engines, and it could have actually been a viable design for the era, as it's basically the Mark 1 (with extra guns), but flipped 90degrees... It's only it's scale that makes it so ridiculous...
I'd make the Mantis again. Put that hummer tire on a chassis that morphs into a triangular track. More like an atv with a 3 story folding stork neck. Cameras and a joystick hooked to four .50's and two javelins or similar. Give it one job,; peeking over rooftops, walls and high ground. A shoot-n-scoot that uses buildings instead of carrying armor. Just weld a set of steps on it and your support can use it. Sounds more fun than practical, even though a lot of things can't see for 💩 in tall cornfields or sawgrass.
