Lieutenant Norman Samuels' "super-heavy tank"

[blockhaj]

So a dude on the War Thunder forums, "Whelmy", found some docs on this Canadian "super heavy tank" a number of years back, designed by a Canadian dude named (lieutenant) Norman Samuels. Unfortunately i only saved one of the documents from his posts, but he did publish a number of them back in the day and they might be floating around the internet to this day.

From my memory, the thing was apparently able to be disassembled into several major parts for transportation and it could even fight with some of these parts being knocked out in combat. The gun was a 4 inch British naval gun from memory (101.6 mm). The armor was thick and the thing was apparently quite big.

A small scale and full scale mockup was apparently made and even inspected by the British, who liked the idea but thought it problematic to complete.

 

[Slakrrrrrr]

A brief description of the vehicle from a document in the Canadian Archives dubbed "Super Heavy Tank". It mostly references TOG trials in 1941 but has this brief description of the Canadian design.

 

[Slakrrrrrr]

Some more references of the vehicle. I don't remember the source, likely dug up by the aforementioned Whelm(y) or CaptianNemo.

 

[Apophenia]

Some observations and deductions (rather providing any truly new information) ...

For this "Sansom Tank", we have the direction of then-Major General Ernest Wm Sansom, commander 5th Canadian (Armoured) Division. [1] But the actual design being performed by a Norman Samuels. In the letter from Brig. Worthington (13 Dec 1941), we have "Lieut. Samuels, R.C.O.C.". Yet, in the earlier (08 Sept 1941) letter from Howard D'Egville, Norman Samuels' rank is given as Major.

Sir Howard claims to be acquainted with "a man whom I have known for some years as a clever engineer, who had brought forward several practical inventions". Since D'Egville was the Secretary-General of the Empire Parliamentary Association, should we assume that Samuels was an ex-pat (or a Brit on exchange)?

And, as a leading constitutional expert of his day, why would Sir Howard be so familiar with an engineer? Alas, online searches for "Norman Samuels" + engineer bought no joy. Nor did "Samuels" + "Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps" (as opposed to Sir Howard's erroneous 'R.C.A.O.C.' (Royal Canadian Army Ordnance Corps [sic]).

Interesting to see that "full length 4 inch naval guns" were the intended armament. That makes sense since the QF 4-inch Mk V naval guns were being assembled at Longueuil by DEW (Dominion Engineering Works). That ~101 mm gun with its L/45 barrel would have quite imposing!

_________________________

[1] BTW, the 1st Canadian Army Tank Brigade (formed in Feb 1941) had first been the 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade. Prior to that, then-Col. F. F. Worthington had been commander of the Armoured Fighting Vehicles Training Centre at Camp Borden.

 

[blockhaj]

Interesting to see that "full length 4 inch naval guns" were the intended armament. That makes sense since the QF 4-inch Mk V naval guns were being assembled at Longueuil by DEW (Dominion Engineering Works). That ~101 mm gun with its L/45 barrel would have quite imposing!

Ye. We are talking like 150 mm + of armor penetration at close range. For 1941 that would have been menacing.