Just to keep the Housemartin happy; the dreaded Soviet floating (and flying) tanks

     My long-standing friend (and my Nemesis in my quest to find the most obscure and outlandish subject to wargame; he currently holds the title with the Russians vs the Aleuts in Alaska @1750) kindly pointed out that I had missed a couple of significant Soviet tanks so he I am correcting that oversight.

 

Soviet tank crews looking for a good fishing spot

T-38  Amphibious Tank        Size    3      Armor   7
Move:   Road   14"       Good   12"    Bad   6"   Obstacle -4"

NOTE, If the Bad Going is wet then the T-38 may move at 8"
It may cross water obstacles of any width at 6" per turn

7.62mm DT MMG
Range    up to 6”      up to 18”  

Dice           2d6            2d6-2        

to hit        +2                   0                  

two shots per turn if stationary and not changing target

 

T-38RT  Amphibious Tank        Size    3      Armor   7
Move:   Road   14"       Good   12"    Bad   6"   Obstacle -4"

NOTE, If the Bad Going is wet then the T-38 may move at 8"
It may cross water obstacles of any width at 6" per turn
 

20mm Autocannon

Range    up to 6”      up to 18”     up to 26”

Dice        2d6+3          2d6+1          2d6

to hit        +2                +1                0

two shots per turn if stationary and not changing target

 

T-40 Amphibious Tank     Size 3      Armor  8

Move:   Road   14"       Good   12"    Bad   6"   Obstacle -4"

NOTE, If the Bad Going is wet then the T-38 may move at 8"
It may cross water obstacles of any width at 6" per turn

 12.7mm DShK HMG

Range     up to 6”     up to 18”    up to 26”

Dice         2d6+3        2d6+2          2d6

to hit         +2              +1                0
May fire twice if stationary


  Honestly, when the Housemartin mentioned the Soviet "Flying Tank" I thought of this:

  Of course he meant this:

        Yes that is a Soviet T-60 tank made into a glider. Tests showed that it could be towed into the air behind the giant TB-3 bombers and it could land successfully. The lack of a larger, more powerful, aircraft prevented this from being put into operational use. The one test flight was successful.

    They were apparently convinced into giving it a try by J. Walter Christie (the father of the Christie Tank suspension and the whole BT series of Soviet tanks)

 

     Somebody who wasn't a tank designer managed to get them to try a glider first. Oleg Anotov was given this delightful task and produced this, lucky for him it worked the one time it was tested and he didn't get a one-way ticket to Siberia.

       Other experiments had the T-38 hoisted up under the same TB-3, this was tested extensively and proved successful with the minor problem of finding airfields conveniently located near battlefields, this was not used operationally as far as I can tell (there were a number of other seemingly crazy "stick extra stuff on my giant airplane" ideas that the Soviets engaged in, see the Zveno Project for details).

     And they even tried dropping them (into water) from a flying TB-3!

 

ya gotta hope that the crew were excellent swimmers!

     The Russians weren't the only ones that toyed with the idea, the Japanese gave it a try,

 

the Madea KU-6

 Even the staid Brits gave it a go with the Baynes Bat

 

look Ma! no tail

 before they discovered that you could just launch a Universal Carrier into flight all on it's own!

Carrier, Universal           Size       3                   Armor   9
Move; Road   20"      Good   15"     Bad   8"   Obstacle   -3"

Rifle, Anti-Tank, .55in, Boys

Range     up to 6”     up to 18”    up to 26”

Dice         2d6+3        2d6+1          2d6

to hit         +2               0                 -1

or

Bren LMG
Range    up to 6”      up to 18”

Dice           2d6            2d6-2        

to hit        +2                   0                  

two shots per turn if stationary and not changing target