The Tortoise heavy assault tank (A39) was a British heavy assault gun design developed during the Second World War, but never put into mass production. It was developed for the task of clearing heavily fortified areas such as the Siegfried Line and as a result favored armor protection over mobility. Although heavy, at 78 tons, and not readily transported, it was considered reliable and a good gun platform. Only a few prototypes of the Tortoise had been produced by the end of the war.

The primary requirement for an assault tank is armor, to enable the tank to assault a heavily emplaced enemy. This led to Tortoise having very thick armor, arranged as a one piece casemate to avoid the weak spots of a turret design. This differs from the design of other wartime era assault tanks, the Excelsior tank and Assault Tank T14. Since the Tortoise had a fixed casemate superstructure instead of a turret, it can be classified as a self-propelled gun or an assault gun and not a tank. The crew included a commander, driver, and gunner, with two loaders for the 32-pounder gun and two machine gunners. Internally, it was split into three compartments: the transmission to the front, the crew in the center and the Rolls-Royce Meteor engine at the rear. The suspension consisted of four bogies on each side of the hull. Each bogie had two pairs of wheels, with each pair linked to a transverse torsion bar. The Merritt-Brown transmission was fitted with an all speed reverse, giving approximately the same speed backwards as forwards.

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of a British A39 Tortoise heavy assault tank in green. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Length: 5-1/2-inches
Width: 2-inches

Release Date: February 2022

Historical Account: "Adapt and Improvise" - The Ordnance QF 32 pounder gun design was adapted from the British 3.7 inch anti-aircraft gun. The ammunition used a separate charge and shell, the latter a 32-pound (14.5 kg) armor piercing shot (APCBC). In tests, the gun was successful against a German Panther tank at nearly 1,000 yards.

The 32-pdr gun was mounted in a power-assisted limited traverse mounting; rather than being mounted on the more traditional trunnions, it protruded through a large ball mount in the front of the hull, protected by 225 mm armor. To the left of it was a Besa machine gun in an armored ball mount. A further two Besa machine guns were mounted in a turret on the top of the hull to the right.