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WORLD WAR 2

X-TANK

Tank, Heavy, TOG 1

Heavy Tank Project

Still fearing that a potential war enveloping Europe would turn into the trench-based slogfests that were World War 1, a group of experienced British Great War engineers and specialists making up the "Special Vehicle Development Committee" met in July of 1939 to draw up plans for a special breed of tank designed for such specific combat. The new tank system would be heavily armed and armored for the role, weighing in at 90 tons and capable of traversing long spaces of trenches.

The design, billed formally as "Tank, Heavy, TOG 1, measured in at over 33 feet long with a 10 foot width and well over 9 feet high. Power was supplied from a single Paxman brand diesel-fueled engine developing 600 horsepower. Its projected speed was approximately 9 miles per hour in ideal conditions - perhaps somewhat optimistic. Suspension was unsprung and the drive was electro-mechanical in nature. Primary armament was a single QF 2-pdr field gun held in a traversing turret along with 4 x 7.7mm general purpose machine guns held in side sponsons. The operating crew consisted of eight personnel to include the driver, the vehicle commander, a dedicated gunner and ammunition loader and four machine gunners. All told, the project was undoubtedly ambitious but its design approach lagged behind the times of contemporary tank designs.

The pilot vehicle was officially constructed throughout 1939 and in 1940 to which it was then presented in October for formal evaluation by authorities. However, it was during this short period that problems soon arose with the drive system, forcing a redesign of the entire unit to operate as a hydraulically-based system. This conversion delayed the TOG 1 project for a substantial time to which the system was once again made ready for testing in May of 1943 - the war now being fully spread throughout Europe and the world. The revised TOG 1 design was now redesignated as the TOG 1A and never proceeded beyond the single prototype. Somewhere down the line, the program was cancelled by authorities and fell to the pages of history for much more important matters erupted for British authorities and improved combat tanks such as the American M4 Sherman (and all its storied variants) had become available in increasingly larger numbers to Allies.

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