The M39 was a well-made Dutch 6x4 armored car of the late 1930's.
Although the wheels weren't evenly spaced and the first pair weren't
driven, it had good cross-country mobility. Part of this was due to a
pair of small wheels on the front hull, which helped crossing ditches
and other depressions without digging in. A door in each side of the
hull between the first and second pair of wheels allowed easy crew
access (the rear gunner had his own door in the left side of the hull
over the rear two wheels). Like some armored cars of the period, it had
a rear gunner (to the left of the Ford V-8 engine) who also could drive
the car in emergencies. The exposed machinegun barrels were protected
by armored sleeves, giving them the appearance of stubby cannons. Only
12 were delivered before the Germans invaded. Captured M39's (as many
as eight) were used for anti-partisan duty by the Germans, renamed
Pz.SpWgL202h. No M39's survived the war.
The M39 had a crew of five, driver, co-driver (who fired the forward hull MG) and rear machinegunner in the body (who also served as a second driver) and gunner and commander in the turret. The turret was manually rotated at 7 degrees per second by the gunner. The M39 used 3.2 gallons of fuel per hour at routine usage.
Subassemblies: Small Wheeled chassis with Heavy option +3,
Small AFV turret
+2, six off-road wheels +1.
Powertrain: 71-kW gas engine with 71-kW all-wheel drive wheeled
transmission
and 26.4-gallon self-sealing fuel tank; 4,000-kWs batteries
Occupancy: 3 CS Body, 2 CS Turret. Cargo: 5 Body,
1.5 Turret
Armor
Body: F 4/35, RL 4/30, B 4/20, T 4/25, U 4/20
Tur: F 4/35, RL 4/30, B 4/30, T 4/25, U 0/0
Weaponry
37mm Medium Tank Gun [Turret:F] (90).
Ground LMG [Turret:F] (2,000).
Ground LMG [Body:F,B] (2,000 total).
Equipment
Body: Medium radio transmitter and transceiver, duplicate
controls.
Statistics
| Size: 16'x7'x7' | Payload : 0.95 tons | Lwt: 6.78 tons |
| Volume: 51 |
Maint.: 104 hours | Price: $3,700 |
HT: 12
HP: 500 [body], 150 [turret], 60 [each wheel]
| gSpeed: 37 |
gAccel: 2 | gDecel: 10 | gMR: 0.75 | gSR: 4 |
Design Notes
Although the M39 technically did not have all-wheel drive, it's
off-road performance was good enough to design it as such. Also, the
design was just slightly into the Very High Ground Pressure column;
this was also reduced because of the historical cross-country
performance.