T18E2 Boarhound Armored Car
The British were impressed with the performance of the SdKfz 231
8-Rad (p.W:IC76) German armored car in North Africa in 1940-41 and
requested US assistance in creating an equivalent. In early 1942, the
T18 (eight wheels) and T18E1 (six wheels) were created, both using the
turret of the M-3 light tank (p.W:DF78), armed with a 37mm gun. This
was felt to be inadequate and in late 1942 work started on a large
eight-wheeled car with a 57mm (6-pdr) gun. Shortly after it entered
production, the US decided it had no use for such a heavy armored car
and canceled the project. Thirty already started were completed and
sent to the British in 1943, who named it the Boarhound. However, by
this time the desert campaign was over and the mission of the T18 no
longer existed. The Boarhound was used for testing but never saw combat.
The Boarhound had a crew of five: commander, main gunner, loader, driver and assistant driver/bow gunner. The turret has a powered traverse of 21 degrees per second and 2 degrees per second manually. It burned 3.5 gallons per hour at normal usage.
Subassemblies: Heavy Standard Wheeled Chassis +3, Small AFV
full
rotation Turret +2, eight Wheels +1
P&P: 2x72.5-kW gasoline engines with 145-kW all-wheel
drivetrain, 8,000
kWs lead-acid battery, 54 gallon standard fuel tank
Occ: 2 CS Body, 3 Both
Cargo: 9 Body, 1 Turret
| Armor | F | R/L | B | T | U |
| Body | 4/140 | 4/50 | 4/35 | 4/25 | 4/25 |
| Turret | 4/140 | 4/60 | 4/40 | 4/25 | 0/0 |
| Wheels | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
Armament
57mm Medium TG/M-1 [Tur: F] (70 rounds)
Ground LMG/M-1919A4 [Tur: F] (2,000).
Ground LMG/M-1919A4 [Body: F] (1,000)
.
Equipment
Body: Medium range radio receiver and transmitter, fire
extinguisher, 2-kW traversing gear, 2x4 VSP storage bins (DR 10), 2x1
VSP storage bins (DR 10).
Statistics
| Size: 21'x10'x9' | Payload: 1 ton | Lwt: 26.5 tons |
| Volume: 69 |
Maint.: 83 hours | Price: $5,800 |
HT: 7.
HP: 660 [body], 150 [turret], 55 [each wheel]
| gSpeed: 50 | gAccel: 2 | gDecel: 10 | gMR: 0.75 | gSR: 4 | GP: Ext High (1/8) |
Design gSpeed was 37 mph; the historical speed was used. For
simplicity, the external storage bins used available internal empty
space.
Some sources list a crew of only four (no dedicated loader).