A piece of tank history: the fm/21

[Hammers]

This German tank was never ready for use before the armistice but were hidden away from allied inspection which forbade the production and formation of an armoured force. In the early 1920s Sweden imported the parts to ten of these under the name of "farming machinery and cut boiler plate" and they were assembled to Sweden's first armoured battalion.



There is still one example around, the only one in the world, and it chuffed around as late as 1979.

[former user]

thx for sharing

was totally new to me!
Ts,Ts, and I call myself a tank freak ...

[Doc Twilight]

The Hungarians bought a few of these in secret via the Swedes in the 1920s, again under the label of "agricultural equipment". In Hungarian service they were called L21s.

By the time that the Hungarian tank force was "modernized", there was thought to using them as training tanks, but sometime in the mid 30s they'd been placed in a storage facility and essentially left to rust. They were deemed "unsalvageable". According to one source I read while doing my Hungarian book, "unsalvageable, even for scrap". So they must have been in -terrible- shape.

Anyway, it's a neat looking tank. Something we might get around to doing eventually at BA.

-Doc

[answer_is_42]

I'd never heard of them either. Pretty nifty, reminds me of the British Whippet.

[commissarmoody]

Some one needs to make some 

[Westfalia Chris]

The German original design was called the L.K. II (Leichter Kampfwagen 2, or Light Combat Car 2) and was indeed intended as an "German Whippet", but as Hammers pointed out, the design was only sold to Sweden and never built in Germany.

[Doc Twilight]

The German original design was called the L.K. II (Leichter Kampfwagen 2, or Light Combat Car 2) and was indeed intended as an "German Whippet", but as Hammers pointed out, the design was only sold to Sweden and never built in Germany.

It may have only been sold to Sweden officially, but it was very much a part of the Hungarian tank arm in the late 20s/early 30s.
In some cases, they were used without armament installed, but as the Allied inspections became less common, they saw more open use.

Incidentally, one of my sources also calls these LKII in Hungarian arsenals, so I suppose either terminology is correct.

-Doc

[Tobsen77]

This looks like a tank for my workbench

[former user]

This looks like a tank for my workbench

Oh, big surprise

[WillieB]

This looks like a tank for my workbench

If you do sign me up for 2!

I think there's more than one survivor though. The Panzermuseum in Munster has an LK II I believe, and there is a least one Swedish Strv/mv 21 in the Swedish Axxal? museum, probably two. One could be the later m29 with a 37mm Bofors gun and a much better engine, but I haven't seen them yet.

AFAIK none of the two LK Is survived ( exactly the same except for a non- rotating turret and a single machine gun) left.

[Hammers]

If you do sign me up for 2!

I think there's more than one survivor though. The Panzermuseum in Munster has an LK II I believe, and there is a least one Swedish Strv/mv 21 in the Swedish Axxal? museum, probably two. One could be the later m29 with a 37mm Bofors gun and a much better engine, but I haven't seen them yet.

AFAIK none of the two LK Is survived ( exactly the same except for a non- rotating turret and a single machine gun) left.

Axvall. They are remaking their home page as they are building a new museum. Lots of surprising stuff in there as Sweden apparently bought a lot of after the war. There are parts of a King Tiger with a Porche turret, purchased from France in the late 40s. The tank in question was used for target practice for a long time. I bet they regret that now, considering how few that were made.

[Prof Steelblade]

Swedish warmuseum have a small book about swedish panzar and there is a chapter about this tank and alot of nice pictures.

A really nice picture is when the whole batalion is shown together with a renault tank and some suportcars and a motorcykel with sidecar..

[fastolfrus]

Glynis says it's really quite cute.
But not as cute as the little Renault bath ducks.

Although, it does have a towing hook - would it pull a family caravan ?


Nice paint scheme. Is this an official Swedish army pattern or the Hammers family paintjob ?

[fastolfrus]

Prompted by the picture we've just looked to see what else we could find about it and turned up this nifty little film :



Do some of them have fishing rods on the back ?

The one wizzing through the snow looks quite fast.

Wonder if the driver of the one that got stuck driving through a barn got into trouble....

[Prof Steelblade]

The fishing rod is the antenna that was triangelshaped.
About the paintsheme it seams the colourpicture have the original paintsheme put in the pictures when the tank was in Swedish service it seams to have been in just one colour, probebly green. In the book is one picture of a wintercamoflage sheme and it chalkwater painted in big patches.

The maximum speed was 16km/h for thefm/22 and for the upgraded with a new engine it was 18km/h. So it's really swoshing