Strv m/39

This page is about the Swedish premium light tank Strv m/39. For Twitch Drop gift version, see Strv m/39 TD.

Strv m/39

Strv m/39

Sweden

I Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
1.0	1.0	1.0

Class:

PREMIUM

Light tank

Purchase:250

Show in game

Description

The Stridsvagn m/39 was ordered in 1939 by KAF, that saw how new tank designs were shaping the battlefield, and the m/38 was considered to be too weak in terms of armour. The m/39 would have been a minor upgrade to its predecessor, with upgraded armour and other minor changes. AB Landsverk was against it however, since the m/38s hull was not able to sustain the increased weight. In the end, the turret was slightly modified, it included a new fire control system, as well as a lever steering system which was more favourable. While the m/38 was named L-60-S, the Stridsvagn m/39 was designated L-60-S/II.

Introduced in Update 1.97 "Viking Fury", the Strv m/39 plays much like the Strv m/38: it is fast, manoeuvrable, and has excellent firepower. While it lacks APHE, it has access to a powerful APDS shell with insanely good penetration values for such a low BR tank. The new turret has increased armour, up to 50 mm thickness. Its gun handling is also great, with a good turret traverse rate and excellent gun depression of -15 degrees. However the hull has very light armour, and the small crew makes the tank vulnerable to even autocannon fire.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armourfront / side / back

Hull13 / 13 / 13

Turret50 / 13 / 13

Crew3 people

Visibility70 %

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour
• Cast homogeneous armour (gun mantlet)

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	13 mm (58°) Upper glacis 13 mm (45°) Lower glacis 13 mm (30°) Upper plate 13 mm + 35 mm Driver's cupola	13 mm	13 mm (33°) Lower 9 + 15 mm (14°) Upper	4-13 mm
Turret	13 mm + 35 mm (14°) Turret front 13 mm + 35 mm (9°-72°) Gun mantlet	13 mm	13 mm	5- 8 mm
Cupola	13 mm	13 mm	13 mm	5 mm

Notes:

• Suspension wheels, tracks and torsion bars are 15 mm thick.

Mobility

Speedforward / back

AB51 / 6 km/h

RB and SB46 / 6 km/h

Number of gears4 forward

1 back

Weight8.9 t

Engine power

AB271 hp

RB and SB142 hp

Power-to-weight ratio

AB30.4 hp/t

RB and SB16.0 hp/t

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	51	6	8.9	220	271	24.72	30.45
Realistic	46	6		126	142	14.16	15.96

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB322

RB172

SB75

Total cost of modifications4 720

475

Crew training150

Experts1 000

Aces20

Research Aces145 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 20 / 20 / 20 %

2 × 75 / 75 / 75 %

Modifications

Mobility	Protection	Firepower
Tracks Research: 600 Cost: 60 60 Suspension Brake System Research: 500 Cost: 50 50 Filters Transmission Engine	Improved Parts Improved FPE Crew Replenishment	Horizontal Drive Research: 600 Cost: 60 60 Adjustment of Fire Research: 500 Cost: 50 50 Elevation Mechanism Research: 750 Cost: 75 75 Artillery Support Research: 590 Cost: 60 55 37mm_sw_m39_APHE_ammo_pack Research: 590 Cost: 60 55 37mm_sw_kan_APDS_ammo_pack Research: 590 Cost: 60 55

Armaments

Main armament

37 mm kan m/38 cannon

Ammunition100 rounds

Reloadbasic crew → aces

4.1 → 3.1 s

Vertical guidance-14° / 20°

37 mm kan m/38					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	100	-15°/+25°	±180°	N/A	15.23	21.08	25.60	28.31	30.12	4.03	3.57	3.29	3.10
Realistic					9.52	11.20	13.60	15.04	16.00

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
slpprj m/38	APBC	59	55	41	28	19	13
slpgr m/39	APHE	55	51	37	26	17	12
3,7 cm slpprj m/49	APDS	115	111	95	78	64	52

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
slpprj m/38	APBC	785	0.74	-	-	-	47°	60°	65°
slpgr m/39	APHE	800	0.74	1.2	9	15	47°	60°	65°
3,7 cm slpprj m/49	APDS	1,150	0.3	-	-	-	75°	78°	80°

Ammo racks

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	6th rack empty	7th rack empty	8th rack empty	9th rack empty	10th rack empty	11th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
100	81 (+19)	71 (+29)	61 (+39)	51 (+49)	41 (+59)	34 (+66)	28 (+72)	21 (+79)	14 (+86)	8 (+92)	1 (+99)	No

Ammo racks of the Strv m/38 (identical)

Machine guns

2 x 7.62 mm ksp m/39B machine gun (coaxial)

Ammunition3 500 rounds

Belt capacity250 rounds

Reloadbasic crew → aces

10.4 → 8.0 s

Fire rate649 shots/min

8 mm ksp m/39B
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Coaxial	1,750 (250)	649	-10°/+25°	N/A
Coaxial	1,750 (250)	649	-10°/+25°	N/A

Usage in battles

The Strv m/39 has a similar gameplay style to the Strv m/38. It's a fast light manoeuvrable tank with excellent firepower and adequate protection for its battle rating. Unlike the predecessor m/38, the m/39 got a more heavily armoured frontal turret with 50 mm thickness, making it an excellent hulled down vehicle. The Strv m/39 like its predecessor has an excellent gun depression and is able to look over hills without exposing itself too much to the enemies.

The Strv m/39 has an APDS round at a very low BR, which gives it a good advantage in long distance engagements and against more heavily armoured vehicles. As such, it can make a very reliable sniper, even when brought to higher BRs. While the APDS has a high penetration, it has mediocre post-penetration damage, making it hard to take out the spaced out crew members with a single hit in big vehicles like the LVT(A)(1) or the T-28. This forces the player to aim properly at crew positions and modules on the tanks, giving the enemy time to return fire, unless the gunner and commander are immediately eliminated.

The Strv m/39 is good at getting quickly to locations, making it an excellent vehicle to employ hit-and-run and ambush strategies with, as well as being useful as an objective taker . The best part of the Strv m/39 is being able to utilize hilly terrain on certain maps to its advantage while in a hull down position, making it a dangerous target to face in the hands of a good player.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Still effective in up-tiers, since it has access to a high-penetrating APDS shell with an amazing 105mm penetration and high velocity
• Amazing -15 degrees gun depression means that it can adapt different terrains very well
• Fast reload, up to 3.1 seconds with an ACE crew.
• Decent turret armour, offering up to 35mm at the front and with sloping for increased protection.
• Fast top speed up to 45 km/h
• Is a small target

Cons:

• Only 3 crew members
• Armour is inadequate to resist high-penetrating shells, for example a Pz.II can penetrate it frontally
• Slow turret traverse speed with 11.2°/s
• Very average reverse speed of -7 km/h
• 5-8 mm roof armour can be penetrated by common aircraft such as ones with 12.7 mm M2, and He-112 A0

History

The Strv m/39 is a continued design from the Strv m/38. In 1939, KAF had started discussions about ordering 20 new Strv m/38s to improve the strength of the armoured company and, seeing the international way of designing tanks equipped with cannons, they requested that new designs of Strv m/38 should have improved armour by making it thicker to combat this threat. AB Landsverk was against it since the construction of the L-60-S (Strv m/38) would not be able to handle this request of the additional weight the new armour would add to it. And because of this made them a contract that there would be small changes to the L-60-S, mainly modifications to the turret adding room for an additional machine gun to be placed. Additionally, there would a new control system for the tank, Strv m/38 had the old system using a steering wheel, the new tank would use lever steering which was more favourable.

When the contract was signed for these new tanks 19 December 1939, the new improved tank got the designation L-60-S/II and was supposed to be delivered in middle of October 1940, but trouble and delays for the 37 mm Bofors cannons for the tanks delayed it until Spring 1941 which at time tanks had improved a lot and there was demand for thicker armour again. They wanted to increase the frontal armour of the L-60-S/II from 15 to 50 mm but this would only happen in case of combat that it would be added as add-on armour onto the tanks. But during exercise the tanks would not have this additional armour on them to not wear out the new vehicles. L-60-S/II would get the designation Strv m/39 by the army.

The Strv m/39 was in use till 1957.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Strv m/39 from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

Strv M/39 Premium Tank Review. An excellent all rounder - Joseph 2000

See also

• Strv m/39 TD
• Strv m/38
• Toldi IIA

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.

AB Landsverk
Light Tanks
L-10	Strv m/31
L-60	Strv m/38 · Strv m/39 · Strv m/40L
Pbil m/40	Pbil m/40
Strv 74	Strv 74
Unimog 404	U-SH 405
Medium Tanks
Lago	Lago I · Strv m/42 EH · Ikv 73 · Strv m/42 DT
Tank Destroyers
Ikv 72	Ikv 72 · Ikv 103
Pvkv m/43	Pvkv m/43 (1946) · Pvkv m/43 (1963)
Pvkv II/III	Pvkv II · Pvkv III
SPAA	Pvlvv fm/42 · L-62 ANTI II