Somua SM

Somua SM

Somua SM

France

V Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
7.7	7.7	7.7

Class:

PREMIUM

Heavy tank

Purchase:Bundle or Gift

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Description

The Somua SM is a premium gift rank V French heavy tank with a battle rating of 7.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Raining Fire".

General info

Survivability and armour

The upper glacis of the hull and the upper part of the turret are the only well-protected areas, which will give you good protection against most conventional rounds, especially from far ranges. However, the rest of the armour is very weak and can be easily penetrated by pretty much everything, and you will still be vulnerable against HEAT-FS, ATGMs, APFSDS and such. Your best bet is to flank the enemy and take them out with your auto-loading gun before they can get a hit on you. If an enemy spots you, face them so they can only hit the front of the tank, and hope that they don't hit the very weak bottom portion of your turret. Try not to angle your tank as the sides can easily be penetrated. Since you have 5 crew members, with 2 in the front of the hull and 3 in the turret, and come equipped with a handy autoloader, you can take a few hits and lose a couple of crew members without having to worry too much.

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	150 mm (55°) Front glacis 60 mm (55°) Lower glacis	40 mm (25°) Top 40 mm Bottom	40 mm (30°)	5 - 20 mm
Turret	40 - 120 mm Turret front 200 mm Gun mantlet	40 - 60 mm	40 mm	30 mm
Cupola	30 mm	30 mm	30 mm	30 mm

Notes:

Mobility

Although heavier and not as mobile as the AMX 50 or Lorraine 40t, the SOMUA SM is still pretty mobile for a heavy tank. You will still want to flank the enemy as much as possible and take them out quickly with your auto-loading gun, but don’t be afraid to take a few hits from the front. However, your reverse speed is pretty slow and will not save you, so watch out for that.

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	54	7	60	_,___	1,908	__.__	31.8
Realistic	51	6		_,___	1,000	__.__	16.67

Armaments

Main armament

Give the reader information about the characteristics of the main gun. Assess its effectiveness in a battle based on the reloading speed, ballistics and the power of shells. Do not forget about the flexibility of the fire, that is how quickly the cannon can be aimed at the target, open fire on it and aim at another enemy. Add a link to the main article on the gun: {{main|Name of the weapon}}. Describe in general terms the ammunition available for the main gun. Give advice on how to use them and how to fill the ammunition storage.

100 mm SA47 L/58					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	50	-8°/+15°	±180°	N/A	__.__	__.__	__.__	__.__	__.__	4.00	4.00	4.00	4.00
Realistic					__.__	__.__	__.__	__.__	__.__

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
100 mm Obus de rupture	APCBC	273	270	257	242	228	215
100 mm Obus explosif	HE	18	18	18	18	18	18

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%
100 mm Obus de rupture	APCBC	1,000	15.0	N/A	N/A	N/A	48°	63°	71°
100 mm Obus explosif	HE	1,000	14.8	0.1	0.5	1,400	79°	80°	81°

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	Visual discrepancy
50	46 (+4)	39 (+11)	32 (+18)	25 (+25)	18 (+32)	14 (+36)	10 (+40)	9 (+41)	1 (+49)	No

Ammo racks of the Somua SM

Notes:

• Shells are modelled individually and disappear after having been shot or loaded.
• Rack 9* (autoloader magazine) is a first stage ammo rack. It totals 9 shells.
  • This rack gets filled first when loading up the tank and is also emptied first.
• As it is equipped with an autoloader, manual reloading of the gun is not possible.
• Once the autoloader magazine has been depleted, you can't shoot until the loader has restocked the autoloader. The restocking time is longer than the normal reload time of the gun. Take this into account when playing.
• Simply not firing when the gun is loaded will move ammo from racks 1 to 8 into rack 9*. Firing will interrupt the restocking of the ready racks.
• The depletion order at full capacity is: 9 - 1 - 2 - up to 8.

Machine guns

7.5 mm MAC 31
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Coaxial	4800 (150)	1350	N/A	N/A

The small calibre of the MAC 31 machine gun makes it largely ineffective against all armoured vehicles but the ones with an open compartment. It still can be used to ping targets as a rangefinding help.

Usage in battles

Describe the tactics of playing in the vehicle, the features of using vehicles in the team and advice on tactics. Refrain from creating a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view but instead give the reader food for thought. Describe the most dangerous enemies and give recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of the game in different modes (AB, RB, SB).

Modules

Tier	Mobility		Protection	Firepower
I	Tracks		Parts	Horizontal drive
II	Suspension	Brake System	FPE	Adjustment of Fire
III	Filters		Crew Replenishment	Elevation Mechanism
IV	Transmission	Engine
This is a premium vehicle: all modifications are unlocked on purchase

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Same great gun that's found on the AMX-50 and Lorraine
• Equipped with a huge 9-shell autoloader, making this one of the best tanks to attack multiple enemies at once
• Unlike most French tanks, the SOMUA has good frontal armour; the upper turret and upper plate are basically immune to all conventional rounds
• Due to the frontal armour and nine shot autoloader, the tank is not only great at flanking and ambushing, but also very good at brawling
• The strong upper turret coupled with the eight degrees of gun depression makes this tank great at hull-down fighting and cresting ridgelines
• Due to how tall this tank is and how high the gun is placed, it can shoot over obstacles that many tanks have trouble seeing over
• Quick and manoeuvrable for a heavy tank
• This tank has a high level of survivability thanks to the spacious crew compartment and a five-man crew
• Good set of optics with 6x magnification

Cons:

• Absolutely huge tank. Longer, wider, and taller than a Tiger II. Finding proper concealment is difficult
• The neck of the turret a prime weak spot that's hard to effectively hide
• The lower plate is as weak as British lower plates. Any APHE shell that enters here will likely knock out the whole crew
• Will face a lot of enemies that fire APDS and HEAT, the upper turret and upper plate just can't absorb those kinds of shells
• Terrible side armour, side-scraping or angling the tank is extremely hazardous
• Is much slower than the Lorraine and AMX-50
• Mediocre elevation angles thanks to the inherent nature of oscillating turrets
• The 100 mm gun is surprisingly inaccurate past 500 meters. Sniping can only be done thanks to the massive autoloader
• Once the autoloader is expended, reloading the magazine takes a considerable amount of time

History

At the end of WW2, the French army realized that they needed a new modern heavy tank. The SOMUA Company competed with AMX to design a new heavy tank for France, and they were given the order to build a prototype in 1946. The hull of the tank was based off the German Tiger II, and the tank used an oscillating turret armed with an auto-loading 100 mm gun. Because the two companies were forced to make a new design with the same requirements, the Somua SM design looked similar to the AMX 50, and both tanks had equipped the 100 mm gun. The prototype was delivered in October of 1951 but was still lacking an engine and some other parts. Due to delays, the prototype was not tested until 1953, but it was already too late. The SOMUA’s design was rejected in favour of the AMX 50. 

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Somua SM from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

The Shooting Range #217 - Metal Beasts section at 00:30 discusses the Somua SM.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Devblog] SOMUA SM: Heavy Weight Fighter

France heavy tanks
B1	B1 bis · B1 ter
2C	2C · 2C bis
ARL-44	ARL-44 (ACL-1)
AMX-50	Somua SM · AMX-50 Surbaissé · AMX-50 Surblindé
USA	▄M4A3E2