M41D
| This page is about the Chinese light tank M41D. For other versions, see M41 Walker Bulldog (Family). |
Contents
Description
The M41D is a rank VI Chinese light tank with a battle rating of 7.7 (AB) and 8.0 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Winged Lions".
The most modern variant of the M41 in-game, this Taiwanese upgrade features APFSDS, thermals, a laser rangefinder, and a more powerful engine. The high gun depression and laser rangefinder, combined with its poor armour and lack of stabilizer, make this tank well-suited for hull-down sniping, and its good reverse speed allows it to quickly retreat if spotted. Compared to its PLA light tank counterpart, the PTL02, the M41D trades a stabilizer and some firepower for superior reverse mobility, a slightly smaller profile, and increased gun depression.
General info
Survivability and armour
Although the M41D underwent an overhaul from the original Walker Bulldog, protection wasn't part of the upgrade. The M41D retains the very same protection like any other member of the M41 family of tanks, other than the addition of side skirts. The protection all-round is not enough to protect the tank from any shells found at the rank, autocannons are also a deadly foe for the M41D as they can penetrate it with ease. Since it is a light tank in nature, the crew is also cramped into a confined space, any penetration from shells with explosive filler or large-calibre HE shells means a very quick demise for the crew.
Armour type:
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 25.4 mm (60°) Upper
31.7 mm (45°) Lower |
25.4 mm Front 19 mm Back |
12.7 mm (58°) Top
19 mm (32 - 37°) Bottom |
10 - 19 mm |
| Turret | 25.4 mm Turret front 31.7 mm Gun mantlet |
25.4 mm | 25.4 mm | 19 mm |
| Cupola | 31.7 mm | 31.7 mm | 31.7 mm | 5 mm |
Notes:
Mobility
For upgrades in terms of mobility, most vehicles would go for higher power output from the engine or replacing the transmission system.
The upgrade for M41D did neither. ROCA decided to downgrade the original 500 hp Continental AOS 895-3 petrol engine to a Detroit Diesel 8V-71T engine for better fuel economy and torque. The statistic that matters the most is the engine output, and after downgrading the engine, the M41D can barely reach 50 km/h on road, let alone reached the claimed 72 km/h top speed. Handling is still identical, oddly, to the original M41.
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 80 | 21 | 25 | _,___ | 954 | __.__ | 38.16 |
| Realistic | 72 | 19 | _,___ | 500 | __.__ | 20 | |
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
The M32K1 cannon on M41D, to a certain extent, is the very first tank cannon made in Republic of China. Based on the original M32 76 mm gun found on other M41s, it can fire HEATFS, HE, APFSDS and smoke shells. It comes with a 2nd generation Texas Instruments TVD and a laser rangefinder which boosts the tank's search-and-destroy capabilities, though it has no stabilizer of any form, so firing accurately on the move is virtually impossible.
| 76 mm M32K1 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 65 | -10°/+20° | ±180° | N/A | __._ | __._ | __._ | __._ | __._ | _.__ | _.__ | _.__ | _.__ |
| Realistic | __._ | __._ | __._ | __._ | __._ | ||||||||
Ammunition
The stock shell is M496 HEATFS, which is the top shell for German M41 and US T92; at its tier, it can handle medium tanks it might face, such as M48 Pattons or Soviet T-54/T-62 series. It might still need careful shots when facing any Cold War heavy tanks like T-10M; some other heavies can be penetrated up front, but the damage might be minimal.
The other stock shell, M352 HE, can be neglected as a means to knock out any tanks at all, it doesn't have enough explosive mass to even trigger overpressure against most targets. It might be sufficient for vehicles with open combat compartment, but anything that is thicker than a sheet of steel or aluminum more than half an inch (12.7 mm) can stop this shell with ease.
The M464 APFSDS serving as the M41D's top shell is another story. It is still the go-to ammunition for M41Ds in service, this dart imported from Israel can penetrate 280 mm of armour at point blank range, which does fit ROCA's requirement to penetrate PLAGF's masses of ZTZ59s; and many tanks at the same BR don't even come with any darts; which means M41D can finally handle most tanks it might face at similar BR.
M361 smoke shell also comes available to M41D, serving as a long-range option to blind enemies or cover your team's movement.
| 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 | ||
| M496 shell | HEATFS | 254 | 254 | 254 | 254 | 254 | 254 |
| M352 shell | HE | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| M464 | APFSDS | 280 | 276 | 265 | 251 | 236 | 222 |
| 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% | |||||||
| M496 shell | HEATFS | 1,082 | 3.2 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 653.69 | 65° | 72° | 77° |
| M352 shell | HE | 732 | 6.8 | 0 | 0.1 | 867.22 | 79° | 80° | 81° |
| M464 | APFSDS | 1,480 | 1.63 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 78° | 80° | 81° |
| Smoke shell characteristics | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile Mass (kg) |
Screen radius (m) |
Screen deploy time (s) |
Screen hold time (s) |
Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
| M361 | 713 | 7.1 | 13 | 5 | 20 | 50 |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 65 | 32 (+33) | 12 (+53) | 1 (+64) | No |
Although the minimal survivability of being a light tank, it is still suggest to bring only 11+1 rounds as the standby ammo; in case of concerns over missed shots or non-lethal shots on enemies, only bring 32 shells at most, which located at the lower hull by the center mass.
Machine guns
The M41D retains the same M2HB as its anti-air machine gun; all the characteristics for the machine gun itself are identical to any other M2HB as well. It can be good for handling lightly armoured APCs, IFVs or SPAAGs; it is also a good for gunning down early helicopters with very limited protection in this BR range.
| 12.7 mm M2HB | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Pintle | 2,175 (200) | 577 | -10°/+70° | ±60° |
M1919A4 coaxial machine gun is only good for gunning down exposed crew of vehicles and marking enemies, alternatively as a makeshift rangefinder before the laser rangefinder becomes available.
| 7.62 mm M1919A4 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 4,900 (250) | 500 | N/A | N/A |
Usage in battles
The M41D is still an M41 in nature, but players will find the under-powered diesel engine very frustrating with bad acceleration over other light tanks; so it might not be the first tank to reach key vantage points for scouting or sniping.
But firepower is what makes the M41D different among its family members; instead of APCR or APDS, it has HEATFS and APFSDS at its disposal; it also comes with a laser rangefinder and a 2nd generation TVD gunner sight which even most tanks at a similar rank could only dream of. Just like every M41, stabilizer is not installed on M41D. Therefore it should be played as any other light tank: go for a vantage point if possible and use its TVD to search for enemies, then harass the enemy with its small yet powerful gun; it is also advised to use the terrain as cover - thanks to the -10° depression angle, it can assault the enemies without being worried about getting hit by a shell.
Stay away from the sight of any vehicles with autocannons - they can tear through the M41D with ease, and avoid fighting tanks up-front unless in dire straits.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Powerful APFSDS can penetrate most common tanks it will face, like the Leopard 1, T-55, or M60
- Gunner thermals allows efficient target searching especially at night, as most other counterparts only have NVD
- Laser rangefinder can quickly target distant foes
- -10° gun depression means good hull-down and hilly terrain performance
- -18 km/h reverse allows it to retreat from danger quickly
- Smoke grenades and smoke shells allow it to protect itself or blind enemies
Cons:
- Cannon is not stabilised, significantly reducing its ability to fire on the move or to shoot first during an encounter against stabilised guns
- APFSDS is still not enough to penetrate certain well-protected tanks, e.g. M48 Super, T-55AM-1
- The small caliber of APFSDS shells might have insufficient post-penetration damages
- Mobility can become rather sluggish on soft surfaces like mud
- Somewhat tall profile, worsening its concealment
- Poor survivability. Can be easily penetrated by autocannons, or destroyed by cannons and missiles with overpressure
History
The ROCA, after their retreat to the island of Taiwan, has used various imported tanks from different military aids, where most of them were US-built tanks such as earlier M24 Chaffee and some M18 GMC. Since 1958, during the heat of 1st Taiwan Strait Crisis, ROCA purchased 700 M41A1/A2 Walker Bulldogs and 300 M48A1s to strengthen their defense in view of the turmoil might went into all-out warfare; these tanks replaced the older tanks in different armored units. In 1975 (ROC Year 64，民國64年), ROCA started to reproduce a complete hull of M41, with some more efforts made to reproduce the gun as well, the reverse-engineered light tank was named Type 64 Light Tank (國造64式輕坦克，another M42 Duster-based light tank with M18 GMC's turret was also named so) then renamed Type 65 Light tank. While the tank didn't go into mass production, it has given the chance for ROCA to build a domestic tank and some designs were retained for further use.
Later between the 2 decade of 1980s and 1990s, ROCA decided to went for NATO retrofit of M41s or taking a long shot buying the new M8 AGS to replace their fleet of M41s but in vain, due to budget issues.
The idea for M41D started during the 2nd Taiwan Strait Crisis, in view of aggressive PLA exercises aimed to protest on the talks given by the new ROC government, ROCA was in dire for an overhaul upgrade on M41 against possible landing operations from PLANMC, along with the insufficient amount of CM11 and M60A3 TTS on hand. MND then passed an 20 billion NTD budget on emergency upgrades over existing equipment, where 400 M41A1/A2s with better hull condition would underwent the new M41D upgrade program; after more M60A3 TTS were delivered to ROCA, the whole program shrunk to a 1.2 billion NTD budget and only upgrade 50 of these Walker Bulldogs into M41D.
The major upgrade on M41D was a CVTTS (Combat Vehicle Thermal Targeting System) by Texas Instruments and new FCS, completed with laser rangefinder and upgraded the gun to M32K1 76 mm gun with the capability to fire APFSDS; while downgrading its Continental AOS 895-3 petrol engine into a Detroit Diesel 8V-71T engine, said to have higher torque over the original engine and better fuel economy. Other upgrades includes a pair T85 smoke grenade launchers, replaced M1919A4 with T74 GPMG (clone of FN MAG) and the armored side skirts from Type 65 program.
Other than 6 out of those 50 tanks were retained at armored academies, the remaining ones were deployed on Kinmen Island just off the coast of Xiamen, Fujian; the closest Nationalist-controlled area to Mainland China. But later military reforms had decided to have them return to the main island and serve in different units. An recent incident at Kinmen rose the concerns on whether the remaining few M41A2s were safe enough for trainings, let alone fighting the now-modernized PLA with masses of MBTs; around 20 M41Ds returned to Kinmen and replaced those old tanks, leaving the remaining ones on the main island until CM34 "Project Leopard" MGS and M1A2T could finally replaced them. [1]
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
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
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
| Ordnance Research Development Center, ROCA (陸軍兵工整備發展中心) | |
|---|---|
| Light tanks | M41D · M64 |
| Medium tanks | CM11 |
| Tank destroyers | CM25 |
| China light tanks | |
|---|---|
| Type 63 | Object 211 · Type 63 · ZTS63 |
| Type 62 | Type 62 |
| WZ551 | ZSL92 · PTL02 · WMA301 |
| ZBL08 | ZLT11 |
| Type 86 | ZBD86 |
| WZ502 | ZBD04A |
| ROC | M41D · M64 |
| Type 59 | QN506 |
| USA | ␗M8 LAC · ␗M3A3 Stuart · ␗M3A3 (1st PTG) · ␗M5A1 · ␗M24 · ␗M18 GMC · ␗M41A3 |
| USSR | ␗T-26 · T-26 No.531 · ␗PT-76 |
