Skink
Contents
Description
The Skink, Tank, Anti-Aircraft, 20 mm, Quad is a rank IV British SPAA with a battle rating of 6.0 (AB) and 5.3 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Drone Age".
A British and Canadian project for a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun to protect their armoured force, the Skink was a step above the Crusader AA options with four 20 mm autocannons in an enclosed mount. While the Skink never got a chance to shoot down an enemy aircraft during World War II, players would have the chance to light up the skies to shoot down enemy pilots.
General info
Survivability and armour
Overall, the Skink offers a protection similar to the Sherman. Based on the Sherman itself, only the turret offers a lower protection than its medium tank cousin. Compared to SPAAs at this rank, this will offer a much higher survivability thanks to the armour thickness close to a medium tank at this rank, since the crew is completely protected inside the tank. The roof of the tank itself is still fairly thick and can resist 12.7 mm MG rounds from above, which makes it a rather hard target for strafing aircraft. Only heavy aircraft guns, direct rocket hits, and bombs can actually destroy it.
Against ground targets, the Skink will not be that well protected. Ar this BR, most tanks will have little difficulty penetrating this level of armour even at some distance. It would not be the best choice to fight against the ground targets. The protection remains good enough against HMGs and most 20 mm guns. Some lighter vehicles might also have difficulty to penetrate the Skink. Against vehicles at a lower battle rating, the front might be protected enough to take the hit of a 75 mm or 76.2 mm gun once in a while. The side is very flat and offers just enough protection against WW2 autocannons. Any tank gun could easily penetrate the sides.
Armour type:
- Cast homogeneous armour (hull and turret)
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 50.8 mm (30-50°) Front Glacis 50.8 mm (0-34°) Transmission cover |
50.8 mm front quater 38.1 mm all the rest |
38.1 mm (13°) lower part 38.1 mm upper part |
19.5 mm |
| Turret | 50.8 mm (round) gun's mantle 38 - 57 mm (variable thickness) front |
38.1 mm | 25 mm | 38 mm front half 24 mm rear half |
Notes:
- 19.5 mm neck guard protect the turret transverse
- 5 mm mudgard
- 20 mm track
- 20 mm track are attached on the side of the turret
Mobility
The Skink has mobility comparable to that of the M4 Sherman variants. It has average forward mobility, but a poor reverse gear.
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 35 | 5 | 27.7 | 568 | 763 | 20.51 | 27.55 |
| Realistic | 33 | 5 | 354 | 400 | 12.78 | 14.44 | |
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
The 20 mm Polsten cannons have a decent rate of fire, as well as a good muzzle velocity.
| 20 mm Polsten (x4) | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 1,920 (30) | 450 | -4°/+77° | ±180° | N/A | 55.5 | 76.8 | 93.2 | 103.1 | 109.7 | 5.20 | 4.60 | 4.24 | 4.00 |
| Realistic | 37.5 | 44.1 | 53.6 | 59.2 | 63.0 | |||||||||
Ammunition
- Default: AP-T · HEF-I · AP-T
- HET: HEFI-T · HEF-I · HEF-I
- APT: AP-T
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| HEF-I | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| AP-T | 38 | 35 | 23 | 14 | 9 | 5 | |
| HEFI-T | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| HEF-I | 838 | 0.12 | 0 | 0.1 | 6 | - | - | - | ||||
| AP-T | 830 | 0.14 | - | - | - | 47° | 60° | 65° | ||||
| HEFI-T | 838 | 0.12 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 5 | 79° | 80° | 81° | ||||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 64 | 48 (+16) | 36 (+28) | 24 (+40) | 12 (+52) | 0 (+64) | No |
Notes:
- Ammunition is modeled as 4 clips of 30 rounds each.
- 64 clips of 30 rounds represent 1,920 rounds.
- The Skink has 5 ammo racks, all stored in the hull. Every rack contains 12 clips, with an additional 4 belts already loaded in the guns when the game begins. Magazines deplete by sets of 4.
Machine guns
The Skink has a single hull-mounted L3A1 machine gun. Due to its low range of traverse, as well as its lackluster damage, it is useless for dealing damage to the enemy unless they are open-topped. It is best used to clear out obstacles which may block your line of sight.
| 7.62 mm L3A1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Hull | 2,000 (250) | 500 | +15°/-5° | -10°/+5° |
Usage in battles
The Skink's anti-air capability is very good, however, at its BR, it is inadequate for taking out most ground vehicles it faces, with the exception of light tanks and other SPAA. For shooting down enemy aircraft, be sure to let them come to you, and fire only when you are confident you can land a hit. If you spray them from too far away, most aircraft will likely avoid your general location so as to not get shot down. Make sure to not let the enemy aircraft know where you are, and surprise them with a devastating burst once they come in range.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- 5 crew members, difficult to knock out in one pass
- M4A1 chassis and closed turret provide protection against autocannons, HMGs, and overpressure damage from bombs and rockets
- Excellent turret traverse and elevation speed
- 4 x 20 mm cannons do excellent damage against aircraft and lightly armoured vehicles
- Short reload time
- Plenty of ammo
Cons:
- Average mobility
- Short ammo belt
- Cannons overheat quickly with continuous fire
- Poor anti-tank capabilities, can only engage lightly-armoured targets
History
In May 1943 the G.O.C. in C. of the First Canadian Army requested a vehicle be developed that had the following requirements:
1. Accommodate 4 guns
2. Ammunition stowage for one minute
3. 360° traverse at minimum 40° per second and maximum 50° per second.
The requirement for AA at the time could only be filled by using the Crusader or American AA equipment.
The First Canadian Army did not want to use the crusader AA as they wanted to use anything else besides the crusader AA, on top of that Information requests for American equipment at the time were not forthcoming. The project was then assigned a project number as Canada uses project number while developing vehicles. The Skink was then given Project No. 47(DVA) and on the 28th of February 1944 the project was officially reported no longer as a project and given the name “Skink”, the name was given to the tank before then however officially it was still named Project No. 47.
Since Canada was at the time a dominion of Great Britain a lot of military technologies and reports get shared with them. From the beginning of development Great Britain and the USA showed great interest in the project. Great Britain’s interest was strong at the beginning of development as the development on the crusader mk II only just began and the war office wanted to see which one would end up being better to procure for their forces. The initial idea was to make turret kits that could be fitted to Sherman's, the turrets were initially going to be fitted with a quad Hispano 20mm gun using 50 round boxes as well there were plans to belt feed the skink with the Hispano’s.
During development the armament was swapped to polsten's this request was requested by the British War Office as well as recommended by the First Canadian Army. This change of armament set back the already delayed development stage of the skink as they ended up redesigning the turret to accommodate the polsten’s. Great Britain at this time had planned to order 130 turret kits which then turned into 130 complete skink, and in August 1944 they called for a complete cancellation of their skink orders as they were more interested in the grizzlies.
Following Great Britain cancelling their order the entire Skink development was cancelled and at this point only 1 skink pilot was completed with 2 being partially completed. The plans with the 2 partially completed skink were for each of them to be completed with one of them to be retained in Canada and the other to be sent to Great Britain for experimental purposes, this skink was jointly owned by Canada and Great Britain. In the same month as the cancellation the Canadian Military Headquarters in London requested that 1 skink be sent to Great Britain for experimental purposes.
On September 5th 1944 the skink pilot (SK1001) arrived in Great Britain. During that month the Canadian Military Headquarters also requested that a second skink be sent for experimental purposes however due to complications the second skink that was to be sent to the UK never left Canada. On September 8th Canadian Military Headquarters in Great Britain were requested by the Director of the Royal Armed Corps that the skink be sent to D.T.D. Chobham and then sent to E.W.(G) Lulworth for firing trails, on the 11th of the same month the skink was released to head to Chobham. While at Chobham the skink was demonstrated on the 9th of October and went through traverse and elevation tests, during the trials it became clear that some of the factors that lead to Great Britain cancelling their order were: the financial requirement and if there was still an operational requirement for such a vehicle.
In November the 1st Canadian army wrote to the Canadian Military Headquarters in London and stated Great Britain agrees that the jointly-owned skink now in Lulworth could be released to the theatre for operation trails following the trials at Lulworth, as well the formation of a unit that would use the vehicle from the Canadian First Army named the No. 1 Tank Demonstration Unit CAC.
The crew of the vehicle were as follows and the unit they came from:
Captain H Valle - CMHQ
A/Capt WH Marshell - 3 CACRU
L54863 A/Sgt Bogden GG - 3 CACRU
L104991 Tpr Champagne RL - 2 CACRU
B61218 A/SSM Moore TH - 1 CACRU [Substituted for A/SGT Bisson PE Before entering the theater]
B696338 A/SGT Bisson PE - 3 CACRU
The trails at Lulworth continued from November 1944 to January 1945 where at the end of the trails on January 27th 1945 the director of the Royal Armored Corps commented on the firing trails stating that there is no operation requirement for the skink in British formations. Following the trials on Jan 16th 1945 the Skink was to be released to the 21st Army Group as part of the First Canadian Army. The skink was deployed to the European theater from February until the end of March when it returned to England, while in the theater the Skink was unable to be used in the role that it was intended to as the lack of aerial opposition there was at this time of the war. The unit only saw a single enemy aircraft which was at a distance that the skink would not be able to engage effectively. However the Skink was found to be effective when used on dug-in enemy infantry positions in particular the HEIT rounds incendiary effect.
The Skink (No.1001) was to be sent back to Canada and one of the Skinks in Canada be sent to Great Britain as they wanted to take on the costs of a full skink rather than 2 jointly owned skinks. After discussions with Canadian Headquarters in Ottawa it made more sense that they keep the Skink that was in England rather than swap them. It isn’t fully known what happened to the Skinks after the war in Canada or the one in Great Britain.
Media
- Skins
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
| Britain anti-aircraft vehicles | |
|---|---|
| Crusader AA | Crusader AA Mk I · Crusader AA Mk II |
| Wheeled | Staghound AA · AEC AA |
| Radar SPAAG | Chieftain Marksman |
| Missile SPAA | Stormer AD · Stormer HVM |
| Other | Light AA Mk I · Falcon |
| Canada | Skink · ADATS (M113) |
| South Africa | Ystervark · Bosvark · ZA-35 |
