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, combined with its poor armour, lack of stabilizer, while equipped with a laser rangefinder, 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 M41D went for an overhaul upgrade, protection wasn't among the upgrade. So M41D retained the very same protection like any other M41 family of tanks other than addition skirts on the sides. The protection all-round is nowhere good for protecting that tank from any shells find in its tier, autocannons are also a deadly target for 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-caliber HE shells means very quick demise to 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.
But 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 matter the most is the engine output, after the downgrading of engine, M41D could barely reach 50 km/h on road, let alone reached the claimed 72 km/h top speed. While the handling is still identical, oddly, to an 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 | _,___ | 859 | __.__ | 34.36 |
| Realistic | 72 | 19 | _,___ | 450 | __.__ | 18 | |
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
The M32K1 cannon on M41D, to certain extent, is the very first tank cannon made in Republic of China. Based on the original M32 76 mm gun found on M41s, can fire HEATFS, HE, APFSDS and smoke shells; while it comes with a 2nd gen Texas Instruments TVD and a laser rangefinder which boost search-and-destroy, it has no stabilizer of any form, so fire on mobile 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
| 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 | 1082 | 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 | 1480 | 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 |
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, while it might still need careful shots given it faced any Cold War heavy tanks like T-10M; some other heavies can still be penetrated up front, but the damage might be minimal.
The other stock HE shell, M352, can be neglected as a mean to knock out any tanks at all, it doesn't have any explosive mass to even trigger overpressure at all. 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.
While the M464 APFSDS serving as its top shell is another story, it is still the go-to ammunition for M41D in service, this dart imported from Israel can penetrates 280 mm of armor 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, aside from Object 279, of course.
M361 smoke shell also comes available to M41D, serving as a long-range option to blind enemies or cover your team's movement.
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
M41D retained the same M2HB as its anti-air machine gun; all the characteristic for the machine gun itself is identical to any other M2HB as well. Good for handling lightly armored 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 | 2175 (200) | 577 | -10° / 70° | ±60° |
M1919A4 coaxial machine gun is only good for gunning down exposed crew of vehicles and point enemies, alternatively a makeshift rangefinder before the laser ranger comes available.
| 7.62 mm M1919A4 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 4900 (250) | 500 | N/A | N/A |
Usage in battles
M41D is still a M41 in nature, but players will find the underpower of its diesel engine very frustrating with bad acceleration over other light tanks; so it might not be the first tank to reach vantage point for scouting or sniping.
But firepower is what makes M41D different among his family members; instead of HVAP or APDS, it has HEATFS and APFSDS at its disposal; it also comes with laser rangefinder and 2nd gen TVD gunner sight which even most of the tanks at similar tier could only envy of. Just like every M41, stabilizer is not installed on M41D as well although it had underwent such upgrades in terms of firepower. Therefore it should be played as any other light tank: go for vintage point if possible and use its TVD to search for enemies, then harass the enemy with its small yet powerful gun; it is also advice to use the terrain as a cover, thanks to the -10° depression angle, it can assault the enemies without being worried getting hit by shell.
Stay away from the sight of any vehicles with autocannons- they can tear down M41D with ease, and avoid fighting tanks up front unless in dire.
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
- 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
Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).
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 | 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 |
