Tortoise to run again!

**Adrian Stevenson** · 06-16-2011, 09:30 PM

Welcome to the Tank Museum - Home of the Tank - Tankfest 2011 - Tortoise to Run!

I am really looking forwards to seeing this.

Cheers, Ade.

**davejb** · 06-16-2011, 09:50 PM

That will be a real treat Ade, funny though i didnt see about it in my newsletter

**lithgow** · 06-16-2011, 09:58 PM

I would have thought it would be described as 'sauntering' rather than 'running' given the top speed of the thing and it's gut crunching acceleration-not!

**Adrian Stevenson** · 06-17-2011, 11:46 AM

LOL!

I will try and get some pics.

Cheers, Ade.

**eddy8men** · 07-07-2011, 09:54 PM

the tortoise was the star of the show for me, a most impressive sight. 80 tons of armour being propelled by the humble meteor which actually didn't seem to struggle although on the second day there were major problems with the cooling system due to corrosion in the steel pipes but it still got round (just). hopefully next year they'll have the time to sort it properly and give it a bit more time in the arena.
the second pic is as far as i know the only other surviving tortoise on kirkcudbright training area in scotland

**lithgow** · 07-08-2011, 06:38 AM

It would be interesting to see it parked next to a Jagdtiger for comparison-or indeed the other super heavy A/T SPGs of the period (although moving them around could be a bit of a problem!).

**illyric** · 01-26-2012, 05:34 PM

Two of several I took at Kirkcudbright late last year. As you can see the vehicle is in a poor state. It has sunk about 18 inches and the right side is badly damaged from gunfire. Nothing remains on the inside. If you are interested I have more pictures. It would seem that this vehicle is P6 that was nearing completion when the project was cancelled.

**Adrian** · 01-26-2012, 05:40 PM

Here is is in motion.....

**eddy8men** · 02-01-2012, 07:52 PM

i managed to get a quick look around the inside while at tankfest and all i can say is it's big, real big !
the main gun is a 3.7" anti aircraft gun converted to tank use that fired a 32 pdr round which was big enough to penetrate any german tank.
the 2 mg's are besa's. these originated from a czech design as was the bren gun but unlike the bren it was decided to keep the rimless cartridge instead of converting it to .303 . the round was the mauser 7.92mm x 57mm which meant the besa fired totally different ammo from the rest of the british army but had the advantage of being able to use captured german ammo if the need should arise.