{"id":96114,"date":"2025-10-23T02:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T06:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=96114"},"modified":"2025-06-13T19:28:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T23:28:58","slug":"a39-tortoise-the-forgotten-super-heavy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2025\/10\/23\/a39-tortoise-the-forgotten-super-heavy\/","title":{"rendered":"A39 Tortoise: The Forgotten Super Heavy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pViPfR8YEwk?si=RjIDjfRecn8wYQhH\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>The Tank Museum<\/strong><br \/>\nPublished 13 Jun 2025<\/p>\n<p>The A39 Tortoise. The last complete survivor of a World War Two project that arrived just a little too late. Some have called it &#8220;The British <em>Jagdtiger<\/em>&#8221; \u2013 but is that actually a fair comparison?<\/p>\n<p>Tortoise was a part of the strategy the Allies would need to defeat Germany during the Second World War. It was recognised that total victory could only occur on German soil \u2013 and that meant smashing through the imposing defences of the Siegfried Line. The Allies would need a Heavy Assault tank. Many designs were put forward for this role, including the Valiant, the A33 and the T14 Assault tank.<\/p>\n<p>The A39 is extremely well-armoured. Its casemate construction could withstand a hit from an 88mm gun at close ranges. But at 78-tons, this lumbering beast was both slow and heavy \u2013 and is one of the largest and heaviest vehicles in the museum\u2019s collection. In terms of firepower, the impressive 32pdr gun was extremely effective against both concrete and enemy armour. It even has room inside for 7 crew!<\/p>\n<p>In the end, the Tortoise arrived too late to see any action on the battlefield. It was intended to form a part of the 79th Armoured Division \u2013 making it one of Hobart&#8217;s Funnies. Whether Tortoise would have become the stuff of legend, or a bit of a joke \u2013 well, we&#8217;ll leave that question up to you.<\/p>\n<p>00:00 | Introduction<br \/>\n00:39 | What is a Heavy Assault Tank?<br \/>\n03:45 | Why a Heavy Assault Tank?<br \/>\n09:24 | The A39: As Good as it Gets?<br \/>\n17:55 | A Solution Without a Problem<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This video features archive footage courtesy of British Path\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>In this film, Chris Copson dives deep into one of the biggest and heaviest vehicles in our collection \u2013 the A39 Tortoise. This heavy assault tank was designed to destroy the fortifications of The Siegfried Line. With its 32pdr gun and massive casemate construction, there are very few things this vehicle would not be able to smash through \u2013 provided it didn&#8217;t need to be done in a hurry. In the end, German fortifications didn&#8217;t prove to be the obstacle the Allied forces feared and the need for a heavy assault tank was abandoned. Only six prototypes of the Tortoise were ever built \u2013 and our example at The Tank Museum is the only complete survivor. <\/p>\n<p>Want to learn more about Tortoise? Here are some of the sources we used to make this film:<\/p>\n<p>A39, Heavy Assault Tank, Tortoise. <em>Tank Encyclopaedia<\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/redirect?event=video_description&#038;redir_token=QUFFLUhqa1QxQmZLcWJUTXAzRVVEa3NTbHJvS3c2eXROd3xBQ3Jtc0traHpKdE1HQ2hrc0MxUzFnZWNXdWdmLS1PSUxJV0ZhQmk1MDhBZzhvcTlwNUc5cTVzZEJTaVZDVG0yRElnYzR0OXNjeG01TExUdUpJbUpwTVVrUFM0V1R2MnhaY2U2a2stTDdPcmRRUjlMWDkyOVcxZw&#038;q=https%3A%2F%2Ftanks-encyclopedia.com%2Fww2%2Fgb%2FA39-Tortoise.php&#038;v=pViPfR8YEwk\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/tanks-encyclopedia.com\/ww2\/gb&#8230;<\/a>)<br \/>\n<em>British and American Tanks of WW2<\/em>, Chamberlain and Ellis, Cassell, 2004<br \/>\nTM Archive, E2013.244 <em>Report on the Tortoise Tank Trial &#8211; May-July 1948<\/em><br \/>\nTM Archive, E2013.246 <em>User Handbook (Provisional) for A39 (Tortoise)<\/em><br \/>\nTM Archive, E2013.247 <em>Motion Study of Stowage and Controls in A39 (The Tortoise)<\/em><br \/>\nTM Archive, E2019.1645 &#8220;P4 Adventuress &#038; P5 Adventurer Tanks loaded onto Ship&#8221;<br \/>\nTM Archive, E2019.1647 &#8220;Fighting Vehicles under Development&#8221;<br \/>\nTM Archive, <em>Minutes of Meetings of the Tank Board, August 1943 &#8211; November 1944<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Support The Tank Museum!<br \/>\nFriends: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/redirect?event=video_description&#038;redir_token=QUFFLUhqbC1CMlFZWVE1TzNlcnBydzRTLXNpUTFZd2ZBd3xBQ3Jtc0tubUF1d1h4cW5zY3c1TmFNc2tWeWg4SzIza3ZZT2hRZmZZdl9UMHdHbFByZlVLbVA4eWtQNXpiMVQxNTlQb1Y3UXh6UVZjdDJBTFZKQzl5THBMWF8yRzN1cWhOUi1FNDZENXJnWFV2RENTLXhsT21Zaw&#038;q=https%3A%2F%2Ftankmuseum.org%2Fsupport-us%2Ffriends-of-the-tank-museum&#038;v=pViPfR8YEwk\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/tankmuseum.org\/support-us\/fri&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\nOnline Shop: <a href=\"https:\/\/tankmuseumshop.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/tankmuseumshop.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>#tankmuseum<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Tank Museum Published 13 Jun 2025 The A39 Tortoise. The last complete survivor of a World War Two project that arrived just a little too late. Some have called it &#8220;The British Jagdtiger&#8221; \u2013 but is that actually a fair comparison? Tortoise was a part of the strategy the Allies would need to defeat [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,5,663,230],"tags":[991,140,1095,1298],"class_list":["post-96114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-history","category-military","category-weapons","category-ww2","tag-afvs","tag-design","tag-fortification","tag-museum"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-p0e","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96115,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96114\/revisions\/96115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}