Medium battle tank M47 Patton
The M47 was the Bundeswehr's first main battle tank.
The M47 was deliberately developed by the American army as a transitional tank. The models from the world war became increasingly outdated. At the latest, the Korean War showed this clearly. The development of a fully-fledged successor, the M48, was to take a few more years. The M47 was built to fill this gap. When the M48 was then introduced in the U:S: Army, the Bundeswehr was able to adopt around 1100 of the M47 as initial equipment.
The M47 featured interesting innovations: it was the first western tank with a cast turret. This allowed for a bullet-resistant shape and was easy to produce. The "eyes" on the top left and right of the turret are rangefinders, which greatly facilitated the gunner's job. Whereas in previous decades gunners had to use a rule of thumb to calculate the distance to the target, they could now measure this distance mechanically. The M47 was used by the Augustdorf tank battalions 1, 213 and 214 from 1956 to 1959, in Augustdorf from 1957.
Technical specifications
| Development: | American tank type born from the need of the ongoing Korean War by using different components of some prototypes under great time pressure. |
| Production: | 1952 – 1953 |
| Country of origin: | n/a |
| Number of pieces: | 8567 |
| Crew: | 5 |
| Weight: | 44 t |
| Dimensions L/W/H: | 8.50m (with tube) / 3.5m / 2.96m |
| Engine: | petrol |
| Displacement: | 29363 ccm |
| Engine power: | 657 DIN-PS, 821 SAE-PS |
| Speed: | 45 km/h (Road) |
| Fuel Stock: | 885 l |
| Consumption: | 700l / 100km (Road) | up to 1400l / 100km (Terrain) |
| Driving range: | 125 km (Road) | 100 - 50 km, depending on (Terrain) |
| Armament: | Cannon 90 mm L48 | 12.7 mm machine gun | 7.62mm machine gun |
| Ammunition: | 71 cartridges 90mm |