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Landsverk L60 Tank | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Both Landsverk L60 Tanks on manoeuvres Copyright � An Cosantoir |
Preserved Landsverk Tank of the Calvalry Corps Museum (Comet in the background) Copyright � M. McNamara/Curragh Local History Group |
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Background | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Landsverk Tank was based on an interwar German design, but as Germany was precluded by the Treaty of Versaille from producing tanks, it never went in production there. It is unclear how Landverk obtained the design, however, it may have contributed to the fact that Landsverk later appeared on the "Trading with the Enemy Blacklist" maintained by both Britain and the US during WWII. The L60 was used, in addition to Sweden, by Hungary, where it was built under license as the Toldi 38m, Austria (at least one example made it's way there) and Ireland (2). It is reported to have been relatively unsuccessful in battle, when used by the Hungarians on the Eastern Front against the Red Army. The L60 was of a very modern design when introduced in 1935 and had a good shape and excellent suspension, giving it a high speed for a tank. The L60 used the same turret, engine and gearbox as the L-180 and the same turret was fitted to the Leylands giving the DF a high degree of commonality.. As perviously mentioned the first L60 Tank, L601, was delivered late in 1935 and the second, L602, the following in late 1936. They were used initially, along with the Vickers MkD, by the 2nd Armoured Squadron in the Curragh. The L60s remained "in service" until the late 1960s, however, according to Karl Mullen in his book "Irish Army Vehicles", as early as 1953 they were out of service due to a lack of new tracks and were only "nursed" along during the '50s and '60s. An effort could have been made to update the tanks as happened with the L180 ACs, however, due to the additional costs intrinsic to tanks, the fact that only 2 were in service and Churchills and Comets tanks had entered service in the '50s, it did not make any financial or operational sense to do so. |
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