The hungarian heavy tank-project Tas
http://www.haditechnika.hu/Archivum/199301/P11/09.jpg
Let me explain the importance of these attempts of the Hungarian Army a bit first.
Although Hungary didn't play a very significant role in WW2 because of its unfortunate politics,extreme pressure of 3.Reich and the neighbour countries surrounding him,and obsolete equipment,as a hungarian i pay my tribute to the brave men who fought and died.
Hungary's heavy industry wasn't developed at all,and the german supplies weren't equaling the suffered losses nor the requirements to fight with success.We know alot about soviet,german or allied armored vehicles, but maybe Hungary's efforts might interest you as a unique,rare topic.
Hungary bought or recieved before and during the war equipment which been declared obsolete for german use.In numbers:
before 1939: 150 Ansaldo Tankettes ,mainly CV33
1939: 15-20polish TKS ,2 T-11 light czech tanks,3 Renault R-35 light tanks
1940: 1 T-21 czech tank
1942: 8 Pz. I ,4-8 Pz. II ,5 Marder II.,108 p38(t) Czech tanks,10 Pz. IIIM, 22 Pz. IVF1 ,10 Pz. IVF2 , 10 StuG III. , 15 Hotchkiss light tanks,2 Somua S-35
1944: 10-12 Pz.IIIM, 12-30 pz.IVH ,50 StuG G,5-10 Panthers and 12 Pz.VI.E
1945: the real deliveries unknown, planned been 30 Pz. IV.H and 75 Hetzers.
I still'd like to tell you about hungarian built vehicles,which been used
during WW2 and the plans about future.
Hungary had to equip 3 Armies,so own production had to run up.
There are a few sources on internet about the major types built and used like the Toldi light tank.Toldi was based on the Landswerk 60 tank made in Sweden. It had good movement abilites, highly sloped armour and very good optical instruments for observation and fire guidance. Hungarians installed 20mm gun and 8mm AA machinegun.Certainly it prroved to be hapless against the T-34.At all 190 been built.
The Nimrod was designed as a tank-killer and AA,but its 40mm gun,despite its high rate of fire coulnt penetrate the thick armor of soviet counterparts.135 of these been produced.
The backbone of hungarian armored troops been the 40M Turán tank,279 of the light (version I with a 40mm cannon) and 180 of its heavier version (version II with 75mm gun)been built ,based on the design of the Škoda T-21 medium tank prototye.Despite the improvement, the relatively low velocity of the projectile was unable to pierce the frontal armor of a T-34, except at point blank range. The T-34s main gun could penetrate the Turan's 50 mm of armor at a much greater distance.
Aside from tank production, the chassis was the basis for an assault gun. Called the Zrinyi II, this weapon mounted a 105 mm short gun which poked through the front plate of the hull, and lacked the all around traverse turret of the battle tanks. Only 40 examples of this useful weapon were produced(i found this sentence on wikipedia,it writes 60 but the correct number is 40). The only other vehicles known based on this chassis were the Turan III and the Zrinyi I, both of which used the German 75mmL43 tank gun (which armed the Pz. IV). Both vehicles were produced as prototypes only, as the Hungarian Army were supplied with German armored vehicles.The Zrinyi's had successes against smaller soviet tank formations,as tunk hunters or self-propelled guns they were equal to the StuG's or the Italian Semoventes.
They been still unavailable in numbers which could have a real influence to slow down the red rush.
Hungary also built 93 Csaba armoured cars,which been mainly used for scouting missions.This 39M Csaba's been a very nice construction.
here a few pics:
Axis History Factbook: Gallery: Vehicles (Hungary)
back to Tas..it been a promising plan to build a heavy tank to match not only the superb T-34(85) but the -at that time already numerous-heavy tanks like KV-85 or Joszif Stalin 2's.
The result been the Tas heavy tank
http://www.freeweb.hu/gamma21/Tasvazlat.gif
The request been made in mid.'43, mostly basing on the T-34 and the Panther. The prototype been ready to roll in may'44,but production never started anymore.
I have an article about it, with more pics,if you are interested, i scan them and describe its specs and details