I actually did not know much about tanks until I started playing World of Tanks. I’m pretty sure some features of the tank are slightly augmented to make the game balanced, but I never imagined that there were such a variety of tanks. I’ve gotten used to the game and now I can tell the difference betwen a lot of the tanks.
When I first saw the Renault UE 57, it was so small that I thought this was some kind of joke. When you put it next to a KV-1 or a Churchill, the vehicle’s small size stands out even more. I guess this also shows how “huge” an average tank is, something I’ve never really thought of until now.
But, it’s hard to think a crew of 4 fit on this thing. It’s smaller than some cars placed on the city maps. When I look at photos of the actual thing, I still see how small it is. The two semispherical domes on the center of the vehicle are to protect the head of the commander and the driver, which means even when inside the vehicle, their heads stick out. As for the gunner and the loader, they just sit on the back. Kind of scary to think of it... The Renault UE’s original use was for towing or carrying supplies. Only a protoype of this gunned version, UE 57, was built. I wonder how it would have been if it was really deployed in battle.
Even though it’s very compact, this thing weighs 2.79 tons, double the weight of a regular car, as expected of an armoured vehicle, I guess. For the reference, though, the heaviest tank built - the Maus - weighs 188 tons, and the turret alone was 55 tons.