Panzer 58 - From Success to Scandal

Panzer 58, and it's descendants the Panzer 61 and Panzer 68, were the first (and last) series of armoured vehicles that Switzerland ever produced. The aim was to create the perfect medium tank, but the success of this project is still argued about to this day after the vehicle was involved in one of Switzerland's greatest political scandals.

Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Switzerland
00:30 The Swiss Scheme
01:45 A New Plan?
02:59 KW30
04:30 Indien-Panzer
05:04 Panzer 58
05:45 Panzer 61
07:20 Panzer 68
09:12 Scandal!
10:10 Panzer 68/88
10:25 Panzer 2000
10:57 Variants
11:30 Outro

Sources:
Swiss National Archives
Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen Archives

All content is presented in historical context for educational purposes. All footage is owned by it's copyright holder and is used in this channel under "fair use".

Music by Epidemic Sound

[genericpersonx]

From what I can tell, the main reason Belleville washers were not used more is simply economy of scale. Torsion-bar suspensions were well-developed in all the major tank-producing nations. Torsion bars were relatively cheap, reliable, and could handle all that was being asked of them and more, so no one really felt a need to not use them. Bellevilles, while a known technology for some years in industrial applications, would have taken some years of development just to be sure of matching existing torsion-bar systems. Given the torsion bars worked and worked well, and Bellevilles offered no obvious advantage worth the risks and cost of development, the torsion bars remained favored.

[ugk]

I started basic training with Pz.61 in Thun (seen the tank hangars in vid) We were the last tank-school on that type. (1989) later units directly trained basic on Leo2 or Pz.68/88GT. Our Division later converted to Pz.68 (small turret) Though the lack of stabilisator we preferred Pz.61civer Pz.68 in life-round shooting on range but preffered the stabil. Pz.68 in tereain training.

[systemhalodark]

I swear that if one were to ask a child to draw the most stereotypically tankish tank possible, it would definitely look like the PZ61.

[phineascampbell]

The fact that Switzerland has as it's defence strategy "the entire country runs off and hides in the mountains" gives you some idea of how unique a place it is!

[newhonk]

I love your videos man, please don’t ever stop making new ones

[spacecase]

This whole channel is wonderful, consistent and amazing. I have now watched every video here, and I am looking forward to more!!

[chaosXPRT]

The Swiss adventure into tank building is very interesting! They learned valuable lessons later than other it seems, like removing the 20mm gun, having the electronic issues and, even with the Panzer 68 just looking a bit outdated even for it's time. It's turns out that building tanks from scratch is extremely difficult, which is why we generally have just the same 4 or 5 tank standards in the world today. The American tanks, the Germans tanks, the Soviet tanks and the French tanks. This is changing a bit, with the Chinese, Japanese, and South Koreans building very unique tanks in their own rights, but even today, it's a bit easy to see where they got their original blueprints from!

[justyouraveragehuman]

Underrated channel & under discussed vehicles. Never ever heard of that panzer 2000 tho…looks like the German upgraded m48 super. Thanks Red love your videos man keep it up! :)

[dougstubbs]

The Belleville Washer System was the last, great German under pressure designs, which like the Stg 45 was ignored by those who now held the technology. Can’t be sure, but was a development for E 100, Simple, light, scaleable, capable of absorbing huge forces for the size and weight. Look at the S Tank, and think replace washers with a hydraulic system. Yes, Belleville has been used. Ditto, MBT 70.

[luvr]

Germany was experimenting during WW2 with the Belleville washer system on it's E series tanks.

[swisstraeng]

Not exactly regarding that the scandal.
The main gun was not fired from turning the heater on.
The report talked about the electronics of the heater and the main gun being on the same PCB, and thus they feared that it could cause issues.
This report was written when the Pz68 was still a prototype. Something which was corrected for production.

The main issue regarding the 68 was that, it was soon to become obsolete for its time. The same was true for the Leopard 1 tank and the M60.
This simply was due to the russian T-64 which essentially made other unarmored "see first shoot first" design oriented western tanks sort of obsolete.

The Pz68 was also not the greatest, because it was essentially an old design that was reworked again and again. It did have a loader cupola that was similar to the commander cupola, which did allow the loader to be a more useful crew member when no reloading is needed.

[facundocamilotto]

War Thunder: tranks for the info bro 😎
-adds a new sub tech tree for germany

[AverageSpaniard]

your videos keep getting better, and at a constant ratio!

[torinjones]

0:10 wrong. They just haven't officially been involved. The Swiss practice armed neutrality meaning they will still fight to defend their own land but won't go on the offensive. And they will do so neutrally take for example ww2 where the Swiss attacked both allied and axis planes flying in Swiss airspace.

Infact during the outbreak of ww2 Switzerland mobilised 850, 000 men in only 3 days.

[Trvs-ducs]

“Welcome, to Switzerland” OHHH GAAAWWD NOOOO!!!!

[NovaAge]

-Spot enemy
-Take aim
-Turn on heater
-Confirm kill

[tasman]

Very well done vid on this tank and its derivitives that most people would not now about. Big thumbs up from me.

[johnharrison]

Could you do an in-depth [as in-depth as possible, anyway] video on the French A.R.L. 44 tank? I'm honestly intrigued by that

[mattskustomkreations]

I think the national redoubt model is still solid. There are tunnels in the mountains everywhere. It is still a costly proposition to invade IMO.

[iwantmynametobeaslongaspos]

Can you do a video on the Somua SM. I love the tank but I can find almost no info on it