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British Mark I male tank Somme 25 September 1916

Early Confederate Barrel Mark 1 on the Roanoke Front, 1916

A7V

The U. S. Barrel Mk. 1

A Barrel is an armored fighting machine first developed by the United States during the Great War in 1916. It was used at first to support infantry, until General George Armstrong Custer and Lt. Colonel Irving Morrell realized the value of the barrel to actually lead an offensive action. The so-called Barrel Roll Offensive helped to give the U.S. victory over the Confederate States.

The United States led the way in barrel development during the Great War. The British and Confederates both developed barrel designs, although they used the alternate codename "tank" for them (this designation fell out of favor postwar). British barrels mostly fought in Europe, but some were shipped across the Atlantic where they bolstered Anglo-Canadian troops on the Canadian Front. Confederate barrels saw considerable action, but Confederate industry was simply not up to the task of producing them in the numbers that the US could, and they never played a decisive role in Confederate tactics or strategy.

Following the Confederate defeat in the Great War, barrels were one of the weapons forbidden to the Confederates, along with submersibles, airplanes, and poison gas. After the War, the US established a barrel research and development facility: the Barrel Works in Leavenworth, Kansas, under the command of Colonel Irving Morrell. However, the Works were closed in 1923 under the Sinclair Administration.

The Confederacy did not openly begin to develop barrels until the Featherston Administration. However, Confederate volunteers with the Mexican Imperial forces gained operational experience using barrels in the Mexican Civil War.

In the interwar period, however, the U.S. allowed itself fall behind other countries in further developing and perfecting the weapon it had created. Only with general renewal of interest in rearmament after the Pacific War did the U.S. return its attention to the barrel. In the meantime, the C.S. had developed sophisticated barrel technology of its own.

The US barrels of the Second Great War were the first to sport sloping armor. The Confederate Mark 3 barrel's heavier 50 mm gun was sufficient to destroy the US Custer barrel, however, despite its sloping armor. The Confederates used sloping armor in their new Mark 4 barrel, along with a heavy 76 mm cannon, which made it vastly more powerful than the US Mark 2 and Mark 2.5.

The US Mark II upgrade was an attempt to hold back superior Confederate barrel formations while a new, more powerful, barrel could be built. The upgraded Mark II barrel was equipped with a new, hydraulically-traversed turret, and a 57mm cannon. While both sides used different caliber rounds for their small arms, both sides' barrels had .50 caliber heavy machine guns, usually on their turrets for antipersonnel and antiaircraft work. In 1943, the Confederate States developed the "Barrel Busters" as a response to the large U.S. Army barrel formations. While lacking a turret, the Barrel Buster was equipped with a larger-caliber gun than a barrel, making it far deadlier in certain conditions. As one of these conditions included defensive operations, the barrel buster made a formidable addition to the arsenal of the Confederate States. The US finally came out with a truly effective barrel design of its own in the Mark 3, which was even more heavily armed and armored than the Confederates' Mark 4, and produced it in sufficient numbers to overwhelm Confederate armored forces. The Confederates' late-war development of the highly advanced Mark 5 "superbarrel" did not help them.

Barrel Class[]

Confederate States Models

  • Mark 1 (Great War) - Rhomboid barrel; 10 man crew; two 50mm guns, 3 machine guns.
  • Mark 2 (Between the Wars) - More familiar shape, with rotating turret. Crew of 5-6; Estimated 37mm gun, 3 machine guns. Design loaned to the Empire of Mexico during the Mexican Civil War.
  • Mark 3 (Second Great War) - Upgraded version of Mk2. Crew of 5; 50mm gun, at least 2 machine guns.
  • Mark 4 (Second Great War) - It held a crew of 5; mounted a 75mm cannon, and had 2 machine guns.
  • Mark 5 (Second Great War) - The latest Confederate model, it sported a low hull, superbly sloped and thick armor that increased crew survival rates, and a high-velocity long-range 4.5 or 5-inch gun. While superior to all US barrels, there were too few to stem the tide.

United States Models

  • Mark I (Great War) - 18 man crew; one 50mm gun, 6 machine guns.
  • Mark II (Between the Wars) - Nicknamed the 'Custer.' The ‘Custer’ was advanced for its time. It carried a crew of 5; mounted a 37mm gun, and carried at least 2 machine guns. The prototype Custer carried a 50mm gun.
  • Mark II.V (Second Great War) - This barrel was developed to be deployed as quickly as possible to meet the challenge of the Confederate Mark 4. It consisted of a Custer barrel body with an upgraded turret. It carried a crew of 5; and mounted 60mm gun, at least 2 machine guns.
  • Mark III (Second Great War) - The American response to the Confederate Mark 4. It was powerful, heavily armored with "perfectly" sloped armor, and carried a mounted 90mm cannon along with three machine guns. Deployed shortly before the invasion of Kentucky and Tennessee. While inferior to the Confederate Mk.V it was deployed in overwhelming numbers to great effect.

Trivia[]

  • The various barrel models are visibly inspired by various OTL models (with certain differences). Despite the parallelism, Featherston's regime would have shared technology with Great Britain, rather than Germany. Interestingly, in terms of strategy, the trend towards parallels continued, down to converting tanks to casemate tank destroyers.
    • The Confederate Mark 1's rhomboid shape, two 57mm guns and three machine guns make it very similar to the British heavy tanks of World War I (the analogous guns were 6-pounders).
    • The Confederate Mark 2's brief description would suggest a laundry list of Interwar tanks, which includes the US M2 Medium.
    • The Confederate Mark 4 with its sloped, thick armor and a 75mm main gun would suggest the M4 Sherman, except the tanks are stated to have a much lower profile. However, the inspiration is still possible, since the Mark 4 was designed for mainland use, not exports, and as such could be designed with much looser tolerances.
    • The Confederate Mark 5's description suggests several heavy tank designs, though the main gun caliber (estimated by Pound to be 4.5 to 5 inches) limits it to the prototype T29 Heavy Tank, its T34 big brother, and the mass-produced Soviet IS-2 heavy tank.
  • Meanwhile, due to the close relations with Germany, American designs share similarities to German tanks (ideological differences aside):
    • The United States Mark I resembles OTL's German A7V design. Both tanks had a large crew of 18 and a single large gun. Note that this gun was a 50mm gun on the Mark I and a 57mm gun on the A7V.
    • The United States Mark II "Custer" is boxy, armed with a 37mm gun, and a five-man crew, matching the Panzer III versions through Ausf. E.
    • The upgraded 2.5 or II.V version, with a new turret and a new 60mm gun limited by the turret ring parallels the upgunning of the Panzer III to 50mm guns in response to the encounters with Soviet armor.
    • The Mark 3 or III has sloped armor and a 90mm gun, which would suggest some parallels with the Panther tank (sloping) or even the Tiger II (sloped armor and 88mm gun), though not even remotely as expensive as either of these tanks, allowing it to be fielded in mass quantities.
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