Lorraine 155 Mle.50

Description

The Lorraine automoteur de 155 mm modèle 1950 was a French prototype for a new self-propelled artillery piece, developed after WWII with the intent of providing France with a domestic artillery system. The prototypes were finished in the 1950s but never reached production. The vehicle was equipped with the Obusier de 155 mm Modèle 50 alongside a roof-mounted 20 mm autocannon for anti-aircraft defence. A new project emerged in the early 1950s, the Batignolles Chatillon 155 mm. The Lorraine 155 mm project was deemed to be redundant and all work on the project was discontinued.

It was introduced in Update 1.77 "Advancing Storm" as a reward during the 2018 WW2 Chronicles. The Lorraine 155 Mle.50 is a very interesting self propelled artillery, featuring a 155 mm Howitzer at a relatively low BR, alongside a 20 mm autocannon that can be used to some extent against enemy tanks, but is especially useful against enemy aircraft. The biggest issue with this vehicle is the ability to be easily overpressured by enemy HE shells and the slow reload, with 20 seconds minimum using an aced crew.

General info

Survivability and armour

The Lorraine 155 Mle.50 has very little armour (although some are sloped enough to deflect certain low-calibre rounds), and can generally be penetrated by most guns of its rank. Even worse, however, the 'casemate' (if it can even be called that) has very little armour, and in some places can be shot through with machine guns. The machine-gunner (operating the 20 mm gun) is completely standing in the open. Generally, you want to rely on good map placement and mobility, rather than armour.

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour (hull, superstructure)
• Wheel (tires)
• Structural steel (gun mount, gun breech, mudguards)

Notes:

• Suspension wheels are 10 mm thick while tracks, sprocket wheels, torsion bars, and return rollers are 20 mm thick.
• Belly armour is 10 mm thick.
• Gun breech is 150 mm thick, while the barrel itself is 25 mm.
• Gun carriage around the gun is 20 mm thick, while the gun mount/traverse device is 40 mm thick.

Mobility

Modifications and economy

Armaments

Main armament

Ammunition

Ammo racks

Notes:

• Projectiles and propellant charges are modeled individually and disappear after having been shot or loaded.
• The visual discrepancy concerns the total number of shells as well as the number of shells per rack:
  • 28 shells are modeled but you can pack 30 shells.
  • Rack 8 is modeled as 3 shells but contains 5 shells.
• Recommended loadout: 9 (+21) shells. It keeps most ammunition in the floor and out of sponsons.

Machine guns

The roof-mounted MG 151 autocannon is very good at knocking out tracks, punching through lightly armoured vehicles and shooting down low-flying aircraft. Use it sparsely because of its low ammo count. When losing a crew member, the machine gunner is used to replace other crew members, meaning that you can't use the 20 mm cannon anymore.

Usage in battles

The best method of using the large-calibre weapon on the Lorraine is to exploit the high-explosive power against thin-armour on the enemy. Like other large calibre HE tanks, shooting below an enemy vehicle will penetrate its belly armour. This is an effective, albeit difficult way to engage tanks whose armour is greater than what your HE shell can penetrate.

Some targets to keep in mind of, and their weak points:

• Tiger I - While seemingly a hard enemy to face, the Tiger is easily dispatched with a side shot. A hit to the roadwheels will penetrate the tank, with the shell fragments going through the thin armour on the underside of the tank's sponson. This is also possible to do to Tiger IIs, but usually results in much less damage done.
• Tiger II P, Panthers D and A - a hit to the bottom of the curved turret face of these tanks will cause the HE shell to penetrate the roof of the vehicle. This can also be done on tanks with flat turret fronts ( Tiger I, Tiger II H, Panthers G and F) by aiming for the lower half of the turret, but is not as reliable.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Powerful 155 mm gun with a HE shell on-par with the KV-2's gun
• Pintle-mounted 20 mm cannon that is deadly to lightly-armoured vehicles and aircraft
• Decent mobility
• Good reverse speed

Cons:

• Thin armour with an open casemate, allows even rifle-calibre rounds to affect the crew
• Despite thin armour, it's thick enough to trigger most fuses in APHE shells
• Large profile
• Long reload time; increases if the loader is taken out
• If the machine-gunner is knocked out, so is the ability to use the 20 mm cannon
• No AP shells, only HE shells
• Bad gun depression of 5°

History

Prototypes of the Lorraine 155 Mle.50 passed trials in 1950, but never reached production.

Media

Skins

• Skin and Camouflages for the Lorraine 155 Mle.50 from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

See also

Vehicles equipped with the same chassis

• CA Lorraine

Other vehicles of similar configuration and role

• Brummbär
• ▀KW II 754 (r)
• KV-2 (1939) / KV-2 (1940)

External links

• [Wikipedia] Lorraine 155 mm