LTL

LTL

Light tank offered to the Lithuanian Army; the only ČKD tank with a rear-mounted drive wheel.

The tank was to weigh 7.2 to 8 tons and be equipped with a 100 hp engine.

On December 5, 1936, a Lithuanian commission came to Prague to inspect the prototypes of the P-II and P-II-a tanks and to discuss the new offer of ČKD, which had to modify the THN-L because of its high weight - the Lithuanian bridges could not support it. In February 1937, ČKD submitted a design for an LTL tank with the F-IV engine. The tank was armed with a 20 mm cannon (Oerlikon) and two machine guns. The armour was 8 to 25 mm thick. The maximum speed was 54 km/h, the tank weighed 5.6 tons.

On 27 May 1937 a contract was signed for the delivery of 21 LTL tanks with spare parts for 12,900,000 CZK. Furthermore, the company had to build a prototype within seven months of signing the contract and send it for testing. There was also an agreement in the contract to send the armament for the tank two months before the prototype was completed. The tests at CKD were carried out under the supervision of the Lithuanians from 28 May 1938. The customer did not object to the increased weight from 5.6 t to 7.2 t, but was somewhat concerned about the poor performance of the F-IV engine.

The LTL had the drive wheel located in the rear of the car, which led to stripping of the belt during testing and also poor performance on hilly terrain. For this reason, even at the cost of a reduction in speed, a different gearing was decided upon. At the same time, ČKD was also testing the LTH, which was far more reliable thanks to a different engine and an excellent Praga Wilson gearbox and front drive.

ČKD proposed to the Lithuanians to test the mentioned tank, they agreed and the tank was sent to Lithuania on 28.12.1939. The army commission finally decided to buy the LTL tank on 21.2.1939 because of easier steering, larger fighting space and finally the possibility of driving with only two engine cylinders. However, the final decision was made by the Lithuanian War Council on 10.3.1939. It decided to purchase the LTH type with the modified designation LLT. This step was justified by the new engine. However, before the deal could be implemented, Lithuania was absorbed by the Soviet Union. 21 LLT tanks were eventually taken over by the Slovak Army, which operated them under the designation LT-40. The LTL prototype did not see any serial production

Prototyp tanku LTL vyvinutý pro Litvu nesl tmavě zelenou barvu na všech plochách.