Quote:
Originally Posted by Art-J
Nah, the VT fuses were not "late war" invention, and not for "big naval guns" only, although one might discuss when the gun is considered big enough to be called "big"  . The first american operational Mk 32 fuse for standard naval 5 inch AAA gun was introduced on the Pacific in november '42, with the first plane shot down by it in january '43. Later marks were small enough to fit into 90mm army AAA gun. |
The original poster was talking about 20mm "Proximity Fuses" Another was talking about them being magnetic. They were in fact small radars inside the fuse, and they were only produced in the 5" range then finally in the 4" range (90mm)
Prox or VT fuses were not authorized for use in the ETO until December 1944/January 1945. That is LATE WAR
5" Naval guns are the biggest AAA used in the Pacific by the allies.. they are THE "big guns" for Prox Fuses. They were allowed to use them earlier at sea for AAA since the odds of capture were almost zero. In the ETO 155 VT Fuses were devastating as they could be reliably airburst over massed infantry with incredible results.
There is a very good chow in History channel on its development.. the G Forces involved made the reliability quite difficult to acheive.. amazing they were able to actually..