lf some info about tanks

[Panzergranate]

Originally Posted by Zeke Wolff

Don´t forget that the King Tiger with the Porsche turret is actually an left over from Faces of War, and thus, has a faulty hit volume in the body section. Faces of War had a much simplified penetration system, where even a 37mm at-gun sooner or later could penetrate even the thickest frontal armor at any range.

~Zeke.

Not in real life though!!

The real Tiger I armour layout:

Upper Front = 100mm.
Lower Front = 100mm. @ 30 Degrees.
Upper Hull Side = 80mm.
Lower Hull Side = 60mm.
Upper and Lower Hull Rear = 80mm.
Deck & Floor = 26mm.
88mm. L56 maximum penetration = 165mm. @ 100m. @ 0 Degrees with Pzgr.39 APCBC shot.

The real Panther G armour layout:
Upper Hull Front = 80mm. @ 60 Degrees.
Lower Hull Front = 60mm. @ 60 Degrees.
Upper Hull Sides = 45mm. @ 30 Degrees.
Lower HUll Sides - 45mm.
Upper & Lower Hull Rear = 45mm. @ 60 Degrees.
Deck & Floor = 15mm.
75mm. L70 maximum penetration = 203mm. @ 100m. @ 0 Degrees with Pzgr.39 APCBC shot.

Maximum penetrations for the 37mm. L45 PaK 35 and KwK 36:

65mm. @ 100m. @ 0 Degrees with Pzgr.39 APCBC shot.
79mm. @ 100m. @ 0 Degrees with Pzgr 40 APCR shot.

In gunnery ballistics, if a gun with maximum penetration of 100mm. @ range X @ 0 Degrees hits a target with 50mm. of armour protection @ range X @ 0 Degrees, it has a 50% chance of pentration under the laws of physics.

If the target has 25mm. of armour it has a 75% chance.

If a target has armour inclined to 30 Degrees, this decreases the power of the incoming shot by 18%.

If the target has armour inclined to 60 Degrees, this decreases the power of the incoming shot by 34%.

Any shot hit at 72 Degrees or more will skid off. 72 Degrees, as anyone who skips stones on a pond, is recognised in physics as the "Skate Angle" where zero amount of impact force os transmitted to a surface.

A quick bash on a calculator will show that the German 37mm. PaK had no chnace of penetrating the front of a T34/76 A, B or C (60mm. @ 60 Degrees) even at point blank range with the Pzgr.39 APCBC shot, whilst the Pzgr.40 APCR shot would have less than a 10% chance at even point blank range.

The odds of penetrating the turret front are also equally grim (65mm.) as it would take a 1 in a 100 lucky shot to achieve with APCBC and not much better with APCR.

No wonder why the T34 rendered most of the German standard AT guns obstelete pretty much immediately.

The difference between a gun's maximum penetration and a target's armour defence is termed "the overkill factor". The 88mm. L71 and 88mm. L98 PaK / FlaK guns are notorious for their massive overkill factors versus their victims.

The British Army, back in the 1920's, when looking for a dedicated tank gun stipulated that it should have a 70% chance or better of penetrating an AFV with 8mm. of armour @ 500 yards with a first round hit. The Vickers 47mm. L31 3 Pounder tank gun could manage 27mm. @ 500 yards with APHE shell.

This benchmark has been updated to take into account thicker armour of typical targets, but still stands today for procurement.

Tank armour and steel are two completely different things. Steel contains a majority amount of Iron and is classed as an Iron Based Alloy.

Tank Armour contains 60 - 70% Nickel, 15 - 20% Copper, 10 - 15% Iron and varying quantities of Molybednium, Chromium and other special metals.

Therefore Tank Armour is classed as a Nickel Based Alloy.

Steel has a melting point of 1,300 Celsuis and Armour has a melting point of 3,800 Celsuis.

During WW2 the US made training versions of the M4 Sherman and M7 Priest SPG completely in steel as they didn't need to be armoured as they'd never see combat.

When computer games and wargame adopt true ballistics anti-armour mathematics, which has been around since the 1800's, tank battles will be more authentic.