Questions on strafing and tank busting

[Gryphon]

Originally Posted by Igo kyu

I agree.


A stopped tank is a target, a moving one is a serious threat.


I thought Rudel was German, and thus wouldn't have been targetting Tigers?

Never said he was targeting Tigers, i was merely stating that Tiger's gun was far more effective at taking out tanks than the BK 3,7.

Explosive rounds from tank guns are for soft targets, very useful for that, but only for that. With all tank vs tank gunnery (except HEAT warheads, which are more used from bazookas than guns, and may never have been used from tank guns in WW2) the shot are solid, they go in, they lose a lot of energy doing that, and then they bounce off the inside of the armour on the other side. Brewing up was a known phenomenon, it wasn't instantaneous.

I said high-explosive-anti-tank but realised this is a rather poor choice as this is obviously confused with HEAT, I of course meant armour-piercing-high-explosive or APHE (also known as armour piercing shot with HE filler). Most people don't use the designation however and instead refer to just "AP". I never mentioned dedicated high-explosive.

What? HEAT rounds were VERY common in tank guns. In fact, as far as the German forces alone go, all self propelled artillery (Wespe, Hummel etc.), support halftracks (Stummel) and close support tanks (Pz. IIIN, Pz IV short of all types), etc used shaped charges to combat armour in self-defence.

In WW2 the shot was almost never truly "solid". A lot of ammunition smaller than approx 50mm was, but most larger rounds (75mm and up) posessed HE filling which would burst the round once it penetrated. Finally, i never mentioned brewing up, but it sure as heck can be instantaneous when the ammunition gets hit and sets off.

I didn't know that about the Japanese, but I very much doubt the same applied to the T34, and with JS2s about, you wouldn't want HE loaded.

Like i said, AP(HE) does the job.