Shell armor penetration after previous impact.

[Lee]

Back before this board was changed to it's new format

(this was months ago), a question was asked that was

very interesting. For some reason the text of the

question got lost in the switch to the new format.

I waited all this time wondering if the person

who asked the question would ever ask it again.

Well, I think I've waited long enough and the question

is important enough to need to be asked. I forget

the name of the poster who asked it, but here was the

question (not exact quote, but same meaning):

If an armor piercing shell were to hit a light skinned

vehicle and then exit the other side and hit a tank

will CM accurately model the reduced speed of the shell

when taking into account the armor penetration against

the tank? Obviously, if a 88mm AP shell hits a halftrack

in the side it's going to cut through it like butter and

exit out the other side. This would leave plenty of

velocity to hit a tank which may be sitting right on

the other side of the halftrack (say, 30 feet away).

So, the question is, in CM can an AP shell hit one

vehicle, bust through it and hit another vehicle

behind it? And, if so, how will CM model the changed

ballistics of the projectile.

I've been waiting a long time to see what the answer

to this is, should be interesting.

[Guest Big Time Software]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>So, the question is, in CM can an AP shell hit one vehicle, bust through it and hit another vehicle behind it? And, if so, how will CM model the changed ballistics of the projectile.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sorry, no. And we don't model lightning striking lottery winners twice either.

Charles

[Guest KwazyDog]

I would image that an AP shell even going through thin armour would change its trajectory somwhat and make it loose is 'armour piecing' shape anyways.

[Guest Lokesa]

good call Kwazy, I hadn't thoguht it through myself but that sounds about right

[Lee]

I agree, it would most likely affect it's flight path, so

this would only happen to vehicles that were right behind the

first vehicle to be hit. I also wondered about the

deformation of the shell nose, but when hitting very

light armor I would imagine that those hardened shells

wouldn't be affected much.

That's about what I thought you'd say, Charles.

I knew that if you did simulate one vehicle being hit

behind another that it would modeled cleverly and accurately

by you. The big question was were such hits possible in

the first place. Which I didn't think they would be.

Like I said though, it wasn't my question. (:

Just out of curiosity, in your very informed opinion, how many

halftracks could be penetrated through their sides by a

Tiger 1's 88? This would assume the halftracks were

in a line abreast formation and spaced fairly close together.

And further, let's assume the Tiger had just crept to the

edge of a treeline and was about 200 yards away when it

takes the shot. Just wondering what one of those big 88 shells

can really do is this sort of situation.

BTW, let's say the Tiger is using regular AP. We'll spare the

halftracks the APCR numbers.

[Guest Big Time Software]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>The big question was were such hits possible in the first place.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Such hits were possible as you come across descriptions of them from time to time. But they were quite rare. It's just not that common for two vehicles to be located along a single line of fire both laterally and vertically, plus near enough to each other, plus with armor thin enough to be penetrated three times (in and out of vehicle 1, then into vehicle 2). It did happen, but rarely.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Just out of curiosity, in your very informed opinion, how many halftracks could be penetrated through their sides by a

Tiger 1's 88?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I can make nothing more than a total guess here but I'd say about five. Halftrack armor is exceedingly thin.

Charles

[Lee]

5, eh? Cool. Gotta love those 88's (if you're not

going up against them ).