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It seems a little bit too much!


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Hello guys, 

I was playing the campaign "raging Buffalo" from CMFI Gustav Line and on the last battle when you as the American have to defend the town from overwhelming armored German troops I saw for the first time the Elefant tank destroyer in action. 

 

I knew it was a beast but

1) I hit it twice, once from the back once from the side with a bazooka and it didn't penetrate and the defense tab shows it is vulnerable to heat shells. 

2) Then i hit it 4 times with the lethal 76 mm gun of a m10. Yes, I hit it on the front which is the thickest side bit but it was from 5 meters distance. It didn't penetrate but the elefant destroyed my m10. 

I needed to withdraw everyone from that position because of the elefant and 3) I called a heavy barrage on him. 

The 105 mm guns of the priest rained down just on its position and they hit it 5 times on the top. After the barrage, when the smoke dissolved it was still alive. 

At the end of the scenario I reviewed the map and I found it had optics, wpn controls and tracks destroyed but the crew was all still alive, not even lightly injured. 

Of a total of 11 hits (5 105 mm on top, 2 heat on back and side and 4 76 mm on the front armor from 5 meters) none of them scored a penetration. 

Isn't it a little bit too much? Is there a way to kill him? 

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If I recall correctly, the frontal armour on the Elefant is 200mm. No gun in that era can penetrate it. Bazookas will not have much success penetrating it from any side. Your 76mm should be able to penetrate it from the side or rear. 105mm HE relies on the explosion to cause damage, it has no penetrative capability so it will be unlikely to cause much damage with just such a small charge.

To kill this you should use your 76mm gun from the side.. The Elefant is not very maneuverable, and has to turn to aim its gun. Try to use that to your advantage. 

Edited by Bud Backer
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Most Elefants broke down, fell off the road or ran out of fuel.....Of the eleven sent to Italy IIRC only one was KOed by direct tank fire, that by M10 Tank Destroyers firing from the flanks, which makes this:

5 hours ago, Bud Backer said:

To kill this you should use your 76mm gun from the side.. The Elefant is not very maneuverable, and has to turn to aim its gun. Try to use that to your advantage.

Very good advice.  ;)

https://mikesresearch.com/2019/07/28/elefants-in-italy-1944/

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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7 hours ago, Aquilaruspante said:

according to the defenses tab of the elefant what you say make sense apart from the fact that it says its very vulnerable to heat unless it's hit on the front armor. 

I think the defences tab only shows that it doesn't have any extra fancy defences against HEAT. In modern era CM titles, there might be some ceramic armour or reactive plates.

But still if the steel is thick enough, it doesn't need it.

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13 hours ago, Aquilaruspante said:

Ok, according to the defenses tab of the elefant what you say make sense apart from the fact that it says its very vulnerable to heat unless it's hit on the front armor. 

So is the tab to take with a pinch of salt? 

Not at all. The chart is more useful for comparing one vehicles resistance to damage from the same category to a different vehicle, than to compare resistance to damage between weapon types. 

HEAT still has limitations. Also, there isn’t enough granularity in the chart to differentiate between say, a bazooka which won’t burn through 80mm of armour, but will through 50, because it also has to represent (for instance) 105mm heat too (which will also struggle with the elefant’s armour). 

You can see this granularity issue in a more obvious way if you look at the Sherman's armour. The armour resistance values for large AP shells represents a 50mm Panzer III gun, capable of penetrating, say, 60mm armour, as well as a long 88, capable of penetrating over 150mm. Same values in the chart for quite a performance difference. ;)

Edited by Bud Backer
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