Phandaal Posted June 12, 2000 Share Posted June 12, 2000 Lieutenant-Colonel V.Mindlin (a participant of battles for Berlin) wrote in his memoirs "The Last Battle - the Hard Battle!" about this: "Here is a tank with battened down hatches... but the crew is silent. They respond to neither radio nor knock. There is a small hole with a diameter no more than a cent. That was a "faust", that was its work. A shield was torn off, and a next round penetrated the armor... Those who saw a tank battle knew how terrible death could be for tankers. If a round hit the ammunition or fuel tanks, a tank will be destroyed at once - just blast off and crew perishing without any torture. Often a round just penetrates the tank's armor but doesn't hit the ammunition or fuel tanks. All crewmembers are wounded, their tank is burning, but the crew is unable to extinguish the flame. They need to escape the tank and run off a safe distance. However, the tankers are wounded and they simply can't do that, they can't open the locked hatches. And you can hear the cries of those being burned alive. You can't help them because the hatches are locked inside..." I didn't know a faust only caused a 1 cm hole, yet could destroy a tank and crew. That is sobering. Phandaal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Formerly Babra Posted June 12, 2000 Share Posted June 12, 2000 Imagine being inside a closed space, barely enough room to move around, no air conditioning, poor visibility, air thick with powder smoke, no creature comforts, just guns and ammo and things of steel. Now imagine a deafening concussion and a spray of molten steel... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted June 12, 2000 Share Posted June 12, 2000 I think fausts usually cause larger holes than that (1cm), at least against Shermans. But these were probably more heavily-armored Soviet tanks. Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoffel Posted June 12, 2000 Share Posted June 12, 2000 Steve he is wright about the holes. In Overloon we have a museum that owns a sherman hit by several PF's. At the left side it had 3 little holes of roughly that size. On the other side were much more holes. According to the guide that have been pieces of shrapnell and metal from the tank who made these holes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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