dunc Posted March 20, 2001 Share Posted March 20, 2001 I'm just wondering, how come the German tanks had such slow turrets? After all, they had superior optics, armour, guns, etc, so why were they so poor is the turret department? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curih Posted March 20, 2001 Share Posted March 20, 2001 First let me say that I'm by no means an expert on the subject. The Panzer IV and the Panther have pretty reasonable turet speeds. The ones with real slow turrets are the Tiger and King Tiger. The Tiger I is an early war design and the King Tiger a later war one, but I'd be willing to bet that they both have much heavier turrets than their contemporaries. I also belive that one of the Panzer IV models has a hand cranked turret which is much slower. I'd be interested to see how the Tigers' turrets speeds compare to those of the Russian heavy tanks. The Allies don't really have anything in the same category. CuriH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pvt.Tom Posted March 20, 2001 Share Posted March 20, 2001 Didn't the Sherman have a hand cranked turret? I could swear I saw that somewhere, if so why is it so much faster that the Panzer IVs hand cranked turret? Anyone know? Pvt.Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Galanti Posted March 20, 2001 Share Posted March 20, 2001 I think most Sherman's had electrically driven turrets. Though, the Sherman 105s had hand cranked ones. Any grog out there who can confirm/deny this? Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamsters Posted March 20, 2001 Share Posted March 20, 2001 The German tanks had variable speed turrets based on how much the engine was revved. BTS has modeled the average speed. [This message has been edited by Hamsters (edited 03-20-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croda Posted March 20, 2001 Share Posted March 20, 2001 History Channel had a special on Shermans last week. Now I don't know what model they used (sure looked like a 75mm though), but it had a hand-cranked turret. Why was it faster? I could guess weight, design, stronger gunners, greasier ball bearings...but I don't know for sure. ------------------ Woot! - Maximus2k Stick around while the clown who is sick does the trick of disaster. The New CessPool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warmaker Posted March 20, 2001 Share Posted March 20, 2001 IIRC part of the reason is cost in terms of resources. Germany was being stretched to it's limits in materials. You already know of the shortages of slinging tungsten around for tank rounds. Tungsten had to be used for factories. Same can be said in tank construction. It's not that they didn't have the technology, it's just that implementing hydraulic and electrical turrets would be more expensive to a stretched industry. The later version of the PzKpfwIV is a case in point where they opted to leave out an assisted turret and made it a hand crank turret. ------------------ "Uncommon valor was a common virtue"-Adm.Chester Nimitz of the Marines on Iwo Jima Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pvt.Tom Posted March 20, 2001 Share Posted March 20, 2001 That's where I saw that, History Channel, I think the show was Battle Stations: Sherman, it looked like a period training film and the gunner was hand cranking the turret of a Sherman. Maybe that was an emergency crank only, I know modern Tanks have that in case the main traverse goes out. Anyone know? Pvt.Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mannheim Tanker Posted March 20, 2001 Share Posted March 20, 2001 Originally posted by Pvt.Tom: That's where I saw that, History Channel, I think the show was Battle Stations: Sherman, it looked like a period training film and the gunner was hand cranking the turret of a Sherman. Maybe that was an emergency crank only, I know modern Tanks have that in case the main traverse goes out. Anyone know? Pvt.Tom Correct. The hand crank on an M1 is REALLY slow (at least compared to powered mode!) and will wear you out in a hurry. We also had a Chaffee out in front of BN HQ. We tried the hand crank in it, and it was (obviously) much easier to crank, even after sitting idle for 45 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ari Maenpaa Posted March 20, 2001 Share Posted March 20, 2001 I would also guess that the slow turret wasn't necessarily such a hindrance in real life than it appears to be in CM. Frankly speaking the tacAI isn't very smart with turret rotation and makes fast turret speed a very desirable feature for any tank. Fortunately this seems to be compensated by appropriate pointcosts Ari Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mikey D Posted March 20, 2001 Share Posted March 20, 2001 M10 TDs suffered from an unbalanced turret (the reason for those changing rear turret counterweight types). If the vehicle was on any kind of a slope it could greatly hinder turret rotation. Ditto the Panther. Late Panther Gs had the added problem of NO turret motor! All hand cranked for those. The turret drive on the Sherman was just about the only thing the crews liked about the damned machine, and veteran tankers became quick-draw experts. I recall the survivor of a 'friendly fire' encounter with a Sherman (a Brit AC) was amazed how the Sherman got 2 shots into him before he had a chance respond! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olle Petersson Posted March 21, 2001 Share Posted March 21, 2001 Unbalanced and heavy are two factors... German turrets usually had lots of armour and big guns, both increasing weight... Cheers Olle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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