kipanderson Posted July 18, 2001 Share Posted July 18, 2001 German face-hardened armour, when did they stop using it? Hi, Just a short question. From reading the stunning Jentz books, and other sources, is seems to me that the peak year, for the use of face-hardened armour, was 1942. It was never the case that all German armour was face-hardened, but more plates were during 1942 than at any other time. It is also my impression that during 1943 the use of such armour gradually faded out. For example, only the first few hundred Panthers used some face-hardened plates. Is this impression correct? All the best, Kip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barticus Posted July 18, 2001 Share Posted July 18, 2001 First of all, I wasn't aware Germany had discontinued the use of face-hardened armour during the war. (not "groggish" enough, I guess ) Secondly, if they did, I can only guess it was one, or both, of two major reasons. 1) Face hardening adds to the amount of time necessary for AFV construction. By '43 or so, Germany needed to build as many AFV's as possible and any time-saving procedure would be seriously looked at. This was one of the major reasons why self-propelled guns became so prevalent in the later war years. 2) Spalling. If you weren't aware, spalling is what happens when the energy of an impacting round, which doesn't penetrate, causes flakes of steel to separate on the inside of the vehicle and cause crew casualties. I don't know how serious this problem was, but it was known to exist. Hope this helps, but eventually a real grog will come along and help you out Bart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Robertson Posted July 19, 2001 Share Posted July 19, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by kipanderson: It is also my impression that during 1943 the use of such armour gradually faded out. For example, only the first few hundred Panthers used some face-hardened plates. Is this impression correct? All the best, Kip.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> You are definatly correct that only the Panther D which preceded the A and G models had a face hardened Glacis. The change from face hardend back to RHA was actually pretty serendipitus. Early in the war their face hardened armour defeated uncapped allied shells. Later in the war Allied APCBC was less effective against RHA than APBC would have been Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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