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A question about Allied artillery


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VT shells have a radar fuse mounted in the nose of the shell. When the shell is a pre-determined distance from the ground it explodes, showering the blast area with shrapnel. it is very deadly against troops in the open, gun emplacements, etc...

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VT artillery (I can never remember what the VT stands for, Variable Time or something) is based on the posit fuse. Basically, it has a radio transmitter inside the shell that causes the shell to explode at a set distance above ground. This greatly enhances the destructiveness of the shell as it spreads the shrapnel over a much greater radius than a conventional shell the explodes on impact with the ground.

You will find it well worth the cost. 105VT makes a mess of infantry, and 155VT (though only 35 rounds) obliterates infantry. Try it, I guarantee you like it.

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Originally posted by Croda:

You will find it well worth the cost. 105VT makes a mess of infantry, and 155VT (though only 35 rounds) obliterates infantry. Try it, I guarantee you like it.

I used it in a QB where a large amount german infrantry (15 plus squads) was getting ready to overrun my right flank. 19 shells stopped them cold and allowed me time to get some HT and armor over there to mop up the survivors.

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Yes, VT (stands for "variable time") is the same thing as a proximity fuse, and yes it was originally developed for anti-aircraft use. It was rather effective in that role. The 5 inch duel purpose guns of the U.S. fleet fired large VT fused shells, as the first or outer "shell" of the layered flak protecting the fleet. The inner ones used huge numbers of 40mm and 20mm lighter AA guns. Fighters patrolled outside the flak screen. Even before they switched to kamikazes, few Japanese planes survived attacks on such fleets, once the whole system had been developed. Since they weren't going to make it out anyway, they switched to the kamikaze tactic.

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Guest Michael emrys

Originally posted by Croda:

This greatly enhances the destructiveness of the shell as it spreads the shrapnel over a much greater radius than a conventional shell the explodes on impact with the ground.

This is not strictly true. That is, the VT-fuzed shell does tend to be deadlier against soft targets, but the reason is not because it spreads shrapnel over a larger radius (the two types of shells are substantially the same in this regard), but because it negates any vertical protection, such as a wall or a foxhole with no overhead protection, that a soft target might otherwise benefit from.

When a conventionally fuzed shell strikes the ground, it may burrow some distance into the soil before exploding. The ground then focuses the blast and shrapnel upward into a cone shape. Personnel behind any sort of obstruction, or merely lying flat are thus unlikely to be struck, even though the fragments are traveling just as far as with the VT fuzed round.

The VT round, on the other hand, projects blast and fragments in a roughly spherical distribution from overhead.

Michael

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Michael emrys said:

The VT round, on the other hand, projects blast and fragments in a roughly spherical distribution from overhead.

I respectfully disagree. A shell always has its center of mass in the same place and following the same trajectory both before and after it explodes. IWO, when the shell explodes, the expanding cloud of fragments has a net center of mass that is still moving forward with the velocity of the shell. In fact, the velocity of the center of mass along the trajectory of the original shell is usually higher than the outward velocity of the fragments.

The result is that when viewed from the side, the fragments continue going forward in an expanding cone-shaped volume rather like a charge of birdshot instead of in a spherical pattern. Only if the shell was stationary when it exploded would you have a spherical fragment pattern.

With a VT fuzed shell, the burst occurs when the shell is coming down toward the ground. As a result, the cone of fragments also points downwards and thus ends up filling an elliptical area of ground with fragments (it would be a circular area if the shell was falling straight down). The fuze is tweaked so that the burst occurs at a height where the fragments will still be close enough together inside this oval area to hit anybody caught inside it, usually several times smile.gif.

This is what makes airbursts (whether from VT, MT, or trees) so nasty. With an impact fuze, all fragments not immediately absorbed by the ground are going upwards at some angle. Thus, hiding behind a wall or lying prone is very effective protection. But with airbursts, the fragments will go down behind walls and into foxholes lacking overhead protection. Plus lying prone on the ground only increases the target area you offer the fragments.

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