ntg84 Posted January 18, 2001 Share Posted January 18, 2001 I've been playing Drive To Mortain, probably the best Operation in CM (in my opinion, as the Americans. My Jumbo took a hit to the gun, my 76 Sherm took a hit to the gun, and 2 other M4A3's took hits to the gun (but the 76 and one M4A3 got knocked out). So the next battle rolls around and I'm short the Jumbo and the M4A3, they were abandoned becasue of a hit to the gun. Now my question, why can't the superior American tank mechanics change out a gun barrel for a 75mm? How long does it take to swap them out? But I'm assuming just the barrel got mangled, but if its the breech how come they cant change a breech out? Maybe not the next battle, but the one after it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mike the bike Posted January 18, 2001 Share Posted January 18, 2001 The superior mechanics can do the change. Perhaps you just haven't got any of them!! IIRC repairs take a random time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ntg84 Posted January 18, 2001 Author Share Posted January 18, 2001 But is there a possibility of getting the tanks back that had the damaged gun and became abandoned? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingfish Posted January 18, 2001 Share Posted January 18, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Now my question, why can't the superior American tank mechanics change out a gun barrel for a 75mm? How long does it take to swap them out? But I'm assuming just the barrel got mangled, but if its the breech how come they cant change a breech out? Maybe not the next battle, but the one after it?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> It takes a while to: a) secure the battlefield to where it's safe to get recovery vehicles in get recovery vehicles in and tank out to the repair depot c) repair tank d) recrew tank and drive back to the front Also, while all that is going on you also have to get replacments for crew members that were wounded or killed. When you consider that each battle in an Op is usually separated by a few hours, then a damaged tank that doesn't show for a few battles isn't out of the ordinary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntelWeenie Posted January 18, 2001 Share Posted January 18, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kingfish: It takes a while to: a) secure the battlefield to where it's safe to get recovery vehicles in get recovery vehicles in and tank out to the repair depot c) repair tank d) recrew tank and drive back to the front<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yes, but a) and (sortof) don't apply for a gun hit as the tank is still mobile and could drive itself to the repair depot. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>When you consider that each battle in an Op is usually separated by a few hours, then a damaged tank that doesn't show for a few battles isn't out of the ordinary.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I would agree for some operatoins this would cetainly be the case, but why would the tanks show up as abandoned? Do they then count as kills for victory purposes? If I read ntg84's post correctly, the tanks were operational during the battle and abandoned sometime between battles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ntg84 Posted January 19, 2001 Author Share Posted January 19, 2001 Right Intel, I was driving the Jumbo back to the rear once it lost it's gun in hopes that it might be around all better in the next battle. The crew was in tact. So that eliminates everything Kingfish said except C. But how long does it take to change a gun barrel? If it was threaded on couldn't you just unscrew it and put it back on? And repair shops weren't that far behind the armor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasoncawley@ameritech.net Posted January 19, 2001 Share Posted January 19, 2001 Realistically, it depends on what happened to the gun. A gun disabled hit that does not penetrate can mean anything from smashing the gunsight to mangling the barrel or the mantle where it reaches and fits to the rest of the tank. An interior, penetrating hit that knocks out the gun could be as simple as a jammed turret or the sight again, or as bad as you'd care to imagine. Tank repair teams are not outfitted with spare barrels from home, for the simple reason that there aren't any spare barrels from home, those being fitted to entire new tanks. But a maintenance shop will cannabilize some "kills" to get others back into operation. A tank will come in a burnt-out wreck, but with an intact gunsight. That will fix another that was broken in some different way. You cannot expect all of damaged tanks to be returned to service. Simple hulls in the hull that hurt crewmen and led to the tank being abandoned, perhaps. With everything else, you are going to lose a dead tank to resurrect its neighbor, so if you get half of them back that is about all you can expect. With longer to work - weeks or a month - and thus more wrecks coming through the shop with widely different things wrong with them, it will end up easier to mix-n-match and get more of them back into to service. But short term, realistically one would expect around half to be recovered. How does it work in CM? I don't know... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhtrickey Posted January 19, 2001 Share Posted January 19, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ntg84: Now my question, why can't the superior American tank mechanics change out a gun barrel for a 75mm? How long does it take to swap them out? But I'm assuming just the barrel got mangled, but if its the breech how come they cant change a breech out? Maybe not the next battle, but the one after it?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> It usually takes quite a long period of time to change out a gun tube from a tank. A team in the field would need a hoist to insert and remove the tube. You need to disassemble the breech, unbolt the tube from the mantle. Once that is done, you still have to align and resight the gunsights to the new gun tube. Not quite an overnight operation. I am sure that a tank maintainance unit at least at higher levels would carry some extra gun tubes in stock. ------------------ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted January 20, 2001 Share Posted January 20, 2001 Hi ntq84! First off, let me say that somebody with that callsign should be shot Glad that you like the Op. Check out the website given under "sources" in the description/main briefing for a really interesting look at the actual battlefield and a short description of how the real thing went. To answer the tank-replacement-during-Ops-question: if I remember correctly tank replacements happen usually only if a scenario has at least one night turn in between (which is not the case with Drive to Mortain). Drive to Mortain really spans 8 hours or so of action, so the chance that you will recover your damaged tanks is fairly low (even IF they were repaired, I am not sure that they would be thrown right into the frey again). Hope this helps, Martin ------------------ "An hour has 60 minutes, each minute in action has a thousand dangers." - Karl-Heinz Gauch, CO 1st Panzerspähkompanie, 12th SS Panzerdivision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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