VictorCharlie Posted April 7, 2003 Share Posted April 7, 2003 Anyone know what the slope of curved armor is? (reading armor stats showing mm/slope) is it somewhere between 0deg & 15deg? I had a Stug IIIG knock out a IS-2 at 470m range and didn't think this was possible? There was no weak spot hit or height advantage involved. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonC Posted April 7, 2003 Share Posted April 7, 2003 Curved typically acts like 30 degree slope, but with somewhat higher variance. Perhaps 15% of the time it will act like considerably higher slope and cause ricochets when the round would penetrate 30 degree slope. A similar portion of the time, it might act closer to flat armor. If you read the 30 degree line of the armor tables to get an effective range against a certain plate, it will be correct most of the time. As for an IS-2 being penetrated by a 75L48, that is common enough at close ranges like the one you mentioned. The front can only be counted on to bounce most hits at 800m and farther. You will typically see some flaking and occasional partials at 750m, which can prove fatal. At the 500m range you mention, kills should be routine. Notice that the armor quality of the IS-2 is only 90%, so the effective thickness of the turret front (and lower hull on earlier models) is only 90mm, at 30 or curved slope. The quality reduction is probably what you missed. The late models (1944 and not early) have improved slope on the upper hull, and improved thickness on the lower hull. Those are more resistent to 75L48s. But the turret front remains vunerable at close ranges, and occasional vunerable even at medium range. Against more powerful guns (Panther, Tiger, etc), the IS-2 is vunerable on some plate at practically any range. Only the upper hull of the later 1944 model is effective protection against those. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amedeo Posted April 7, 2003 Share Posted April 7, 2003 VC, speaking of IS-2 tanks, looking at actual combat reports, it seems that the 'safety distance' when dealing with the big cats was considered to be 2000m and over. At those ranges the IS-2 is frontally immune (sort of) to the guns sported by Panther and Tiger tanks (yet the 8,8cm L/71 might still be a problem for the turret front) and if the scenario is set late in the war, you have BR-471B APBC rounds with which you can also manage to kill a PzKpfw-V/VI at those ranges. IMHO this is the only case (barring the SU-85M and SU-100) in which Soviet AFVs could try a prolonged frontal firefight at range against German armour without being creamed. Of course if you're facing a Koenigstiger... bye A. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VictorCharlie Posted April 9, 2003 Author Share Posted April 9, 2003 ok, thanks for the info! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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