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Lowly Maxim kills AC


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Even after playing CMBB for years, I still see things I've never seen before.

Today I had a buttoned PSW222 killed by a Maxim MG from the front at 173 metres. I knew he was being fired upon by an infantry contact, but there were no signs of it being an ATR or ampulomet, and there was no DSHK sound effect on the battlefield. So I figured why worry about it? Wrong answer. First one then another crew member is hit, and the third bails out. At the end of the game the MG had the 222 listed as his kill.

The funny thing is, I've never seen a (supposedly) lowly Maxim do that before. Is this a bit surprising to anyone else out there?

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Yep, I have always depended on the German MG's to take out light vehicles- but now it appears that the Russians can do a bit of the same thing with their own MG's.

I would guess the Maxim has a shorter lethal range than MG34 or 42, of course, and possibly a lesser chance to cause damage per burst.

The 8mm turret armor of the PSW222 would be the weak spot here.

Next time I do a Russian defense I will try to get similar results. Previously I would never have bothered to fire a Maxim at a buttoned AC.

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Stalin's Organist- Your idea sounded possible, so I just did a casual test against PSW 231's and 232's. They are not open topped, and their rear and side armor is comparable to the turret of the 222. i.e. 8mm at 35 degrees.

I fired about 3 maxims each at 5 vehicles at about 135m, from the side and rear. The vehicles were buttoned from the start.

The result- within about 4 seconds, a 232 goes to 'bailing out' status, without crew casualties! After 2 minutes I quit the test, as the Maxims were knocking out, causing crew casualties, panicking and routing the AC's.

Conclusion- the Maxim is definitely shooting right through the armor!

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All this is pretty irrelevant to Real Life. In Real Life machine-guns were issued AP rounds, which in the German case could IIRC go through 8+mm of armour plate, depending on the distance.

The German approach was to make their light armour SmK proof (SmK is the German abbreviation for the AP munition). This is the reason for the heavy sloping of the armour on their HTs, and also on the SPWs. But there are of course areas where the plate is not heavily angled, and where, at shorter distance, the armour is not always going to be sufficient. Especially the 231 which only had 5mm minimum armour is going to be an endangered species.

The worst performers in this regard are of course the US HTs, who have no angle on their armour, and armour that is not SmK proof to start with. There's a reason they were called 'Purple Heart Boxes'.

All the best

Andreas

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