Russian Small Arms Against AFVs in 1941

[Andreas]

Yep, I guess so, if the below is correct, something about which I have my doubts (13mm sounds like a lot):

Linky

Patrone SmK Kurz 7.92 mm

Spitzgeschoss mit Kern, a steel cored rifle bullet designed to be fired from a standard Mauser infantry rifle. It was the German answer to the tank in World War I. At the time, British tanks sported 8 mm of face hardened armour all round, and the "K" bullet could penetrate a maximum of 12-13 mm at 0 to 100 metres (0 Degrees inclination). This gave the "K" bullet a 33% chance of penetration with a direct hit on an oncoming tank. As every soldier in a front line position was issued 10 rounds of "K" bullets, there would be a large number of these armour piercing projectiles hitting the target. As a result, "K" bullets accounted for a large number of tank crew casulties, and vehicle losses in the early days of tank warfare.

When the British discovered this, new tank designs received 12 mm of face hardened armour all round (1% chance of penetration with a "K" bullet), and later 14 mm, making the vehicles bullet proof (SmK-sicher). This was the first time that an anti-tank weapon influenced the design of a tank. The Mauser Elephant Gun anti-tank rifle again defeated the big, and heavy British tanks, the weapon provided 21 mm penetration at 0 to 100 metres. accordingly, French FT-17 tanks were equipped with 22 mm of frontal armour which made them anti-tank rifle proof.

[Wartgamer]

The German ATGs used shields with twin plates and generally had sloping sides.

http://www.armorfortheages.com/PAK%2040%20page.htm

They must have done this for a reason.

And if brackets move then certainly the mass attached to the bracket moves. And it has momentum.

[Zalgiris 1410]

German Infantry Guns were also similarly spaced double shielded. My only source for the shield thickness is unfortunately corrupted or miss printed, I think. However, it does seem pretty sure that the width of that spacing is 4mm between sheilds. I would like to know the actual gun shield armour thickness though, anybody?

On the other hand I can say that a more reliable source states that the S.m.K. 7.92mm rounds (especially from machine guns including those on vehicles and on Panzers) would penetrate 12.5mm at 100 meters and 8mm at 500 meters of armour. That was given for zero degrees obliquity.

This source further states that this was confirmed by the British reporting that their 2-pounder anti-tank gun with a 5/16 inch (7.9mm) thick armour shield did not repel the armour piercing bullets fired from German machine guns. It stated that when British anti-tank guns held their fire until the Panzers approached within 600 yards (550 meters) the crews were frequently knocked out by machine gun fire which penetrated their shields!

In my CM experience to get on to the actual topic of this thread I have had light axis tanks knocked out or whose crews have abandoned them just by extremely close Russian machine gun fire alone.

[ July 11, 2005, 04:10 AM: Message edited by: Zalgiris 1410 ]