Effectiveness of Arty vs. AFVs

[Tigrii]

In a recent game one of my 120mm Mortar Spotters got a direct hit on a SU-85. It said "Top Penetration; Knokced Out" and brewed up. This is the first time I have ever seen a direct arty hit on a vehicle (although I lost an SU-76 to a 50mm Mortar hit once), and I am wondering what is the chance of this happening? Also, can a near miss KO a tank or just immobilize or GD it?

[Bone_Vulture]

No, direct hits aren't necessary to knock out a tank. My artillery barrage of Soviet 203mm rounds once took out an early war Panzer III with a round that landed some 15 meters away.

Or try the Sturmtiger's rocket - that'll wipe out light tanks at a massive radius.

[wbs]

In my experience, it takes 81mm or above to knock out a tank, either by a direct hit or a near-miss.

Anything less will likely only knock out trucks, halftracks, open-topped AFV's and smaller vehicles.

I recently played a game where I Top-hit a Stuart 6 times (!!!) with a 45 mm Italian mortar. All 6 hits had 'no effect'. Man, was I swearing a blue streak, as I had no anti tank capability at all except for the hope that this mortar would take him out and allow me to win the scenario.

Now, 45 mm isn't all that big, but then neither is a Stuart--and I was hitting him on his top armor, which is the thinnest armor.

[BulletRat]

Yeh, but thats an Italian mortar, all they're really good for is making pasta... and then surrendering.

[SpitfireXI]

I love lobbing small motar shells at halftracks and wasting them. Any sized motar shell will take out a halftrack.

[Nemesis Lead]

I have had US 155mm VT kill a Panther tanks. A bit of background....my human opponent brought a platoon of 5 Panther tanks into a game on a small map with heavily wooded terrain. The Panthers (who had infantry riders) all came through one small gap and all at the same time.

I fired the 155mm at a TRP hoping to kill the infantry riders. This worked fairly well and 1 of the 5 Panthers died as well.

The bottom line--fairly heavy arty can kill tanks, but usually it is just a waste of precious ammunition.

Then again, I have always had very good luck killing open topped vehicles with arty.

[Nemesis Lead]

I have had US 155mm VT kill a Panther tanks. A bit of background....my human opponent brought a platoon of 5 Panther tanks into a game on a small map with heavily wooded terrain. The Panthers (who had infantry riders) all came through one small gap and all at the same time.

I fired the 155mm at a TRP hoping to kill the infantry riders. This worked fairly well and 1 of the 5 Panthers died as well.

The bottom line--fairly heavy arty can kill tanks, but usually it is just a waste of precious ammunition.

Then again, I have always had very good luck killing open topped vehicles with arty.

[Nemesis Lead]

I have had US 155mm VT kill a Panther tanks. A bit of background....my human opponent brought a platoon of 5 Panther tanks into a game on a small map with heavily wooded terrain. The Panthers (who had infantry riders) all came through one small gap and all at the same time.

I fired the 155mm at a TRP hoping to kill the infantry riders. This worked fairly well and 1 of the 5 Panthers died as well.

The bottom line--fairly heavy arty can kill tanks, but usually it is just a waste of precious ammunition.

Then again, I have always had very good luck killing open topped vehicles with arty.

[David I]

I had two Pz IV J's in a good spot and they had taken out a couple of Shermans. My opponent dumped some 155's on them and the very 1st round decapitated the two tank commanders, following rounds put a gun hit on one tank and immobilized the other. When the dust settled he moved up a couple of Shermans and knocked out the immobilized Panzer (with no shots fired back) and then shot up the gun hit Panzer.

Off hand, that Artillery bombardment did plenty.

DavidI