Russian Tank MG ammo stowage?

[ww2steel]

Some help for my book perhaps?

I am finding it much more difficult to find details of secondary weapon stowage on Russian tanks. The German vehicles have easy to find data on type of stowage and quantity in that specified container. The Russian vehicles it seems no two sources agree on how much was carried by a specified vehicle, and I have yet to find in any of roughly twenty book on the subject on exactly how it was stowed in any vehicle- the best I can find are cutaways with racks specified "DT ammunition stowage" or similar. It by no means even specifies how many drums were carried or if all of the ammo was even carried ready to use in drums. I understand that most German vehicles had belts ready to use and then often bags of additional ammo. I took the quantities of Russian ammo specified for different vehicles, even different models of the same vehicle- and found that there seemed to be no obviious number that each amount would be divisible by to specify a regular container size. In fact, some of the ammo quantities specified were prime numbers. This either indicates an incorrect source or stowage in two or more different sized containers.

Anyway, as this topic is not well addressed in any book I can find I would certainly like to do so in mine and any assistance is appreciated!

Thanks,

Mike

[ww2steel]

Well, at least I'm not the only one who doesn't know.

Mike

[Sergei]

Maybe they know at the Russian Battlefield (www.battlefield.ru) forum?

[YankeeDog]

I've seen cutaway drawings showing at least some of the MG ammo stowage in various Russian tanks. Russian Battlefield does indeed have a few of these cutaways. Unfortunately, RB's cutaways aren't labeled, so you just kind of have to look over the interior of the tank for what looks racks full of film canisters.

This cutaway drawing of a T-34 at RB (URL below)clearly shows the ammo stowage on the rear interior wall of the turret. It's harder to see where the ammo stowage for the hull MG is. It looks like at least a couple of drums are stored on the hull wall to the right of the asst. driver/MG gunner, but there must have been more somewhere else. Note that there are a couple of small storage lockers near/under the MG gunner's seat:

http://www.battlefield.ru/t34_76_5.html

I've seen better cutaway drawings of Russian tank interiors elsewhere, but not in any books I actually own -- probably while I was browsing at Barnes & Noble or something.

As to your questions about exact amounts, etc. I don't know the answer. It is quite possible that not all the ammo was stored in drums, and that the tanks also carried boxes of loose ammo to refill the drums as they emptied.

I've always thought it must have been a royal pain in the @ss for Russian tank crews to have to change those MG drums inside the tight confines of a tank during combat.

Cheers,

YD

[ww2steel]

Thanks for the help... I have seen many cutaways that show DT mags stacked around, but I can never get totals that match up to any whole number, which leads me to believe that they were stored in differrent containers as well. Also I have some confusion about the DT mags... how much do they hold? I have seen most usually 55, also 65, and even 100 (and 47, though that's a DP)!

Mike

[MikeyD]

What little i know. The drum magazine for the DT tank mg is two tiered, fitting a double row of ammo in a smaller diameter drum than the DP (no concerns about peering over the ammo drum to see the iron sights with a DT). i was surprised to see gun specs for the DT are remarkably close to the post-war U.S. M60 lmg! almost exactly the same weight, barrel length, rate-of-fire.

Here's an interesting link to the site 'AFV interiors'.

http://afvinteriors.hobbyvista.com/

If you look at the BT photo on the main page you'll see DT drum racks right beside the driver. If you go into the archives to look at T34, KV and IS interiors you'll see piles of DT drum racks in those interior shots as well.

Sorry no numbers on ammo load. German Panthers and Tigers were much bigger than their Russian counterparts and that was reflected in the relative amount of ammo they could hold.