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Would have thought the thread title would have given it away.

It's an Ampulomet. That useless fire-chucker that the Soviets get in '41 and early '42.

The Glass globe (1) is full of nasty burny stuff and phophorous and is fired from the launcher (2) using a gunpowder charge. IIRC.

I'd never seen a pic of one and thought it worth sharing.

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In the TO&E of the 1941 Russian infantry bn,

aren't the ampulomets grouped into a "Tank

Destroyer Platoon"?

I've had (some) success using them in this

role, but they are also very good at setting

fire to grainfields during the week-long

Dry Season smile.gif

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Originally posted by flamingknives:

Would have thought the thread title would have given it away.

You underestimate the ignorant smile.gif I don't own CMBB, I merely parasite on the forum to read interesting debate. It seemed like nobody was going to ask, so I had to.

Didn't even know this here... thing, existed.

I agree with Meravelha on the aesthetic issue.

Cheers

Dandelion

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I used to wonder how to use this thing in BB, however i have had a lot of kills with it against Jerry armour, 1 team even managed to take out 2 PzIII and a PzIV, from the side and rear but still it puts the willies up any tank crew if it hits.

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Best picture I've ever seen of one!

How's this for a truly heretical idea, though, for Germans invade England scenarios? Mod the Russians into British Home Guard, with the ampulomet as the stand-in for the Northover Projector and Bates Eight-Barrel Bottle Thrower. Obviously, the Germans

would remain as designed.

Regards,

John Kettler

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  • 11 months later...

MikeyD is not wrong - these are much more effective in CM than in real life. Their effectiveness exceeds that of the 45mm ATG. Here are some test results.

1941 vehicles, lined up facing them at 200m, the ampus in foxholes in scattered trees. At that range and with that cover, the Germans never spot them. Point number one - very stealthy.

The hit chances range from 75% to 90% depending on target size. Very, very high, apparently from modeling the chance of hitting the whole tile of terrain. Basically these things rarely miss. They also fire 8 shots a turn, so if unspotted each one will rack up 6-7 hits. Point number two - they actually hit and do so often.

IVE was partially penetrated from the front, NSD but crew still panicked, after 53 seconds.

IVC front turret pen KO after 40 seconds.

StuG III B FUH pen KO and brews up after 1 second.

III H track hit M-kill after 43 seconds.

III G FUH pen -1 crew, shock in 7 seconds. M-kill in addition at 17 seconds, they bail.

38(t) E model - FUH hit -1 crew, shock at 2 seconds, FUH partial pen, KO at 10 seconds.

II F FUH pen KO at 2 seconds

Somua S-35 FUH pen -1 crew, shock at 1 second.

End of first minute - 5 KOed, 1 M-killed, 1 -1 crew, 1 panicked but otherwise OK. I'd call that effective.

Fast forward to May of 1943, just before the tank hunters get RPGs. This time targets of Tigers, Pz IVG (late), StuGs late-mid, and III Ls. One each facing toward them and sideways, flank shot.

Tiger front - M-kill 1 second

Tiger side - M-kill 48 seconds

Pz IV front - NSD, OK

Pz IV side - side UH pen, KO after 10 seconds

StuG front - FUH -1 crew, shock 3 seconds

StuG side - SUH pen, KO after 2 seconds

Pz III front - NSD, OK

Pz III side - gun hit gun damaged after 35 seconds.

After 1 minute, 2 full KOs, 2 M-kills, 1 gun damage, 1 -1 crew, 2 OK. Effectiveness with a flank shot, very high.

Yes I will be taking a lot more of these for Russian anti-tank work in the pre-RPG era. Before the 80mm fronts show up, you can use them regardless of target aspect, at near max range to avoid detection. Against the thicker later stuff, wait for a side shot.

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JasonC,

After reading your Ampulomet firing test results with considerable interest, I confess myself baffled by the penetrations listed, unless we're talking through vision slits on early German armor and via smashed in vision blocks and such on later armor?

If not, then please explain the physics and estimated KE of what I believe was a frangible projectile. IOW, how is it doing all this damage?

Regards,

John Kettler

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The "penetration" potential of the flame projectile is apparently being modeled as something above 50mm, but with high variance. Plates with 30mm or less seem to offer little protection. I have never seen an 80mm plate reported as penetrated.

I have not seen enough 50mm plates hit to form a definite judgment of the penetration frequency, but I have seen partials and pens in some of the tests. My guess is that internally, the effect of the flame projective is being modeled as 25-50mm highly variable penetration, with highly variable behind armor effect as well.

The accuracy is so high that each ampulet gets 5-7 hits over a minute of firing, if the range is sufficient for it to remain undetected and so get off all 8 of its shots (unsuppressed by any reply etc). 2-3 of these will "roll" a high penetration value, sufficient to get through 30mm armor, and at least one of those will "roll" a good behind armor effect. Thus the pattern seen, of 30mm plate vehicles generally KOed or damaged within a minute, while 80mm vehicles are sometimes damaged but rarely destroyed outright.

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