That adds up to four 20's equaling twelve 50 calibers, judged by those standards. Of course you have other advantages of the 20. You have much greater penetration of armor. The 20 will go thru 3/4 inch of armor at 500 yards, while the 50 cal, will go through only .43 inchs.[/b]
From: The Report of the Joint Fighter Conference, edited by Francis Dean is availble from Schiffer Military History. ISBN # 0-7643-0404-6
Panzer IV H armor:
Front Armor = 82.0
Side Armor = 30.0
Rear Armor = 21.0
Front Turret = 80.0
Side Turret = 33.0
Rear Turret = 30.0
Top Armor = 10.0
According to the book, at 500 yards (with no ammo specified, but given that penetration it is more then likely AP, AP/I on US face hardened steel thats not generally as tough as German corrugated armor) it can penetrate 19mm of armor. Quoted from one of my babbelfests
Thats a round landing perpendicular to the armor, something that rarely, if ever happens at aircraft attack angles. You can usually throw out 50% of all shells because of angle of penetration, and belting mix (hits are spread out depending on AP to HE ratio as the HE generally explode on impact). Given angle effect, that 30mm of armor can come out to the effect of several more inches armor. A penetration of 45mm (1.7 inches) would probably somewhere under 150 yards ( making a perpendicular shot at that range without ramming the target would be just slightly difficult
)
The side skirts are only 5mm's thick, but even this is enough to slow the round down enough to severly hamper penetration (and cause deflection away from the main armor as it travels between the skirt and the next hard object on the tank, usually the side armor or the upper guide wheels)
Say it still manages to get through the hull armor without shattering, deflecting, etc. The only real threat now is a AP/I landing in the ammo storage. There are other possible fatalities, such as armor spall fragments from partial penetration etc but unless the ammo or fuel goes off the tank won't be knocked immediately out of action, albeit it's movement stopped or slowed.
But anyway, arguing penetration, armor strength, armor thickness, etc is all pretty silly without taking into account angle of penetration.
And besides all that I've got the feeling penetration in AH is modeled on weight of fire. Which is no big deal, other then giving two planes a much larger advantage. But it's simple, it works (sorta), and it probably won't change until HTC has dealt with more important game play issues.
- Jig
[This message has been edited by Jigster (edited 01-04-2001).]
