T34's and HVAP rounds

[Black Jack]

Would like to know if in real life the T34 would be so fragile as to have their turret taken out by a round close to main gun. In reality, the round fired from an nme tank would have to hit straight on the barrel of the gun to disable that gun. If close to it but on the sides, the armor of that turret would or should be strong enough to stop or ricochet the round away right? Before the Hvap rounds, you couldn't take out a T34's turret like that. Now the Hvap rounds are great because of their flatter trajectory vs other tanks like Pzer and Tigers because before you couldn't shoot down a Tiger with a T34. Now though, anytime you have a T34 vs T34, people go for the turret shot and you take it out way too easy. Or maybe if you had to hit it twice not just once and game over turret gone. So i'm just wondering if the T34's turret is too soft, or the Hvap round is not right? You can shoot a T34 anywhere with a Hvap and if you don't hit a weak spot, it will bounce off, how come the turret, which should be the most armored spot on the tank, is taken out by a single hit? By the way this is mostly for T34's match up because vs any other tank, just put a round on it and it's blowing up. Not the case in EW   

[Rich46yo]

Got film?

[ImADot]

Got film?

It's a well-known fact that the T34 in EW will either ricochet or absorb HVAP and many times AP rounds if you don't hit the right spot the right way.  People that don't know better have always called BS/Cheating/Hacking when they hit your tank a dozen times and you kill them in one or two shots.

I had someone call BS because he was hitting my barrel with HVAP from 1000m with no damage to me.  I took out his turret with one shot because I hit just to the side of the barrel, in the "sweet spot".

No film is necessary, becase the OP was just asking the question about real life versus cartoon life.

[hlbly]

Under the main gun in a T-34 is a very large shot trap . Take a look at it compared to the T-34/85 . It was a serious flaw in what was otherwise one of the wars three best and most balanced designs .

[Rich46yo]

It's a well-known fact that the T34 in EW will either ricochet or absorb HVAP and many times AP rounds if you don't hit the right spot the right way.  People that don't know better have always called BS/Cheating/Hacking when they hit your tank a dozen times and you kill them in one or two shots.

I had someone call BS because he was hitting my barrel with HVAP from 1000m with no damage to me.  I took out his turret with one shot because I hit just to the side of the barrel, in the "sweet spot".

No film is necessary, becase the OP was just asking the question about real life versus cartoon life.

Once again, and this time I'll spell out Im talking to the OP, do you have film?

[Black Jack]

Rick, no need to post film. Anybody who plays in EW knows exactly what i'm talking about. You can also go offline with a T34 and shoot at the one there. You will see that Hvap rounds on the main body will just bounce off. I remember somebody posting pictures of a T34 with the sweet spots marked in red. If you don't shoot at those specific spots. It will simply not die even if you hit it many times over.    I understand it's not a main concern for anybody who never comes in EW.   

[Rich46yo]

The reason i want to see Pics is because I want to see where the AP round is hitting.

The target area you are referring to is called the mantlet. The T-34/76 you fight in EW had a mantlet and turret face thickness of 45mm, "later version had 52mm", with the slope to the armor giving it the equivelant of roughly 75mm.

The Germans had quite a problem with frontal shots to the T-34, the first weapon capable of defeating this armor was their KwK-39 50mm cannon on their Panzer-lll . Of course the L-48 gun on the Panzer-lV was an even bigger improvement, along with the evolution of their AP ammo. Actually hitting the T-34 flush, face on, probably transfers energy better then any kind of angled shot to the rest of the turret. The mantlet doesnt look that angled to me. If the round hitting you can defeat 75mm of armor then it will defeat your T-34s mantlet or turret face. Heck the 37mms of my IL2s defeat 50mm of armor.

The other possibility, due to the extreme ranges of tank fights in the game, is the AP round is coming down on the thin armor of the turret top. Either way I wouldnt be to surprised when your T-34 is taken out by a mantlet shot.

In real life much of the Soviet production steel sucked. It wasnt even comparable to German or Yank steel.