Author Topic: 7.5cm KwK 42 L/56 damage - a strange occurence (Read 240 times)

devious · « **on:** January 06, 2003, 02:48:58 PM »

I just attacked P42 on ndisles with my trusty Panzer. (PzKpfw IV Ausf. H)

As I shell away at the enemy CV, I notice tracers passing me and plonk-plonk sounds of rounds hitting.

Sure enough, theres an an enemy LVT2 blaring away at me from 800 yds.

"Neues Ziel, 2 Uhr 800 Meter !" I yell at the Richtschütze. The turret swings around, "Liegt an !", he answers.

"Feuer !" I order, and the trusty PzGren 39 AP round hits the LVT squarely in the center of his side, from a 90 degree aspect.

I expected his reaction to be to explode, however now he starts moving.

"Feuer !"

A total of 10 AP round hits to various locations did nothing to the LVT. "Das war die letzte." the loader tells me, so I order to load 7.5cm SprGr42 HE rounds to be loaded. One to his front, and he's pouring thick, black smoke. A second, and he blows up like a firecracker.

Shouldn't the AP rounds have killed him ? IMO the first shoulda have taken him out. And why did he succumb to HE ? He's armored after all. Damage lag is no possible explanation, shooting 10 rounds takes time...

Was zur Hölle ist da los ?

HFMudd · « **Reply #1 on:** January 06, 2003, 03:08:10 PM »

I would have used HE to start with... Yes the LVT is armored against light arms fire. It is not at all well armored vs. 75mm HE.

(As an aside, in the turn based CMBB game the AI crews do a very good job of detmining which ammo type to use against a given target. In general, any light armored vehicle gets HE assuming that the firing weapon is greater than 37mm or so.)

Pongo · « **Reply #2 on:** January 06, 2003, 11:55:19 PM »

Its an L48. The Tiger has an 88mm L56

GRUNHERZ · « **Reply #3 on:** January 07, 2003, 12:31:08 AM »

Regular German AP shells had an explosive filler, if they got inside the armor the explosion would kill or wound everyone and likely set of the ammo. I dont know how the fuzing was handled but it was considered very effective.

However the AP on Sherman guns was often considered useless against Japanese tanks because it just went in one side and out the other, producing a neat clean hole. I don't know if their AP had a HE filler but I never read about it so I doubt it. Regular 75mm HE killed the light Japanese tanks without problems, in fact some US tankers said it was difficult to tell there was even a Japanese tank there before.

So:

Basically all the light armor like LVT, M16, M8, M3 etc should die an ugly death to one or at most two HE shots from 75mm- if they dont then somethiong is wrong with GV modeling.

With AP it can depend as I said above on whether the shell has an HE filler like the Germans had on most or not. But I do consider it foolish if the LVT survied 10 AP no matter what- those guys would be mincemeat from the spall and other shrapnel alone.

Lizard3 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 07, 2003, 10:59:20 AM »

In AH, when its an option, you should always carry a vew HE rounds in your arsenal. It works VERY well on lightly armored vehicles. Its much like horseshoes. All you hafta do is get an impact close to the target to take it out.