i saw a picture taken in battle of the bulge the german officer point a penerated hole of a sherman which i guess is unexploded after a hit at the side … is that true ?
An armor piercing round is nothing but a big steel bullet. It has no explosive capabilities on its own. It could cause an explosion if the round went into an ammunition compartment or fuel tank. Or if the spalling (inside of the tank that becomes shrapnel) ignites fuel or ammo.
A lucky shot could go in one side and out the other without doing too much damage to the hit tank.
[#ditto] rob’s got it. he knows his stuff.
all i can add is tht the vehicle might not necessarily explode either. it might just burn intensely, heavily damgaing the interior, but not really showing much extent of damage oon the outside
A tid bit on one of those History Channel programs said that some German shells could go right through a Sherman without exploding.
“A tid bit on one of those History Channel programs said that some German shells could go right through a Sherman without exploding.”
A Sherman shell could go through a German tank w/o exploding too. Given the right circumstances many things could and did occur on the battlefield. Let’s just not perpetuate exaggerations of super superior German weapons (every tank was a Tiger (probably a Mk IV) and every incoming round was an 88mm (probably a 105mm arty round).
In one encounter in the Pacific, Shermans fired upon Japanese tanks with AP rounds. The tanks weren’t being killed b/c the shots just penetrated through. The tankers had to resort to HE rounds to KO the Japanese tanks and tankers.
Of course, something to keep in mind is that there are persons inside the tank who are vital for its proper functioning. A shell could go straight through the tank without causing an explosion, and even straight out the other side, but in the meantime someone may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s not uncommon to see a hole in a still servicable German tank from WWII, but in this particular picture the crew are not pointing to the hole and smiling.
And how would I be perpetuating an exaggeration of superior German weapons? Did I say anything about superior German weapons? Nope.
Larry, what picture?
I wrote that figuratively.
Armor piercing shot for tank rounds in the era were, as Rob has stated, nothing more than slugs, impacting at high velocity. Usually a tungsten steel (high carbon) cored “bullet” shaped penetrator. The British developed the discarding sabot penetrator toward the end of the war, which effectively doubled the muzzle velocity of the projectile. This technology was pioneered by Vickers Ltd.
If you think that you’re going to come out of a tank unscathed that has been holed by a high velocity penetrator, even at maximum range, think again. In the case of US Armor, the cast steel turrets and hulls provided an exceptionally lethal formula for the unfortunate tank crew that was subjected to 8.8, or 7.5 cm armor piercing shot.
Chunks of cast steel were propelled (at hyper velocity) off the inside turret walls around the hole created by the penetrator and became lethal spall or “secondary effect” projectiles themselves. The effect on flesh is horrific. I have personally fired these projectiles against hard targets and observed the effects in detail. The enrgy released on the target is unbelievable, often breaking torsion bars and popping roadwheel hubs several feet away from the impact point. Even if a crewman escaped being shredded by spalling, being burned by a secondary explosion, they would certainly be affected in some way by the sheer physical impact of the energy release inside the vehicle.
The Germans made Herculean efforts during the war to restore tanks to working condition, a vehicle may survive a hit, be welded up and refitted and returned to service, but I wouldn’t be taking any odds on the crew.
As illustrated below, even at intermediate ranges, 1000 to 1200 meters, even high explosive (HEAT) can be lethal.
All tankers, retired and active, have all this on thier minds. The last place you want to be is in a tank that didn’t or couldn’t shoot first.
Steve
The Japanese tanks had the armor about the thickness of cardboard. A 37mm wouldn’t have much problem penetrating their armor, let alone a HE shell.
37mm fired both AP and HE shells. AP during WWII was basically a hard steel slug, meant to bust through armor at high velocity, like an arrow i suppose. HE (high-explosive) was the real explosive kind, although at the velocity the AP shells traveled at, the shards from them hitting hard steel tht they didnt penetrate could be exquivicable to an explosion
Rick Atkinson wrote in An Army at Dawn about the 75mm and 88mm rounds that were fired by the tanks in Tunisia. The AT rounds flew across the battlefield with such power that, if fired in a dusty or sandy area, they raised up a dust trail as they rocketed toward their targets, even though they were at least five feet off the ground. Their destination – the relatively thin armour on a Stuart, a Lee, a Sherman, or a PzIII.
Even the crews of the vaunted Tigers, whose armour could often prevent penetration, generally emerged from their tanks with bad bruises, bloody noses, sometimes even fractures suffered when the enemy tank rounds impacted on their vehicles.
And that was just WWII, peanuts compared to what’s mounted on tanks today. Reading that gave me a new appreciation of the terrible power of these cannons.
The turret lifting explosion of a tank is usually the result of the interior ammo stowage going off after a good hit , they have tried to fix this problem in the newer tanks , but I would still not wish to be in one during battle.