Thursday 7 June 2018

Quantity Over Quality

This penetration table is fairly well known. It appears in several period publications and a translated version was even sent to the USSR. Nevertheless, it gives some information as to how well the guns of the Western Allies performed against German armour.


However, there was one interesting observation made that didn't come along with this table to any other publication. Since hitting a tank at 2000 yards was very difficult, and the 2-pounder could penetrate older German tanks in the front and even newer ones from the side at nearly that distance, what was the point of having a 6-pounder at all?


3 comments:

  1. Since T-34 had 25/75% HE/AP ammunition, it's way better to have a 6pdr gun than a 2pdr one because the main target of the tanks weren't other tanks.

    Greetings

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    Replies
    1. The British had no HE for their 2-pounder and 6-pounder guns at this time. Firing at infantry was only done with machineguns.

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    2. A *very* British quirk that, and a major reason why many a Churchill eventually had its 6-pounder rebored to 75 mm.

      Anyway on the topic of the article while the point the report makes about flank shots is valid enough the bigger guns' overwhelmingly superior performance against the thicker front armour - the 2-pounder can't even defeat some of the schemes listed - sure seems like a dealbreaker to a layman like me at least. That's what you're much of the time shooting at after all.

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