Field penetration trials weren't an unusual phenomenon during WWII. Soldiers often wanted to look with their own eyes at what their own weapons can do against the enemy, plus the sight of blowing holes in enemy tanks is always good for morale. In this case, two rare beasts were captured for trials: a Tiger and a Tiger II.
"1st Howitzer Artillery Brigade of the Reserve of the Supreme Command
November 9th, 1944
#01909
For your information, I direct to you the results of experimental firing on Tiger and Tiger B tanks.
Forward these results to battalion commanders, and the results on SU-152 shooting to all troops.
Attachment: the aforementioned on 4 pages.
Chief of Staff of the 1st Starokonstantinov Order of the Red Banner Order of Bogdan Khmelintskiy Howitzer Artillery Brigade, Major Vinogradov"
Information on the armour of the King Tiger and its size:
- Armour thickness:
- Gun mantlet: 180 mm
- Upper front: 100 mm [sic]
- Lower front: 110 mm
- Upper side: 85 mm
- Rear: 80 mm
- Turret side: 80 mm
- Turret roof: 40 mm
- Floor: 25 mm
- Dimensions:
- Width: 3650 mm
- Length: 7000 mm
- Hull height: 1550 mm
- Full height: 2550 mm
- Gun mantlet width:
- Upper: 1080 mm
- Lower: 1300 mm
- Gun mantlet height: 790 mm
- Turret length: 3500 mm
- Turret width: 1800 mm
- Track width: 820 mm
- Track height: 1070 mm
- Gun length (without muzzle brake): 6000 mm
- Mass: 68 tons
- One hit the drive sprocket on the right side, shattered two track links and the sprocket. This hit would have disabled the tank.
- One hit to the turret. The shell penetrated 80 mm of armour and burst inside. This penetration would have disabled the tank.
- Two hits to the upper front armour, 160 mm thick and sloped at 45 degrees. No penetration. Both shots made dents 150x250 mm in size and 100 mm deep. Bulges were found on the rear size of the plate. The tank would not be disabled, but tank crews present estimated that the crew would be contused and unable to fight for 20-30 minutes.
- Hit in the dent made by the BS-3 gun earlier. Complete penetration was achieved and fragments were knocked out on the inside.
- Hit in an undamaged area at the top of the upper front plate. A 190x270x90 mm dent was made with a bulge on the rear side. No penetration.
- Hit on the upper left corner of the front armour. The shell made a 220x270x100 mm dent. As a result of the impact, a crack formed and the upper left section of the plate fell off.
- Hit to the lower front plate, 110 mm thick sloped at 60 degrees. The shell penetrated completely and burst inside the tank.
- 195x250x75
- 175x220x80
1,2: hits from 600 m
3: hits from 800 m
4,5: hits from 1000 m
6: hit with an HE shell from 1000 m
- All of the aforementioned weapons are powerful and reliable means of fighting the Tiger and King Tiger tanks. Armour piercing shells fired from these guns can penetrate any armour (with the exception of the upper front plate of the King Tiger) and destroy these tanks.
- The BS-3 and D-25 guns cannot penetrate the front armour of a King Tiger tank (160 mm at 45 degrees) with their armour piercing shells. However, a second shot to the same place results in a penetration. If a 122 mm shell hits near the corner of the plate, it will fall off. In either case, the tank will be disabled and the crew will no doubt be killed.
- The most vulnerable areas of the King Tiger tank against a BS-3 gun are:
- Left and right drive sprockets.
- Lower front plate.
- Turret.
- Rear and sides.
A hit to these areas with an armour piercing shell at a range of 1500-2000 meters will no doubt put the tank out of action. The running gear is also a weak spot. A hit from an HE shell will completely disable the tank. - The BS-3 and D-25 guns easily penetrate the front armour and gun mantlet of the Tiger tank at a range of 1000 meters. Firing at a greater range was not performed.
The results of firing at Tiger tanks with the BS-3 gun confirm that it is possible to fight them at a range of 1500-2000 meters. - When hitting the upper front plate of a King Tiger tank, the BS-3 armour piercing shell breaks up into small pieces that could not be found near the target. There is a theory that this happens because the tip of the shell is insufficiently robust and perhaps due to excessive explosive filler, as a result of which the shell does not give the desired result and does not destroy the upper front plate of the King Tiger tank.
A BS-3 armour piercing shell burst in a peat bog. 7 large fragments were recovered. The tip split into two halves and the cylindrical part of the hull split into five pieces. - The D-25 armour piercing shell ricochets after hitting the upper front plate of the King Tiger tank and can be observed flying 100-150 m away with the naked eye.
- The precision and accuracy of the BS-3 and D-25 guns are good. A greater amount of hits of the King Tiger tank than the Tiger tank is explained by better training of the crews.
- The materiel functioned normally and without issue.
“ a second shot to the same place results in a penetration.”
ReplyDeleteGood luck with that!
Very strange how the guns hit the Tiger IIs turret and ended up penetrating the 80mm sides which are steeply angled towards the front.
ReplyDeleteThe Tiger I was also apperently also hit from the side. Makes you wonder at which angles the tanks were shot from.
Only one hit out of 10 with the 152 mm gun?
ReplyDeleteI'm also surprised that a (rarer) AP round was used when these thought out of the 20 rounds per SU/ISU-152, only one was usually AP and all the rest HE. So HE rounds would be the most likely thing available.
Firing conditions aren't given in the document, sadly, hit rate seems to be much lower than I'd expect across the board. Inexperienced gunners, maybe?
DeleteThe AP shell was indeed rare, but I've seen surprisingly few tests against enemy heavy tanks with HE.
#5 contradicts #4, unless #4 is the turret.
Delete#5 states specifically the 'upper front plate" of the King Tiger, while #4 is consistent with testing done with the King Tiger tanks captured at Sandomierz on the front turret resistance.
DeleteOh, and BTW--any ideas which German heavy tank battalion(s) "volunteered" these samples?
ReplyDeleteNo info on that, sadly.
DeleteWere these the pre-production turrets? I thought the later type had roughly 200mm of frontal turret thickness.
ReplyDeleteWar Thunder (not a rock-solid source for either armor or gun values data now, alas) has the production turret with 200 mm of mantlet armor and 185 of turret armor, which roughly agrees with this report.
DeleteGiven that, and the gun stats in War THunder for both the BS-3, the D-25, and the M-20, none of this in the report could have possibly happened. By contrast I see that War Thunder has the Kwk43 penetrating fully 10 % more armor thickness, normalized for the hardness difference, than it did when it was tested at Aberdeen by the US military. This trend will no doubt continue, until the Germans win WWII in the game. /snark