Tank vs Tank

[Keith Woodland]

Thanks for the details of the ammunition. It raises more questions, Why did they have solid shot, was it to use on enemy tanks, if not what did they intend to use it for? I would have thought HE would be used for all other likely targets. Presumably the solid shot didn't have a very high muzzle velocity and all armour piercing solid shot depended on a high MV to obtain penetration. Of course the armour protection was not very good at that time. In any case I wouldn't have fancied being in a MK 4 that was hit by any sort of ammunition fired by anything larger than a small arm, and not some of those either.

[Robert Dunlop]

Armour piercing and solid shot rounds were primarily for use against hardened targets such as bunkers, when such targets could not be neutralised by running through or over them.

 

Robert

[TullochArd]

What a cracker of a thread!  Great read and thanks to all those who posted. 

 

Attached are a couple of photos I took of AV7 "Wotan" at the Deutsche Panzermuseum, Munster a few years back. It's a replica built in the late 1980s and based largely on the only surviving AV7 “Mephisto” (now in Brisbane?).  Apparently the original “Wotan” was scrapped by the Allies in 1919.  

 

[TullochArd]

………. and one of the same interior.  Dodgy looking dummy apart it sort of gives an impression of the scale …….. although with a crew of 17-ish the space was certainly needed.  I surmise the numerous toggle ropes are some sort of safety feature?

[morrisc8]

German tank , photo from my collection.

  Keith

 

[Keith Woodland]

Obviously the gun on the German vehicle has limited traverse but I would have thought being forward facing was better for target acquisition than those mounted in side sponsons as on the Mk 1V. Certainly it would be easier for the Tank Commander to see where the rounds were going and its effects.

[Guest]

the firing arcs on the a7v werent as limited as one might think. 

[johnboy]

From 1st post by GD

 

Group 2 crossed the German front line just after 7am. One tanks advanced with the first wave of infantry before it ditched on its side SSE of Villers-Bretonneux. Two tanks advanced along the railway embankment towards Villers-Bretonneux, subdued a strongpoint, passed westwards though the Railway Station, engaged enemy reinforcements and reached the Roman Road below the Railway Crossing at 1am. The tanks then fired on British reinforcements in the Bois d’Arquenne.

 

Would the tanks have had enough fuel for those long hours or would they have re fuelled somewhere?