It just surprised me that the RPG7 penetrated the turret. It's a big thick chunk there and I'd have expected it to burn out before penetration. But clearly not! We had some UK Military Tankies there at the time ascertaining the viability - and surviveability - of Centurions operating there. Plenty were damaged but none were penetrated and all came home. Chicom mines were the big killers.
Yep....., replacing track links on muddy ground is no fun. Mind you, it's no fun on any ground!
Israeli Test plate at a tank museum 105mm APFSDS-T entrance and exits. Video shows how it works.
What it did to an Iraqui T-72 hiding behind a berm...hiding is correct as it was only concealment; berm provided no cover at all.
Spalling from 105mm HEP (HESH) spreads out and wreaks havoc inside the vehicle. It does not stay in a relatively compact stream like a shaped charge penetration.
Last edited by old tanker; 05-10-2017 at 03:21 PM.
It just surprised me that the RPG7 penetrated the turret. It's a big thick chunk there and I'd have expected it to burn out before penetration.
PG-7V grenade dates back to 1961 and it is an 85 mm HEAT warhead capable of penetrating 260 mm RHA. The Chinese B-40, a copy of the RPG-2 was also very prevalent. It used the PG-2 grenade which had an 82 mm warhead. It had a muzzle velocity of 84 meters per second and could penetrate armor of up to 180 millimeters in thickness.
One of the countermeasures we used was the RPG screen. Roughly a 12 foot long section of chain link fence supported by 2 or 3"engineer stakes," 8 foot high steel fence posts. The stakes were usually placed in a very shallow "V" shaped pattern, rather than in a straight line, in order to provide more stability for the chain link fence, which was then wired or hooked to them. This was placed from 10 to 20 feet in front of the vehicles while in an NDP. The intent was to either deflect the RPG so that it missed the vehicle altogether, collapse the cone of the warhead so the PIBD fuse would short out and fail to function or to cause it to detonate far enough away that the shaped charge explosive blast would not penetrate the vehicle's armor.
That sort of things is actually quite sensitive, small foliage can detonate it. Shocking when it happens closeby.
As you pointed earlier the latest tandem charge warheads, like the PG-7VR grenade make the RPG-7 still worrisome. The same warhead is used on the PG-29V anti-tank/anti-bunker for the RPG-29. The warhead comprises two charges in tandem—an initial small charge triggers any reactive armor, or compromises slat or bar armor. If ERA or cage armor is absent, this charge strikes the main armor. Behind the primary charge, a much larger secondary shaped charge bursts at the rear of the initial warhead and projects a thin, high-speed-jet of metal into the armor compromised by the first charge. The normal penetration of the main charge is as much as 750 mm of RHA, two meters of brick or 1.5 meters of reinforced concrete. RPG-29 rounds have been reported to have penetrated the frontal ERA of a Challenger 2 tank as well as badly damaging a couple of Abrams tanks. Nasty business indeed.
1. Topic strayed completely. Original topic was Sherman Tank, Hatches- Can they be locked from the inside?. Yes, of course they can. I served 5 years in Sherman M4A2E8 and all hatches could be locked from inside using standard sliding lever. When locking tanks for the storage, we'd climb though the inside and lock all hatches from inside, then climb out through CC's cupola, using a standard padlock with hasp on the outside to lock the tank up completely. The question was answered several times and then wandered into a discussion of RPG damage etc.
2. A member made a post with a ridiculous number of external links (hundreds of them) to other sites that completely corrupted and blew up the entire thread. I managed to clean up that mess and repair what was left of the thread, but since the post was irrelevant anyway, decided it was another good reason to close this thread and let it rest in peace.
Military Tankies there at the time ascertaining the viability - and surviveability - of Centurions operating there. Plenty were damaged but none were penetrated and all came home. Chicom mines were the big killers.
PM
Originally Posted by 
I managed to clean up that mess and repair what was left of the thread, but since the post was irrelevant anyway, decided it was another good reason to close this thread and let it rest in peace. 
