StuG III Thread (and also other German vehicles I guess)

[Collimatrix]

Why are there teeth on the idler wheel?

[EnsignExpendable]

It's both front AND rear drive. 4x4 is better off road, right?

[Walter_Sobchak]

Shitty French magazine TnT invented another wonderwaffle

 

 

 

However, it's a well known fact that the laws of physics hold a deep Russian Bias

 

 

I've seen copies of that magazine on some of the PDF magazine download sites but never bothered to download one since they are in French.  I guess I'm not missing anything important.  French Wehraboos is a weird concept. 

[EnsignExpendable]

Kettenkrad in action

 

[LoooSeR]

German trencher, ~1918.

[Walter_Sobchak]

I remember a while back I bought a 1/72 scale model of the German 18 ton halftrack.  At first I thought the scale was wrong, the thing seemed so big.  It towers over other halftracks.  This picture gives an idea of how big these things where.

 

[EnsignExpendable]

Yeah the Tamiya kit is like $200 and doesn't even include a tank.

[EnsignExpendable]

Yo guys, check out my Pz38(t)

 

[Walter_Sobchak]

Yo guys, check out my Pz38(t)

 

Wut.

[Scolopax]

FV432 x Type 97 Chi-Ha x Panzer 38(t)

 

I've seen it before, although the paint job looks a bit newer.

 

 

Lots of people were, and likely still are, under the assumption that it is a Type 5 Ke-Ho.

[T___A]

[EnsignExpendable]

Yuri Pasholok and co. find and unfuck a Pak 36 barrel that's been rusting in the cargo hold of the armoured boat at TsMVS for god knows how long. Bonus appearances from museum cats and a T-34 turret traverse mechanism. http://yuripasholok.livejournal.com/5995282.html

[ZloyKrolik]

I like the picture of the stick & glove stuffed in the breach end.

[Donward]

Hey! The Easter Bunny showed up! 

[Walter_Sobchak]

Stug for sale

 

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C724809

[LoooSeR]

Claimed to be Leo 1 testbed for 3-axis stabilized turret.

 

 

[Bronezhilet]

BTD was right after all, who'd have thought?

[Collimatrix]

Yep; it's a Leo 1 hull fitted with a rolling axis turret, which is why the bottom of the thing looks like a ball-and-socket joint.  Ogorkiewicz mentions it briefly and even has the first of those pictures in his book.  

 

From what I've read they found that stabilizing the turret like that requires a lot of horsepower.  There's a hydraulic motor somewhere that has to roll the entire turret when the vehicle is going over terrain.  Also, it seriously cuts down on the available space in the turret since the available turret envelope is hemispherical instead of cylindrical.

 

There was another proposed German design that would have had three axis turret stabilization, the gloriously insane Borgward leo proposal:

[SuperComrade]

Is there any real benefit in stabilising the third axis that might be worth all that trouble?

[LoooSeR]

No, there is no real benefit for doing that. On top of problems with size and power consumption of stabilizer, turret become very hard to upgrade/upgun, add here problems with ammunition loading process and turret weight limitations (turret armor upgrades would be pain in the a$$).

[Collimatrix]

Is there any real benefit in stabilising the third axis that might be worth all that trouble?

 

There is one small additional benefit.  The crew in the turret enjoy a slightly smoother ride because the vehicle rolling motions are cancelled out.

 

Is that worth the trouble?  Well... no.  It is not.

[Vanagandr]

So, I'm curious why the US continued using the M4 and other domestic tanks, instead of picking up German tanks after the war. The M4 had terrible armor and lit on fire every time it was hit (hence the "zippo" nickname), where the Tiger or Panther could reliably kill enemy tanks out to two kilometers while being invulnerable from as near as 100m away, and being much more mechanically reliable. I'm sure that the blueprints for German tanks weren't destroyed after the war, and after some retooling and upgrading, I'm sure the US industry would have been capable of producing them. 

[Scolopax]

So, I'm curious why the US continued using the M4 and other domestic tanks, instead of picking up German tanks after the war. The M4 had terrible armor and lit on fire every time it was hit (hence the "zippo" nickname), where the Tiger or Panther could reliably kill enemy tanks out to two kilometers while being invulnerable from as near as 100m away, and being much more mechanically reliable. I'm sure that the blueprints for German tanks weren't destroyed after the war, and after some retooling and upgrading, I'm sure the US industry would have been capable of producing them. 

I have several German wartime sources citing this if you would like.

[Priory_of_Sion]

AMERICA SHOULD BUILTED RATTE TANK. SUPERIER GERMAN ARMOR AND GUNS. 

[Scolopax]

AMERICA SHOULD BUILTED RATTE TANK. SUPERIER GERMAN ARMOR AND GUNS.