Fans of playing computer tank “fired”, like real soldiers, do not always think about how this or that munition works, the result is important to them. However, the toy battle is different from the real one. In a war, tanks rarely fight among themselves, with the right leadership of the troops they are intended to break through the enemy’s defense lines, mobile coverage of fortified areas and disrupt rear communications. However, dueling is possible, and then you cannot do without armor-piercing means. Along with the usual "blanks" and snappers, a cumulative shell is often used . World Of Tanks is a game whose developers tried to convey with maximum realism the equipment of the Second World War and the ammunition used by the armies participating in it. Its conditions do not pretend to be fully historical authenticity, but it gives general ideas about the conditions of a tank battle.
In order to properly use a possible arsenal of weapons, it is not necessary, but desirable, to know how a cumulative projectile works, what its main characteristics are, and in which cases it can be used, and in which it can be limited to less expensive charges.
Tank evolution
The first tanks were slow moving artillery batteries (sometimes with several guns), protected by bulletproof armor. These were analogues of armored trains, with the difference that they could move not on rails, but on rough terrain and, of course, along roads. The evolution of technical solutions has led to new ways of using armored vehicles, it has become more mobile and has adopted some of the functions of the cavalry. The most advanced achievements could boast of a Soviet engineering school, which by the end of the thirties of the XX century had come to a common concept that defines the look of a modern tank. All other countries until the end of the war continued to build military vehicles according to an outdated scheme, with front transmission, narrow tracks, riveted bodies and carburetor engines. In comparison with Great Britain and the USA, Nazi Germany achieved somewhat greater successes. The engineers who built the Tigers and Panthers made a number of attempts to increase the durability of their cars by using inclined reservations. The Germans also had to change the caterpillar width according to the conditions of the Eastern Front. Long-barreled guns became another sign that brings the characteristics of the Wehrmacht tanks closer to modern standards. On this progress in the camp of our enemies stopped.
When we got cumulative ammunition
As history has shown, the general ideology of tank building adopted in the USSR did not come to world technical thought until the mid-fifties. But there were also directions in which the enemy was ahead of us. At the beginning of the war, the armament of the German troops consisted of a cumulative shell. The principle of operation of this formidable armor-piercing means, by and large, was known to Soviet designers according to intelligence. With the outbreak of hostilities, it became possible to study captured models. But when trying to make copies and analogues, numerous technical difficulties arose. Only in 1944 in the USSR did they create their own artillery and tank cumulative projectile, capable of breaking through the armor protection of German vehicles that had increased by that time. Currently, most of the ammunition of each combat unit consists precisely of this type of ammunition.
Difficult situation on the Eastern Front
It should be noted that the fact that at the beginning of the war it was extremely difficult for the Germans to fight with Soviet armored vehicles. All medium, and especially heavy tanks, which were in service with the Red Army, had reliable anti-ballistic armor, moreover, inclined. The caliber of the tower guns, if they were (and the T-1, for example, was armed only with a machine gun), was not enough to hit the T-34 or KV. Only attack aircraft, field or anti-aircraft artillery, usually firing blanks, could fight our tanks. The effectiveness of the application increased if the charge was cumulative. The sub-caliber projectile also had strong armor-piercing, but it turned out to be too complicated in production and required high costs, and Germany, which fought alongside the Eastern Front both at sea and in Africa, had to save.
The first attempts to create anti-tank weapons
Immediately after the appearance of armored vehicles on the battlefields, the opposing parties faced the question of destroying it or, in extreme cases, causing it the greatest damage. The usual cartridge did not penetrate the defense, although its layer was not very thick due to the low power of internal combustion engines of that time (which was during the First World War). There were no special armor-piercing ammunition ; they needed to be invented. Design capabilities were limited by two factors: cost, on the one hand, and striking, on the other. The thought moved in different directions. Its summit was a cumulative projectile. The principle of operation of various armor-piercing shells will be discussed below.
How to break through armor
In order to break through ordinary sheet armor, you need to concentrate on its area, giving it kinetic energy. The easiest way to do this is with the help of a projectile, which is a continuous blank, equipped with a pointed end, crumpled upon impact with an obstacle. The condition for the destruction of the barrier can be a sufficiently strong pulse, causing local overvoltages that exceed the intermolecular bonds of the metal. That’s what they did at the beginning: they shot blanks, realizing that an explosion made even on the very surface of the armor is unlikely to hit manpower and mechanisms due to the dispersion of the shock wave. The fragments in this case are also practically useless.
The blank cracked on the tank
The improvement of armor protection, as well as the use of its inclined arrangement, reduced the effectiveness of a continuous armor-piercing projectile. Having fallen on a sloping plane, he most often ricocheted, although by virtue of his features he sometimes turned out to be capable of the so-called normalization. It consisted in the fact that after the first touch of the tip the motion vector changed somewhat (up to five degrees), and the angle of impact on the armor became more obtuse. This led to a more efficient distribution of the load on the site of the affected defense, and even if the armor did not break through, a kind of funnel formed on its inside, and pieces of metal flew into the machine at high speed, mutilating and killing the crew. In addition, the compression effect, in other words, a strong and rapid change in pressure (in its essence, a powerful blow of an air wave) should not be discounted.
Calibration tools
A sturdy steel core enclosed in a softer shell can solve the problem of destruction of armor protection. After hitting, this rod, as it were, goes beyond its temporal envelope and deals a strong blow, concentrated on a small area. The sub-caliber is capable of penetrating thick armor, partially retaining the advantages of a blank shell. They have their flaws, less armor-piercing at long distances and a much more modest angle of normalization (the dovor does not exceed two degrees). With all its effectiveness, this ammunition was quite high-tech, expensive, and besides, it did not always cope with its task. And then he appeared ...
How does the cumulative shell
The main drawback of all previous developments in the field of armor-piercing ammunition is expressed in their very name. They are designed to punch. But this is not enough. Well, they made a hole in the armor, but if the projectile’s energy is extinguished, then it can no longer cause significant harm to internal mechanisms and the crew. The tank can be repaired by breaching a hole, send the wounded tankers to the hospital, bury the dead with honors, and send the car back into battle. However, all this becomes impossible if a cumulative shell hits the armor. The principle of its operation is that after burning the hole, a rupture charge rushes into it, destroying everything that seemed to be reliably protected.
Device
Currently, there is no more effective means of combating tanks than a cumulative projectile. World Of Tanks offers gamers to purchase them only for "gold", referring these virtual ammunition to the "gold". And no wonder, with a successful hit, they guarantee the destruction of the target. Spending them on opponents who do not have a sufficiently high degree of protection is not worth it. If you can use the usual "Beshka", that is, an armor-piercing projectile, it is recommended to use it. It’s easy to learn how to buy a cumulative projectile by reading the conditions of the game, but it is recommended not to waste it, otherwise it will not be enough at the right time. But these are all games, but in a real battle ...
The cumulative principle of concentration has been successfully applied in the device of cumulative ammunition. In a small area of the primary contact, a jet of gas heated to a plasma state arises, which burns a hole like a welding machine. The termite action is accompanied by the penetration into the protected space of the main charge, which bursts already under the armor and carries the main destruction. This principle was used in the device manual “Faustpatron”, widely used at the end of World War II. The RPG cumulative projectile also works. However, tank builders also learned to deal with this problem.
Cumulative Blast Counteraction
The first samples of armor-burning ammunition were designed for armor protection used on tanks during the Second World War, and it was unpretentious. Nothing prevented the stream of hot gas from acting on the metal layer; it arose immediately after the impact. The simplest countermeasure is the creation of conditions for premature actuation of the termite component of the charge. To do this, it is enough to create an external layer of “false brroni” - and the stream instead of metal will heat the air.
The second method is applicable to any tanks created without taking into account the capabilities of cumulative shells. It is necessary to disperse the concentrated stream with a small counter-explosion, for which TNT can be placed on the armor in special boxes on the outer surface of the machine. This method is widely used today.
The third method is used in tanks of the latest generation, which use integrated armored technology. The modern defense is multi-layered; ceramic fillers, explosive investigators, and heavy-duty sheet armor alternate in it.
Tandem shells
There is no such protection that could not be overcome at all. The tandem shaped-charge projectile came to replace the usual "burners" of armor after the appearance of methods of counteraction. The principle of its operation differs from the classical one in that the termite and main warheads are spaced apart in length, and if the first stage falsely works, the second will certainly reach the goal. Currently known anti-tank weapons with two and three charges. The direction of the termite jets in some models (mainly Russian) is shifted relative to each other so that they do not interfere with one another. This provides the ability to punch up to 800 mm of modern protection.
This is a cumulative projectile. War Thunder, World Of Tanks and other similar computer games give a general idea of the features of this munition and its characteristics. It would be better if this knowledge remains useful only to gamers for their virtual battles.