Thursday 8 August 2019

F-34 Gun Mantlet

"Requirements for the F-34 gun mantlet
  1. The front facing shield covering the gun port needs to be 52 mm thick if cast and 45 mm thick if rolled.
  2. The armouring of the cradle and recoil elements can be stamped or rolled and welded. The front cover needs to be removable. The thickness of the front cover needs to be 35 mm, the vertical sides sides sloped at 20 degrees must be 30 mm thick, top and bottom at least 15 mm.
  3. The design of the gun mantlet needs to reliably protect the crew from bullets and splash from all elevation angles from -5 to +30 degrees. The armour strips that prevent bullets and splash from entering must be at least 15 mm thick.
  4. In order to balance the system, a weight of at most 50 kg can be installed on the recoil guard. If a weight of more than 50 kg is required, a balancing mechanism must be added underneath the gun cradle.
Representative of the BTU Chief, Military Engineer 1st Class, Korobkov
Representative of the 3rd Department of the BTU, Military Engineer 1st Class, Afonin
January 18th, 1941."

4 comments:

  1. A bit of a weak spot center turret.

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  2. Not any weaker then the rest, due to its shape. High probability of deflection and even if it goes through there is still gun right behind it.

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  3. The flat 35mm cover @ 0 and 30° does not give much a deflection. Behind the cover is the hollow recoil cylinder filled with either air or fluid.

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  4. I understand what you mean, but there are few things to consider. Gun mantlet for f34 gun is quite small and basically covers gun and machine gun, behind the cover on the lower part are two cylinders and the barrel that go through horizontal axle. Those cylinders have steel pistons inside. There is no unobstructed path for the shell to go through. The weakest point is machine gun port. And next to the mantlet on each side are curved semi domes that are 50mm thick. Design takes this in consideration. I'll link very nice photo so you can see how much meat there is behind the mantlet.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/76_mm_tank_gun_M1940_F-34#/media/File%3AT34_turret_SA-kuva_113433.jpg

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