Tanks without turrets that is. I assume the driver played a bigger part in lining up the gun than he would in a tank with turret.? Did the driver also have a scope that was aligned with the gunner.? If not aligned, was it the responsibility of the gunner to tell the driver to swing Left or Right so that the target was in sight.? Thank You
This isn’t a WW2 design, but the Swedish strdsvagn 103 main battle Tank is probably the ultimate “turret less” tank and this article explains who “loads, aims and fires” the main gun The Stridsvagn 103 Main Battle Tank The Swedish Strv 103 Tank - TankNutDave.com
WW2 British “Archer” tank destroyer was a anti tank gun. The mounting allowed for 11 degrees of traverse to either side, with elevation from -7.5 to +15 degrees. Archer (tank destroyer) - Wikipedia
M3 Lee, although not a “tank destroyer” but a tank with one “fixed main gun” and a smaller ‘turreted” gun M3 Lee - Wikipedia The 75 mm gun was operated by a gunner and a loader; sighting the gun used an M1 periscope – with an integral telescope – on the top of the sponson. The periscope rotated with the gun. The sight was marked from zero to 3,000 yd (2,700 m),[a] with vertical markings to aid deflection shooting at a moving target. The gunner laid the gun on target through geared handwheels for traverse and elevation. The shorter barreled 75 mm M2 cannon sometimes featured a counterweight at the end of the barrel to balance the gun for operation with the gyrostabilizer until the longer 75 mm M3 variant was brought into use In summary, you can see that “turret less tank destroyers” were a “defensive weapon” in the main part, and as you pointed out, needed to be stopped to fire their main weapon, hence they were usually well camoflaged and “ambushed” enemy tanks……as did the traditional wheeled anti tank guns. You can read all of the above links, which give the “reasons” that tank destroyers came about, and were used in WW2……and generally not used any longer (as the infantry now has a multitude of smaller, crew served, anti tank weapons available or laser guided equipment to make Each artillery round a tank destroyer and that makes EVERY INFANTRY MAN a “tank destroyer” in theory…….and infantry units themselves have access to very long range anti tank weapons in their own right such as: (although some of the below do need larger “carriers” to deploy them) Javelin BGM-71 TOW AGM-114 Hellfire Eryx Milan MBT LAW Etc etc
It would not have been the gunner's job to tell the driver to turn - that would have been the commander's job.
OK..............so with this Sweedish TD the driver would "Aim The Gun". That makes sense enough. But is that how The Germans did it with, for example, The StuG or The Hetzer......the driver would line-up the gun with the target.?
The gun in a Stug or Hetzer had some ability to rotate. In general, the driver would have to lay the vehicle roughly in the direction of the target, yes. In a defensive situation they would tupically set up in advance. Then the gunner would make any fine tuning adjustment before firing. Turning these vehicles meant running the engine meant generating smoke. So it wasn't a good idea if they didn't have to. With the Stug, their original role was infantry support, and in that role they would probably be doing more driving around and turning.
Chris, what is “false”….the side to side traverse?? Or the elevation. From what I’ve read (and I don’t have the technical manuals so please correct me) the traverse total was 22 degrees (11 degrees to each side)………and the elevation total traverse was 22.5 degrees (-7.5 to + 15 degrees)?? The gun had a traverse of 11 degrees both left & right. It could be depressed -7.5 and elevated +15 degrees The British Archer Tank Destroyer - TankNutDave.com EDIT: I think I found your what you were saying, the drawing seems to indicate the traverse was “22.5” to EACH side, unless I’m reading this wrong.
Yes, there are people looking at the traverse numbers and getting it wrong, dividing 22 by 2. It's not your fault! This is from the handbook:
