Good evening! I was wondering that whould it have caused any damage to the Tiger to remove its muzzle break? I read somewhere that the KwK 36 was directly developed from the FlaK 36 with the addition of a muzzle break that reduced the recoil seriously, so the question is that removing the muzzle break (and this way increasing the recoil) could yes or no damage the tank?
Eventually within x-number of shots the mounts would break/give way! Though the recoil damping mechanism would break first... All fixable of course - though on the day whoever was behind/near the gun when it happened mightn't have been so readily repairable! And of course - depending on how FEW shots would be required to fatigue the setup, would depend how many Tigers were out of service undergoing repair at any one time... The need for a muzzle brake would have been confirmed by testing after initial mathematical calculation...?
I remember reading the Tigers' muzzle brake absorbed a surprising amount of the recoil, I just can't find the reference now. Ah, Tigerfibel gives it as 70% if my sketchy German doesn't fail me, about what my even sketchier memory had it at... Page 55: View attachment Tigerfibel.pdf Sure I had more on it somewhere though. In short; very inadvisable to fire without the brake.
Do not fire when the muzzle brake is loose or shot off! It functions like a sail and absorbs 70% of the recoil.
The muzzlebrake was introduced to allow for a smaller hydraulical recoil damper to be able to fit the turret. No MB and you'd overstress the recoil damper. Then you get the effect in the third image Besides, you'd have a lot of trouble to unscrew that from the muzzle, what the heck for?
Wow. Exactly like I was imagining. So a Tiger could have been put down by firing the gun w/out muzzlebreak?
