Testing weapons on a King Tiger in La Gleize

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_greg
Member
Posts: 9
Joined: 02 Jul 2019, 16:08
Location: Poland

Testing weapons on a King Tiger in La Gleize

#1

Post by _greg » 02 Jul 2019, 17:53

Hello.
I was wondering where exactly I should ask this question and I finally decided that this might be a good place (at least I think the Panzer & other vehicles - Photo threads is the right place since this post will include few photos).
Just so that I won't only be asking a silly question I'm going to include some backstory here.

From the "90th Infantry Division Preservation Group" website: "On Jan. 18th, 1945 men of the 82nd Airborne reconnaissance platoon decided to have some fun testing the so-called invincibility of the King Tiger. The lane was a ready-made shooting gallery; the weapons chosen for the competition were the bazooka vs. the Panzerschreck. The armor on the glacis of the Tiger II is 150mm- just about six inches. Both weapons only penetrated to a depth of four inches although this was sufficient to pass through the 80mm armor plate on the side of the turret."

Another similar description says: "Tiger II '104' was abandoned due to mechanical failure or ran out of fuel at La Gleize on December 23nd 44. On January 18, 1945 troops of the 504 PIR 82nd Airborne Division used Tiger II as a target. The weapons chosen to the competition were the bazooka vs. panzerfaust. None of strikes on the glacis plate penetrated. Both weapons only penetrated to a depth of four inches, although this was sufficient to pass through the 80mm armour plate on the side of the turret."
lk2.jpg
1KompCheminVVLady.jpg
In the first photo we can see a soldier firing at the King Tiger while others watch.
The second picture is more interesting, mainly because without knowing it's backstory it may look like a KT that got penetrated a lot of times. The shadow isn't helping either, it's making the holes look way deeper than they actually are. Because of that I've seen this picture being posted numerous times with titles such as "King Tiger with multiple penetrations".

Few other photos:
mae9gz.jpg
19243162_1055569117912492_7810798722157462635_o.jpg
19388612_1055738201228917_3441376594602608762_o.jpg
Now time to ask the question.
I know that this test was being recorded and I saw few single frames from that video, so I'm sure it's on the internet somewhere, but I don't know where.. Anybody here knows where can I find it?
If anyone has more pictures and/or more information about this event in general, please also let me know.

_greg
Member
Posts: 9
Joined: 02 Jul 2019, 16:08
Location: Poland

Re: Testing weapons on a King Tiger in La Gleize

#2

Post by _greg » 03 Jul 2019, 13:48

A little update, I found the frame from the video I mentioned.
19402049_1055588921243845_5404103382657307599_o.jpg
Also, little addition about this part of the description "Both weapons only penetrated to a depth of four inches, although this was sufficient to pass through the 80mm armour plate on the side of the turret."
I won't really concentrate on the "Both weapons only penetrated to a depth of four inches" however, I will say that these weapons definitely did not achieve the same kind of penetration. Panzerfaust 30/60/100 were able to penetrate up to 200mm of armour, while Bazooka could penetrate up to 76mm (M1) or 102mm (M9).

Now about the second part: "although this was sufficient to pass through the 80mm armour plate on the side of the turret."
It's not specified which weapon penetrated the turret, but knowing that:
"M9 "Bazooka" could penetrate up to 4 inches (102 mm) of armor"
"Panzerfaust had armour penetration of 200 millimetres"
And that the effective armor thickness of the KT's turret cheek from the front was around 190mm taking only the 25° angle into consideration and up to 201mm when we also include the turret's secondary 70° angle, we can conclude that it was Panzerfaust that penetrated the turret, not Bazooka.
Of course we can see that the turret was slightly turned, but even being generous and changing the 25° to 45° the effective thickness was still a little over 120mm. (Using a 3D model and matching it to the picture the angle is around 40°which gives 132.45mm of effective thickness, but again, let's be generous since my method isn't very scientific)

Also, here's a photo of this KT before testing:
30-ID-2019-017-La-Gleize.jpg



_greg
Member
Posts: 9
Joined: 02 Jul 2019, 16:08
Location: Poland

Re: Testing weapons on a King Tiger in La Gleize

#4

Post by _greg » 03 Jul 2019, 14:52

Thanks a lot, Michael! ^^
It's a shame the video has no sound though.

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