tanks and small arms

[gbeattie]

I was wondering I tanks are vulnerable to small arms fire.

I doubt it’s possible to even tank out the rear armor on a tank with a assault rifle or handgun but what about a .50 caliber like the M82 Barrett? Also if anyone knows would say a World War II era tank be vulnerable to that kind of weaponry? I guess it would be possible to petetrate the armor right where the shells are kept so you would destroy the tank that way.

 

[Teddy Ruxpin]

On a modern tank, not a chance.

 

[couchcommander]

.50 caliber anti-tank weapons were not uncommon in WWII and were largey effective if targetted at weaker areas. An example of this is the Soviet PTRD-41.

re: the modern tanks, Teddy is an expert, so I'd trust him with that.

 

[Blue Max]

Most light tanks were/are impervious to .50cal rounds. WW2 Russian anti-tank rifles (.50cal usually) were used to try and destroy (blind crew) or shoot through vision ports.

The Russian's during and after WW2 had their tanks carry barrels of fuel hanging off of their rear engine cowls in an attempt to give their armoured units a larger area of operation. The barrels of fuel where not as armoured as any other part of the tank. Of course the fuel was diesel, so not inherently as flamable as gasoline.

 

[Sh0rtbUs]

109lbs...

My back hurts just thinking about it 

 

[zipperhead_cop]

Here is a big honkin' rifle.  Sucks to be buddy on Basic carrying this beast.  It's a shoulder fired 20 mm rifle!  Don't know if this qualifies as small arms or not.  Sure doesn't look small.  Again, though, probably wouldn't be too effective against todays standard of composite armour. From the below link:

http://www.winterwar.com/Weapons/FinAT/FINantitank2.htm#20

There is also one at the Armour museum in Fort Knox, but I cannot recall what it was called.  I just remember it stood about 5'5" and was massive. 
Remember too, to take out a tank, you don't need a catastrophic kill.  Just get some shrapnel inside and it bounces around, killing or injuring most or everyone. 

 

[Teddy Ruxpin]

Well much like the weapon posted by Z_C, the Boys AT rifle was issued to the British Army at the beginning of the War and there were Soviet, German, French and other designs that were similar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifle,_Anti-Tank,_.55_in,_Boys

Calibres were usually in the .50 " to 1" range (IIRC - I'm hardly a historical weapons guru).  By the end of the French campaign in 1940, the AT rifle concept had largely been discredited.  

Cheers,

TR

 

[gbeattie]

Thanks for the info guys.

I was in a forum about strategy games and I was bitching about a lot of the inaccuracies in RTS's, one of which is infantry being able to destroy tanks. Some guy said that it was possible to take down a tank with small arms fire which I doubted and what you guys said confirmed it. Plus a love how they have infantry in the open, trying to attack armor. I would assume that your best bet against a tank would be to spot it before it spots you then hide and sneak in close and try to take out the treads with a grenade or something.

 

[Michael OLeary]

Or to sneak well back and take it out with a supporting attack helicopter.

 

[Teddy Ruxpin]

one of which is infantry being able to destroy tanks.

Well, the infantry has a great deal more than small arms available to it.  Canadian infantry possesses anti-tank systems that are certainly capable of destroying modern tanks and it is a foolish tank commander indeed that ventures into wooded or built-up areas without the support of accompanying infantry.  Most Western armies train and operate (for conventional conflict) in teams of armour, infantry, engineers and artillery for precisely this reason.

Tanks may be bulletproof ( ;D), but they're not invulnerable....

 

[rz350]

the 14.5mm PTRD was semi effective upto the Korean war, provided you hit the tank in the vision port, or the rear armour on some older tanks. But its a monster gun (for man fired rifle) and the bullet is signifgantly more powerful then a .50BMG. But not a chance of anything single man fired rifle type weapon going though a modern tank (note I said rifle and not missile so SRAWs and Eryx's dont count)