It seems that the penetraion mechanics of large-caliber HE shells is broken now and doesn’t correspond even to “table values”.
Three games in a row, I’ve been killed by a HE shell in T26E5 heavy tank.
First time I was killed by M109 from a distance, so the shell could have landed on a roof (in theory).
Second time, I was killed by a frontal hit. But again, there’s a weak spot in the hull armor on the machine gunner’s roof. In theory, the shell could have exploded right over it.
The third time, I was killed by the glancing impact to the turret cheek from 2S1 (table penetration - 49 mm).
How could it be possible at all? The normal thickness of an armor of T26E5 is ~200 mm there. Even in theory, no HE shell could penetrate it. The same goes for the gun mantlet - it’s been one of the most protected parts of any tank; T26E5 has additional 180mm armor there. Still, the protection analysis says that T26E5 turret front is totally unprotected against HE shells!
To me this seems like a clear bug. If we follow the game mechanics, this would not be possible by any means.
Those 49 mm of penetration aren’t going into your turret, but your hull roof, which is 38.1 mm. The round is exploding close enough for it to still have enough force to punch through the roof of your hull even if it isn’t hitting it directly.
Very large HE rounds can basically make use of weakspots that other rounds can’t really. The animation that WarThunder uses does for tank HE rounds does showcase this.
why develop high velocity guns and expensive ammunitions when you just can lob an HE at it.
those dumb real world engineers…
Was that sarcasm?
well there is a really good reason as to why artillery is still so effective…
OK, today I had my front glacis penetrated.
Should we argue that 152mm armor plate should be immune to a shell with 60mm pen value? Or simply declare a HE artillery sort of a WarThunder equivalent of Redeemer that can destroy anything in this game?
It already is immune. The HE just penetrated somewhere else.
Can you show a screenshot?
ammunition like apfsds can be more accurate, and ensure kill if penetrated.
however, he is very useful in anti-tank. Chinese army studied this decades age, a direct hit by 125mm HE would destroy most of the outside equipment, and possibly kill or injured crews heavily.
and here is a poor Leopard2 from Ukraine, hull roof armor tore by a 3OF26 hit on face, similar to this T26E5 situation.
Ive died to the ostwind frontally way too many sides in that thing
That’s some strange magic stuff. All auto cannon with large charge can do, but I can’t find a explaination.
Will try to. It showed on that final animation of your death, i.e. when it shows where the tank is penetrated.
But I"m not sure if I can capture a screenshot of this. Although I’ll try
<sarcasm=on>So, as I understand, if 155m HE shells are so great at killing and disabling tanks, 155-mm HEAT rounds like Copperhead have been developed just as a some form of engineering entertainment? <sarcasm=off>
HE has its uses, but in War thunder its just horribly modelled,
Artillery kills tanks by disabling them, fragments blow tracks, or with Krasnopol/Excalibur guided rounds can hit the tops of tanks where the armour is thin and the exploding force is driven through the tank into the crew. We saw a T-72 get hit point blank from a Leopard 2A6 HE shell and it did no damage.
HEAT has it’s advantages, not only destroying tanks, but also concrete bunkers, that’s Copperhead’s main job.