Curator Q&A #12: HESH Rounds | The Tank Museum

well hello again it's David Willie the curator from the Tank Museum for I think this is about our twelfth question and answer session and evidently still not at the Tank Museum those of you know all the format I answer some questions that people have sent in whether it's on the comments or by email and try and give you some answers and at the same time show you some of the things that we've got in our online shop which is still open and is our only source of income at the moment which is why thank you so much for those who've been buying things we're trying to push these items because that helps us keep going through these rather difficult times so on with the questions so I'm gonna and apologies last week I missed out one or two or didn't get my notes in order I've tried to put them in a bit better order but they're still all over the place so bear with us and the other thing sorry for those of you who might be new to this I also have my dog with me here who's sitting at the moment behind the camera cheering his ball but at some moment very shortly he's bound to come over or decide he wants to take part and all this in which case I've got to throw the ball forward so and that's just par for the course but right let's get on with things is it spam vacuum ask the question how was armor plate specified all the specification for armor plate arrived at and then tested well as you can imagine this is one of those topics that basically through time that specification has changed but if you think about it in a sort of broader sense what they're trying to do certainly in the way of tanks is to create a level of protection on that vehicle to deal with what they think will be the main anti-tank weapon that they'll be going up against now this is why again when we look back we have the advantage of looking back and so often people say well that wasn't enough was it look at when the tank was being built or went it when it was going into service and quite often the levels of armor protection they are trying to deal with what they put on that tank it was very adequate for what they thought the issues were and the role of that tank was going to be now we all know again with that benefit of hindsight in the Second World War the gun and armor race just goes woof off the scale as it were soaked very quickly we go through this this massive increase in the armament on a vehicle and that in turn leads to further armor protection being put on vehicles in the Second World War but if you go back to the 20s and 30s the main thing they were trying to be proof against initially was machine gun fire because that's what they thought the tank was going to be there to try and suppress machine-gun fire because that had been the problem in the First World War how do we get the infantry to advance against static positions with machine guns in we need something to accompany them forward and that's where the armor plate it was was going to be necessary and as long as you were proof against machine gun fire fine then by the end of the 30s as they're realizing the standard anti-tank guns of your potential opposition's that tends to then be the next level of what's being specified and of course by the time so many of these tanks come into production this idea that you know that well why don't they they know something bigger is coming why don't they add more armor plate when you think about it all the time is every time you're adding more armor protection you are getting to that point again where you're adding weight and wearing out the tank quicker so you tend to only go for what you think is necessary and you know as we all know as well the the conclusion is in the end that whatever armor protection you put on you're very unlikely to be proof against everything that's out there so here's another conundrum we tend to always look at the main anti-tank gun or the the the main threat or not even the main one quite often the exceptional so for example you know an 88 millimeter guns tiger as being the threat so it's been raining around here earlier today when in actual fact and let me throw the ball for the dog Thing Thing come back here and drop the ball drop it thank you yeah we're in actual fact the vast majority of the time that vehicle won't be coming up against the ultimate threat it'll be coming up against something else you see and that is where again so we might have that position where a tank that we don't think has got that much armor protection on is actually effective ninety-five percent of the time in the engagement or up against the threat it's going against it's only those small percentage of times where it might bump into something with that superior firepower that can penetrate its armor so you see this dilemma when we're judging these things all the times actually you can have a successful tank but it's not necessarily got the thickest arm or top of the range or be proof against anything so those things are things to bear in mind and of course that all changes after the war as well when we've got other types of weapon systems coming along and but you're never going to be proof against everything they'll always have a bigger bomb they're always coming up with new things so everyone's always this this guns arm a race and these with new technologies as well coming along how are we going to protect ourselves in the future in terms of the actual one of the part of the question was then testing this idea of well that word proof and that goes back to medieval times what most armor once it's been produced there is normally some form of a system where someone comes and tries it so whether that was early day throw firing a bow and arrow at it using a sword will it take a sword blow again you'll see a civil war / English civil war uniforms you still at the breastplates everyone says all look someone's taking potshots at it because there's a dent in it actually they are being the proof mark so in other words the pistol was taken with a certain amount of powder given a noun fired from a known distance and that would be proofing that plate because basically if the ball doesn't penetrate the play its met its proof so in other words they'd say it's safe to go and of course sometimes and then you're back into this period where again if you're doing things like armor plate later wear that's why a batch number is important and every now and again there'll be a random or a certain percentages taken away to be tested against what it's thought to be it should be against so and again that whole history of armor and what goes into it why some malleable armors are preferred to face hardened and different times and some types of armor protection are going to be better against certain types of projectile types so this is another 150 reah but that idea about you know four tanks it's a classic example where why didn't they just put thicker armor a millimeter on a main battle tank of steel and a ton in weight and so every time you are adding a millimeter of steel armor another ton goes on and as we know that means it's going to make you heavier it's going to cost you more issues and everything so finding that right compromise of the amount of armor ease is quite a tricky one zephyr asked the question was Hesh discovered to be a good anti-tank round by accident or what and this was actually a question I forgot to answer last week he's an interesting one because hey high explosive squash head it's a type of round the came into service just after the Second World War and the idea behind it is that a Hesh round if you're firing at a tank or an armored vehicle what it is it's a plastic explosive within the casing of the shell the shell is much thinner than a normal high explosive round so a high-explosive round it lands it's detonated it the trigger mechanism with that detonation causes the explosive inside to blast out and the metal casing creates blast effect as it's going out and shreds and does all sorts of things or not knock things down and does all sorts of damage with that metal shell and the blast effect from the explosive now with a Hesh round that metal of the shell is much thinner and what happens is when the shell impacts the target so if we think of the side of a tank or armor plate it squashes because the fuse is not at the front it squashes pancakes a phrase used against the side of the vehicle and a mili second after this is happening that's when the base fuse detonates the explosives this plastic explosive that's been inside it that is pancaked out and that creates a shock wave that runs through the metal of the tank or the armored vehicle has been fired against and caused what's called spalling a scab to come off on the inside and cause damage inside the vehicle now hash and again it's great story this is a guy I wanted to bring in last time which I've written it all down but forgot to talk about Dennison so Charles denistoun Bernie is one of these again amazing characters probably haven't heard of his name or some of you might the Bernie gun comes out later in World War two but he's one of these characters he's born into an aristocratic family he goes off joins the Navy his father was an admiral he has interests in engineering he comes up with a paravane which is one of those things you towba hind you and it helps decimate or clears minds and even and in the First World War he gets three hundred and fifty thousand pounds from foreign governments paying the royalty on his because he's one who patents a paravane so he's a wealthy guy and he can afford to invest in some of his ideas now he he's later on he gets involved with Barnes Wallis he's part of the team for the r100 airship r101 and he's engaged with you know that when you read about his life story all these different people he's bumping into Barnes Wallis he's working with Nevil Shute who goes on to be the author as well he's part of that airship project he does a car companies streamlined cars all sorts of amazing things this guy does but in the Second World War he turns his attention he's looking at explosives and he comes up the idea of the hash brown but initially this is done as a bunker buster in other words it's done because of the blast effect works on concrete as well so this idea of taking out pillboxes etc now those hex rounds don't go into service in the First World War but and the question that led to this one you know it was also indicating it I was it by accident they found it was good against Armour on the whole most projectile systems you come up with you might be designing a one thing but a part of the course you are going to test it against other things to see because don't bother about firing this chaps at those type of targets not worth it and that's when they discover of course if they're doing this against armor they're thinking one hang on a second look at this great spoiling that's going on inside when something we thought of as a dimension round is actually fired at an armored vehicle and after World War two that we developed the 165 millimeter demolition gun that goes on Churchill tanks post-war and then on the Churchill a free I sorry this century an aviary with 165 demolition so that's got that type of big Hesh round in it for the British Army as well they like the house round and back to we talked about it earlier that's also one of the reasons they like the rifled barrel because if you spin a Hesh round that works better for it what you don't want it to do you you don't want to spin it too far and too far so the it goes relatively slowly through the air if you watch it next to if you've been to a firing range and see when they fire Hesh you kind of see this trajectory and the tracer on the back of it goes there if they fire a fin round arm piercing fin-stabilised you know that things just like it's just gone in a split second yes you can kind of see going because they don't want to fire it too fast that if you hit the target too quickly it doesn't have its full effect on it but they do like spinning it that has a positive effect hence the British liked because Hesh is very effective hence they like the rifle ground and I know we've just put out our tank out on challenger 2 one of the things if challenger 3 whatever they're going to call it comes along with the upgrade if that all goes ahead in the way we'll be saying goodbye to that rifle barrel and hello to a smooth ball because everyone else is using smooth ball but now and there's other ways of dealing with vehicles in that rather than just using the Hesh in the way we were so we probably have higher explosives there but Denniston Bernie this guy who comes up with these things another one of those you know we talked earlier about that book we're selling in the shop Mavericks who come along and help design things do things and at the end of the war he comes up with something called the Bernie gun he doesn't quite see service and he's dropped quite quickly afterwards but but that idea it goes on the mail car a rocket so the anti-tank rocket the idea of hash on the end there you know quite often I think we all think it's going to be hollow charge no it's not it's a hash round on the end of the mail car there so I think that's all I was going to say on him but and also sorry I'll just in my notes there one of the other things it leads to of course is hey she's being fired by the anti-tank the towed anti-tank guns that Britain puts into service after the Second World War some of those lost towed anti-tank guns things like the mo bat and the Warren bat they're firing those hash browns as well but anyway I hope that answers that one about hitch because it's one of those topics again ammunition types back to we just said about armor what type of things use is a threat against how do you protect against Hesh well actually it's lost some of its effectiveness because of spaced armor because of course that idea of a shot way going through armor first of all it was spall lining so there's ways you can capture that inside and then with spaced armor that detonation wave doesn't go through in the same manner so it has less effect so these are other sort of things are back to what was that arm of thickness how was he going to prove here what we was going to be about these things all go hand in hand and I'll throw the ball again drop it thing come here drop here we go and as well at the same time I will have a slip from my as it's Friday different one today I have a what have I got I've got a Sherman fury mug today so our slope Almighty right and on with the questions Marcus wall will actually somebody else came back after as I mentioned it last time but they're asking where's that Churchill recovery tank that's with Remmy grow electrical mechanical engineers they're fantastic core Museum which is at RAF Lynam the old RAF line and base that's where because of what's happened is basically the army the Navy Air Force have all decided to put its technical training together that's based on RAF line and so that's where that we use the museum move to and if you want to go and have a look at that and I've mentioned before as well have a look at their website have a look online I know as well you know if you're interested in engineer variant vehicles again there's a great collection of engineer armor at the Royal Engineers Museum which is at Chatham so that's another one to go and have a look at there they've got a cramp cramp fantastic collection there as well right Tom Tom asked question who started stripes on banner rules I had a quick look on this and it's it's quite an old thing putting a stripe around the barrel as a kill ring as it were and you'll see that that occurring in you know propaganda and everybody they will love taking those photographs I haven't found who started that and I don't know if anyone else out there you know can you almost track back to where the earliest one is careful as well because color rings on bowels on always kill rings so some units I know the American army at one point on their tanks they did it was a differentiation red white and blue depending on what section you are in as part of that tank Union and again that's another thing about why you need this sort of recognition it's so you're not yelling over the radio trying to contact someone and realizing actually it's completely the wrong tank that gives you a little bit of being out of a narrow that down as it were on the water section there in you guys again right let's carry on with some of the other questions that we've been sent in Jeff in Australia thanks very much she become a patron well done books on radios and wireless in armored vehicles what have we got out there I've had to look and again if any of you know better please do put this in the comments one of the things is I sigh there's less I know of written on radios and wireless in armored vehicles there's more general subjects ones and they tend to be country specific so for example in Britain if you want to know all about radios in general for the Armed Forces there's a fantastic book called wireless for the Warriors you can find a copy it's big thick thing quite hard to get hold of and I know there's one on German radios is that they tend to be country specific there'll be something in there like a chapter in how they adapted for example of nineteen set becomes you know the tank version sort of thing but I would I you know I'd be really grateful if anyone else knows better books on radio systems in they tend to have a small section in it on the more general books but not a whole book on that one topic so that's a bit of a trickier one there and and Charles Flint very kindly as well I was saying about if you bought some of the books in the shop come here thing it's if you enjoy them you know do come back and tell us what you think about them and he's put a review here Charles Flint read that Ministry of ungentlemanly warfare book I was saying I'm all about these not dirty tricks but all the things that Churchill was was trying to get people to do before d-day and even after d-day actually as 12 and he says here Charles Finn says can't recommend it highly enough really enjoyed that so thank you for coming back which again of course gives me a bit of an excuse to talk about books again I know a couple of people mentioned I mentioned last time that we've got this cracker here that's come out on the Vickers machine gun as one of those hain series I've got myself copy of this because I really liked it Martin Pecola that one and I mentioned the fact because there is a superb but by collectors great edition he'd great big tome and of course you will go out there and look for in every thinking goodness me on Amazon at the moment 960 pounds but the good news I saw was well number one is buy that one because there you go whatever the price is I can't remember we've got on this one but go on the website they will you know knock down prices that one is really really good on the vicar's if you are insistent to have that huge great volume which is I've got my own copy and I didn't want to bring it out because it's almost like you're bragging when you when I looked at the price of this thing number one does anyone ever pay those prices on Amazon you know go for that sort of money for a book and number two the really good news thank you someone's come back and said actually they are gonna be reprinting that grand old lady evolved of no man's land book so they I think sometimes with these ones when they've got the permissions they have to a subscription thing so everyone if they sign up and put a bit of money up front and then it's worthwhile printing and but it's something we're looking into with some of the titles we own or would love to reprint it's not simple it's not that easy and of course you know there's always that risk there so if you're the lucky person that's managing to try and sell yours for nine hundred sixty quid I'll be fascinated if you have managed to do it but meanwhile if you're not gonna pay that sort of money or even when it does come out again it's probably a fairly sizable one I'd recommend getting your arm vicars paints manual because that go bill alright um sorry in the dog sitting board again coming if in brings me I think this is a cue for if I start going off track and going on a bit too long so another ones Haynes manuals as well we got another one I know you've seen some of these ones boot before but there's a new boat one came in and another new one by Jonathan for Musa to the series on RAF Bomber Command and those of you again I know thank you very much you've been coming back with comments on these I've just gonna read you a quote on this one because sometimes you know what you think is it worth spending ain't ninety nine in the book for this one quote listen to this this is a Don char would he was a Lancaster navigator from 42 to 43 life on the squadron was seldom far from Fantasy we might at eight be in a chair beside a fire but at 10 in an empty world above a floor of cloud or at 8 walking in Bonn would be with a girl whose nearness denied all positive bility of sudden death at 12 what a quote one thing anyway I'd recommend again these these very very good series there I was also as well sorry just answering some questions that were going to come up somebody else asked the question when I mentioned these volumes I've got my own ones there tiger before they're in English that's the thing it's all in English it's just the title they're saying the tiger in German and actually I was fascinated to see I've got two volumes full in one volume too but there is now volume 3 so we've got all three volumes in the shop if you like your feel a bit of a tiger fan again you like the quality in these years I've talked about this before when is it worth spending a bit extra and getting those really nice good quality prints with all that detail a thing especially if your model maker and I'll talk about model makers in a moment of a while it's time to come the other one was just reminding you that again if you don't want to buy those collected like all the British tanks etc they're being put together in the off spray series we've still got the original single volume ones here so I just bought one their cruiser and covenanted David Fletcher or David Fletcher of course Steve's a logo these are the best names you know writing in this stuff so I again I'd say that you know that these were titles that you seem to think of been out forever they've been updated as there's one of these ones new Vanguard they call them now but David Fletcher indeed Matilda one they are great information really good imagery really good histories and the best people writing in tanks you know they're so I'd recommend those ones as well those you've got a chance from the shop and I'll just story throw the ball again he starts barking again just very quickly as well looking at some of the other ones there we've got this series which if you're just interested in relatively shorter reads on some of the battles these ones called battle stories so there's first world war is land wanna hello main Arnhem all sorts of ones on that so have a look at those as a series I bought it again because I know you know I keep promoting it tank spotters guide that's your one for a good end of the market in the sense of being able to learn those basics about all the different types of tanks again written by David Fletcher there and these were some of these books that our shop managers managed to get hold of and if you are like me a bit of a bibliophile and you like your books and everything else there's some real crackers in there at ridiculously cheap prices so I'd strongly recommend have a look again commanders and ranges on d-day operations beautifully illustrated lots and lots of stuff you probably can't see a thing I'm showing you there but really good stick stuff and you know publicly 25 quit and we've got them for under a fiver agent Cicero it was most successful fart spy and actually he wasn't very successful was he Gallipoli sniper the remarkable life of policing so again first world war if you're interested first world war there's another great one here because he was at Gallipoli and marine at Gallipoli and again these are really beautifully produced books a lot of information in there and and again I was just looking it was one of that 399 299 Gallipoli Sniper escape from the Japanese and again if have a look because there's so many good titles here look at the reviews of them sometimes as well online and they really are that sort of price you know it's worth taking the punt I would argue and having a go for getting some of those so let's get back to some questions and back to throwing the dog for the punt for the dog isn't it there we go right ah my mistake you're absolutely right everyone's come straight back to me and made the point that actually the infield I was talking about the hammerless perlis one was not as I mentioned four five five is the quarter point three eight and so thank you for picking that one up I should have done my homework and I should have got my one out in the attic anthony sucker ask question did I work for rusi no I didn't Jon Jensen asked an interesting question which I did try and try and have a look at I've got I won't guess because actually I think someone else they will probably be able to come back times are three pounds of four why those little cutaways on the front of the turrets what are they there for that little angling you know because is it a shot trap or is it does it does it do something extra does it give it strength or whatever so let's see what people who think they know the answer on that one do come back and all them I'll tell you my thing on that next time maybe Brian flattery if I said that right flat thirty sorry if I've said it wrong he's got a five and seven year old building kobe tanks and he's hoping to come over next year so I mentioned that before about when you do build models build kobe tanks and everything else and we're on Fisher as well he's been doing it with his daughter building kobe tanks and I think she's only about three and I come back to I've said it earlier one of the great things about model making any sort of structural things that way it gives you spatial awareness you understand how things come together you tend to remember about those things it's just like you know all the old blokes out they remember playing with Manama car now and everything how you built things up how you could work out space volume weight structures you know stresses all sorts of things you can pick up just from making sort of that type of models and different types and coming together and giving that enthusiasm for building things I think is really important was just really impress a really young age kids so well done the the dad's there in that case and and mums the three out there doing it which gives me the excuse to show here's a few other types of models if you're interested we've got these ones that are done in pressed out in wood so you were all it's printed out there you press it out and there's a Sherman there's a t-34 one and there's a tiger one again something else that I know all those big boys would like to probably have a go and just set them and glue them together all or snap them together in the way they can be done but also I say that as well because again playing with and encouraging youngsters to make things and to put models together and everything else that's a really great learning experience as well and it'll be great of course is you have to buy and do that learning experience from the Tank Museum so there's some other ones there and throw the ball again let's have a look please keep going is it somebody Shipman Mayhem asks about could we could we recommend a history of armored personnel carriers again I had a look on my shelves and everything the last proper there's a couple of books that just do the this is what's in service with the stats a pcs but the one the last one I could find with a proper history in was done by Chris Foss who worked for James and you know Dorian of keeping up to date with Mon vier that vehicles etc Chris Foss but he wrote that back in 1989 and you can get it still but I'd recommend that one as the book on history of a pcs in one place unless anyone again can say listen I've seen something better out there but he's after the history not just here's the specification book you know which sometimes you can get those kind of ones that just sort of list what's in service where and what the details are Daniel Friedman nice little advert thanks for buying I'm just saying to him first of all but he also made the point the price is just about our shop again also the best I could find and I looked around on the common sites like Amazon and Google so there we go so you know thank you for coming back with that one just Ian asked to the owners who bring their vehicles to tank sets get paid no we don't actually we tend to pay the travel costs all the expenses of the low load or something if they if that's required that way and you can imagine there's some people out they would love to bring their vehicle tank tests to show it off so that's great for us but on the whole we know that one of the biggest things and this is another thing you know when people ask us about all you know one we're doing this or can you take that they're hiring a low load cost you a lot of money people again follow-up question you know why don't we have our own low loader get a tank transporter surely or something that way costs a huge amount of money to keep it plated insured all those things keeping up today and if we're honest we're probably only and we've done the math a few times even on a really busy year it's still better for us to go to a commercial company that's insured knows what they're doing we particularly use a guy called Steve cook a lot lovely bloke we've known him for ages and basically if Steve says he can get it there or do it within Nouveau Steve moves Concorde and everything else so we tend to go to a commercial wire company because that works better for us but but on that question actually we we tend to pay the travel costs but on the whole no we don't actually pay people money so they make a profit for coming to tankfest right where we got to Steve Smith's who went away after we talked about where's it gone after the 17 pounder shell was saying about the differences there he reckons if you were to fill so someone mentioned before one of our inflatable 17 pounder armor-piercing ballistic cap round for the water that would be about two-thirds the weight of a real armor-piercing round of that type for the 17 pounder with this cartridge there as well so thank you for doing the math for us there somebody called Carlton has asked the question about because I mentioned about when about running vehicles and not runnin vehicles all those different things that go together what's entails when we put a vehicle to bed is a phrase I used and what does that mean and it's a tricky one because like with the car industry like with vintage vehicles different people do different things we're still working out what we can do with an armored vehicle that might have run for a while now if you know it's going to run again in say six months time or a year's time what different things would you do to it if the honest truth is that you then realize you're not gonna run it for say five years or it's going to bed properly so the obvious ones that we do to start with is things like we move batteries because obviously if they leak and batteries anywhere expensive we need to get them charged and use them again so we move batteries what were not so sure about now is with a classic car and everything sometimes you can drain your fluids you take the stuff out the radiator or you could inhibitor in in place because again different corrosive levels there sometimes some people actually will drain a fuel tank but most of us know that actually by keeping a fuel tank fuel full tends to be better than empty and again if you're intending to run a vehicle in the future you see some of other things you might want to drain then causes seals to crack and dry out so you won't have a bigger problem putting that vehicle back together again into a running order later and the honest answer is we we just don't have a straight this is what we need to do yet and one of the things over time we've been talking with other people who in the heritage sector is should we try and come up with if you've only got two hours of staff time because there's another big issue here it's all very well coming up with great long lists of things you'd love to be able to do have you got the time and the resources to do it so there's no point coming up with ridiculous ideas that are unachievable by most museums so we need to work out what are the cost resource you know intensive things avoid them what are the best things to be able to do to get the best return on your time and energy for looking after that vehicle in the longer term and I think the problem we've got is every slight sector is doing slightly different things because also they've got different resources and also different histories they're you know if you've had a major issue you tend to learn that lesson quickly one of our ones is and again another one of the issues that comes out time and time again is is how are you recording what you're doing so everybody who comes on afterwards because I know in our past we've got too many vehicles that were still trying to get it written down didn't something go wrong with that before it was put to bed you know back in I don't know 1982 they thought this happened and now we need to go back and work out was that just anecdote is that really the case is there a major issue there how do we record it so we know what the problem is with that particular vehicle which is another whole issue that museums going through and why some of our videos were making are probably going to be a better way of recording stuff than us trying to write things down because we never quite get around to writing it down do we all recording all the things in the way you know we took hundreds of photographs but anyone ever written up the full process of what art went what went on that way and that kind of touches on one of the excuse me other questions that someone asked áit ask question how long does a tank restoration take how long's I lent the string depends what's wrong with that vehicle all those hidden things look at the Mathilda Diaries because that to me is a really good example there of a vehicle that we started the ball rolling thinking it needed just a bit of tinkering ended up doing a major kind of restoration almost you know to get all the part nuts and bolts be and you can look in there and see other vehicles you know sometimes could you call a restoration just to lick a pain you know because it doesn't need much more than that so so it's another impossible question to answer but relating to the earlier one you know do look at those programs so things like Matilda doors everything because it gives you an idea of some of those the range of the issues you have to face up to and you finally got this thing going what if it's not going to run again for how long when do we do that oil change when do you need to to drain fluids what are the things that are going to need some sort of maintenance whether it's greasing protective coatings all sorts of things you know how often we're going to do that and you know you can see it's not a simple thing that we can give a yes or no simple answer to right I think I'm nearly coming to the end of my ones William Harvey asked do we have plans for the ft of an ft-17 I don't think we do but we do have the drawings from the original manual for the ft-17 so all I'd say is have a word with us afterwards and I know someone came along and copied our ft-17 because they did a wonderful replica for the American Museum in Bath so other people are out there making those sort of replicas as well another slope of my T before it gets too cold hmm Harpo Marx asked a question keeps asking the question actually oops about what happens with tanks in the wet did the crews you know do they leak etc depends on the generation one of the points that was being made why welding was so good was it actually made tanks more waterproof than when they were riveted it's if you look again at developments of tanks as those things that are added to tanks such as what they call range shields are going over things like the optics going around certain parts because if you have water affecting your fighting ability in other words of is dripping over the the optics all the time so that then distorts and that's not going to be good so if you look on the front of quite often there's a little cowl over where the optics open so you can see the design about you know rain your water ingress is thought about look at a t54 with that splash board over the front as well you know for when it's wading you were finished thank you but modern tanks as well really since the nuclear age chemical NBC etc they are have rubber seals on most of them some of the tanks a tiger head you could seal a tiger don't forget because it was supposed to be used for deep wading never used in combat never used on campaign but it was designed for that huge amount of money effort went into all that machining those rubber seals rubber was quite hard to come by all those things to make that vehicle so it could potentially deep weighed with a snorkel one of the things though but your your talk to soldiers all the time actually most vehicles will get a lot of water inside are you open hatches you have rain you have stuff sloshing around the place all over the place so the idea of the inside is like your car a nice dry warm and everything forget it it water will be coming in hence they got drain plugs to let that water out accessible points in the floor and another one to think about as well is when the guys driving along it might not be combat situations most driving done with hatches open etcetera that water's coming in and I remember fairly early when I started at the tank museum we had an engineer along and basically his requirement was to sit in just about every vir see there was in the museum drivers seats all the different types of seats there to see what seems like Gege Nam makes a good design and what were these things like some of the remember the guy said the wardens at the time all lakes tank crew were saying to him which is for goodness sake just simple things so if you've got some form of bucketed seat you know water's going to come in have a drain hole in the bottom of it so every time that poor sold you had to sit back in that seat he doesn't get a soggy backside every time he's doing that so let the water either be able to drain away or have wiped clean surfaces etc etc you know because waters gonna ingress it will always do that and you mentioned about bowels and things that way you know what happens when you stop water running down about Pompeian that lovely word a Thom pian sometimes you can cover sometimes I actually would put a temporary paper sticker or plug over the end of the barrel some they could fire through a bit like those paper covers on Spitfire Wings etc that just keeps muck and dust and other things out of that barrel but again that is part of the gunner and the tank crews training is they are you know if you go over a a bundle an object or something rather is a that's why they put the gun to one side you will be absolutely hammered if you get mud in the end of your barrel because then that's a risk if you're going to fire so these are things that they are aware of like making sure that the next moment in that vehicle you know when they're in the breech is not elitism suddenly floods out loads and loads of water down the barrel but as I say most modern vehicles now have some sort of rubber seals but don't think that keeps you dry and you know you're not going to do it that way right oh and I'll finish with Sam Reynolds I'm just thinking that rains about to start in a minute so I was just keep an eye on everything Sam Reynolds asked the question what was the most common tank in blitzkrieg for the Germans go back to my Irish talk because we try and break that down how when they were going into the fence what you called blitzkrieg really but thirty nine into Poland how Germany was really not really that ready in terms of tanks and in sizeable numbers effective force still does its business that way but if you go to May of 1940 I've got moist in front of me here which is what they wanted to be fighting with Panther three spans of fours may of nineteen forty seven hundred and eighty-five pounds of threes Panzer fours 290 Czech tanks they've taken into service 35 and 38 T's 381 of those but the Panzer 1 and pounds of twos which really added up of the most numerous there so you've got pans ones 523 Panzer - 955 so for one type you could argue the panzer ii is the one there but again you know and they are seen their action plans or twos they're as they're going around the place but it's it's one of these you know questions of it's not the force as I try to say in that Harris thing that we think the German tank force is in May of 1940 that is still not the force the Germans warranted in that sense and the fact that they're being puffed up by 381 if you take out the Panzer ones and pounds or twos they do have a fighting ability not denying that in any way and they're equivalent on the but when you tend to be doing that what are we talking about in terms of if there was tank on tank engagement what are the most effective what tanks on the battlefield then you're really seeing Panzer 3 pounds of fall and that being substituted by 381 those check tanks make a real big difference there for the for the German forces but go back to that Ares film we've done about the battle and there's a big war I'll say beat that I go on a fair on one time as I normally do telling you all about that that German military that's there at that sort of time quite as a dog no he hasn't gone to sleep still he's saying yeah talking of thing there was a well I was just looking and somebody here we go Dylan Pierce out I think in the state said he's German teachers part of a collie rescue group in the states and I always think that have you know where you see these rescue centers and everything else is a complete misnomer you go and rescue a dog now dogs rescue you if you are a dog only you know it's the other way around all the time sort of thing that thank you for the comment and I hope she does well looking after college as well and thank you for the nice comments for a fin drop it ooh and all those suggestions by the way for tank museum ball throws and everything we're trying to look into those ones and I think now if you don't mind if I could just finish off on a couple more things we've got in the shop I mentioned about gin actually this is we're not you can't I can't remember what the rules are but anyway this is a gin liquor that we are allowed to sell from the shop and 18% volume and you can buy all your different flavor that ones ginger if you're so inclined black currant raspberry and elderflower in the Cure's they're 18% each somebody asks a question we did we have RTR coasters because they were a bit jealous of their fellow regimen had case of them we used to but apparently we've sold out so whether we'll get them again in the future meanwhile though if you're after your coaster put your mug on my tea you can buy your Panther one you can buy your Sherman one you can get a tiger what Tiger collection one King Tiger one so go on the elephant one and pre-production King Tiger and so we do have coasters there if you don't mind putting up with those before you get your RTR once drop and what else with the other things we were just saying that shop manager gave us some I know apparently some of these almost like laughing when I was sort of trying to sell DVDs if you know those old days guys still having cassette tapes or something but again I won't go into too much film reviewing but we've got the blu-ray there for pound 99 of Dunkirk and if you haven't seen Dunkirk you know again we can get into this debate about what we think of it as a film and everything else Christopher Nolan's I loved it and I'll tell you what I loved it I think the aspiration to make war movies like that would be praised you know the more like I said last time the more war movies that are made it's better for our subject better fraud people brings people to the subject the topic and everything and I think aspiration and when I went to see it I was remember this thing cuz we're in the cinema and there's a sweet old lady was sitting a couple of row down the road and when finally the Spitfire managed to take out that Heinkel bomber before it drops its load on the ship what jumped out the seats screaming with joy so I think any film that can get you into it that way into that sort of sense that was fantastic so so if you fancy the blu-ray and we've got the blu-ray of Dunkirk there as the rainy starting to come down so I better hurry up speed up on the other one sorry I know we've always go on about it's always seems to be German stuffed I get a t-shirt and there's a nice another one of our range of t-shirts there but for those of you who like the British stuff when you are next in the kitchen wouldn't you rather be doing your drawing up with this fantastic Centurion with the drawing there that comes out of the stowage diagrams that we're doing there so you can get your Centurion tea towel and the other ones as well and always banging on about defecate your can endure you've always got the exclusive next year's calendar with all our lovely images there they will on the back lovely big images of tanks it from the museum collection there if you're getting bored as well this was the other one I was looking when you're sitting there trying to work out what to do read prints of older of the Second World War newspapers so you've got there one from the Battle of Britain we've got one in an evening standard there what's that one for the reporting on the d-day landings and what's that day in daily express for the beginning of the war so if you fancy those replica ones there you know you just want to put it to help make your diorama look good with that in the background or something else that way you know there's somebody be imaginative line your drawers you know people used to line drawers with paper and things line it was one of those and get everyone going oh my goodness that's been there a long time and I nearly put that in I should have used that that's my bookmark with our tanks on so don't forget to get your bookmark with your mark for Sherman and a tiger on and I will climb finishing though one not got to finish off I'm oh I've got still got more things to talk about there's another one of those plush toys I'm told whatever a plush toy is but there we are a Sherman and our key rings is either I know you've all got keys to look after I love tanks key ring and also these were which is our little statute if you want our little statue that's out the front with the tank crew on you can get a one there or I believe this one's like a fridge magic magnate am i right in saying that I think it is yeah a little ice is stuck on there somehow or other but there you go that's without that statue anything you see on the front yeah the models were talking one of the things I know a lot of you out there some of your model makers are watching this and some of you like me maybe it's a long time since you made a model we've actually put together a kit so a nice on this case here we go we've got a Churchill there but we put the if you are thinking of doing it what do I need now and everything so everything's in there glue paint brushes and the paint's relevant for that particular vehicle even what little ISO set of toe clippers but in fact they're for cutting the plastic off the sprue and everything and I just took me back as well because I always remember those so in there the brush is big flat wide one when I was young styling them reading in one of those modelling things about using a dry brush we know what that meant and I remember in Seaside Road in Eastbourne there was this lovely little model shop and I used to go in there as trepidation everything was way too expensive for me and everything but I remember having the courage to ask the bloke there who was an odd looking guy I remember and and actually coming up with thinking okay be brave be brave ask the question what's a dry brush and he showed me what a dry brush wars and how you're supposed to use it just taking it over highlights and on surfaces so if you've got a little bit of gunmetal pain makes it look like the metals coming through you know on the on earth on the the surface of a tank you know on the edges and the highlight points show me all that tell me all those things I remember walking out feeling like about I don't know seven foot tall at the time and I've been a little kid because just by asking the questions you knew and I know a lot of you model makers one of the issues is you know where do you go to for those lovely old model shops that just seem to have closed down you know there's very few of them around with with all the sorts of stuff and everything so but and I say that one as well so if you're interested in getting into making a model maybe go for one of those kits with everything in there and if you are the model makers thank you very much it's very kindly people have made the point that actually I'll shop you know we've we've got a nice selection of models in look out for our models so later in the year and that way but there's some bits here that again if you're interested in so these are all got the paints in for doing that sort of finishing on so we've got tires and track paint selection they're world war ii commonwealth sherman tanks the paints the range in in those ones there as well this one the german standard colours so that you know you're asking before about round numbers everything that's all the round numbers ones in there for doing the models what's this one basic pigmentation for aging vehicles as well they've got there and i just thought i'd i'd say have a look at those because online we've got some of those things that you used to get from you know the more detailed things four more locks rather than just a one-off kit on its own we've got all the paints and the more detail stuff so that's all the british 3945 european theater of operation covers in there so that they've got nice examples there so again if you are the model maker and I brought him out again because because well you know what person shouldn't have a set of tank museum tank socks and so get those ones so I've done the hard sell all over again I hope hasn't bored you too much as I said before keep the questions coming thin is still here I don't if he's been in shots at all but I hope you know he sends his regards as well the dog and the other one I know a number of you have asked so what's happening you know when are we opening and everything we still can't say a certain day look on our website we are gearing up for that a lot of things going on but as you all know the rules of the game are changing all the time that's going to affect us in you know spacing expectations etc but we are really hoping that it won't be that many weeks before we are going to be able to open and meanwhile we'll be carrying on doing things so look on our website because we've got some exciting news about some other things where we're doing to try and just make sure that we're keeping in touch with you all and showing you some interesting and new things and if you have bought stuff from us thank you for supporting the museum if you fancy any of this stuff here or go and look on the website where all the prices are and how you do it we've been having a good old go at the postage again so or if there was something earlier you were looking at when out of stock have a look it might be back in so that helps support us and thank you if you've been doing that and I'll come to the end and finally shut up thank you we are a charity here at the Tank Museum so if you can support us please do consider joining our patreon scheme or becoming a member of the Friends any donations will go directly towards the Tank Museum and its activities

Channel: The Tank Museum

Views: 44,545

Rating: 4.9799399 out of 5

Keywords: the tank museum, tank museum, bovington tank museum, david fletcher, david willey, military tank, armour plate protection, HESH, leaking tanks, tank books, tank mistakes, david willey q&A, tank museum Q&A, curator Q&A

Id: k8fov1BRXoY

Length: 52min 39sec (3159 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 23 2020