Soviet 45mm 'Armor-piercing chemical' round

[robotnikman]

I noticed on the wiki page for the soviet 45mm gun there was mention of an Armor piercing chemical round

I remember hearing about them experimenting with AP rounds which contained chemical weapons instead of explosives, does anyone have any more details?

 

[Cthell]

I noticed on the wiki page for the soviet 45mm gun there was mention of an Armor piercing chemical round
View attachment 763119
I remember hearing about them experimenting with AP rounds which contained chemical weapons instead of explosives, does anyone have any more details?

I'm not sure if this is the exact round in question, but I remember reading somewhere about an AP round containing tear gas instead of a bursting charge - the idea being to force the crew to bail out

 

[jstar]

Shaped charges, and plastic explosives, are sometimes referred to as 'chemical energy' weapons to distinguish them from 'kinetic energy' weapons like sabot.

 

[Dilandu]

remember hearing about them experimenting with AP rounds which contained chemical weapons instead of explosives, does anyone have any more details?

Those shells were filled with 16 gram of hydrocyanic acid-based compound. After penetrating the armor, shell breaks and chemical got released. It was assumed that in a very confined space of tank (or pillbox) the poison would act fast, forcing the crew to either immediately bail out or die.

 

[World B4]

I'm not sure if this is the exact round in question, but I remember reading somewhere about an AP round containing tear gas instead of a bursting charge - the idea being to force the crew to bail out

German at rifles of the time used those rounds

 

[CJGibson]

There was also a "chemical" AP round for the ADEN 30mm. Sounds like a similar beast. I'll did that out as well.

Chris

 

[SeaslugMk2]

I'm not sure if this is the exact round in question, but I remember reading somewhere about an AP round containing tear gas instead of a bursting charge - the idea being to force the crew to bail out

There was a German anti-tank rifle bullet that contained a pellet of tear gas compound with this intention. It was only noticed when the bullets were disposed of -possibly post-war.

SRJ

 

[SeaslugMk2]

There was also a "chemical" AP round for the ADEN 30mm. Sounds like a similar beast. I'll did that out as well.

Chris

Was this the ‘AP-SE’ round? SE for special effects, AIUI a semi armour-piercing round with an incendiary filling.

SRJ

 

[CJGibson]

No, this is an ADEN shell filled with 'GB' (you can google that) and the trials date from 1954. doesn't appear to be armour-piercing.

Drop me a line and I'll fill you in.

Chris

 

[SeaslugMk2]

No, this is an ADEN shell filled with 'GB' (you can google that) and the trials date from 1954. doesn't appear to be armour-piercing.

Drop me a line and I'll fill you in.

Chris

Ugh, no thanks. I mentally translated ADEN into Rarden; my bad!

SRJ.

 

[iverson]

No, this is an ADEN shell filled with 'GB' (you can google that) and the trials date from 1954. doesn't appear to be armour-piercing.

Drop me a line and I'll fill you in.

Chris

Why would anyone want to fill an ADEN shell with GB/Sarin?

 

[CJGibson]

Probably the same reason you fire smoke shells at tanks: gets in through the vision slits etc. We're talking 1954 here.

Chris

 

[Dilandu]

Why would anyone want to fill an ADEN shell with GB/Sarin?

To make the crew bail out of tank in hurry, because in very confined space even a very small amount of gas could be fast lethal.

 

[Colonial-Marine]

Probably the same reason you fire smoke shells at tanks: gets in through the vision slits etc. We're talking 1954 here.

Chris

Scoring such hits still seems like an extremely unlikely prospect when firing at an AFV from a fast jet. Could it have some potential other use? Use against bunkers and entrenched positions perhaps? Although I'm not sure if it would be any more effective than regular HE ammo.

 

[SeaslugMk2]

E

To make the crew bail out of tank in hurry, because in very confined space even a very small amount of gas could be fast lethal.

Except the nerve gases have no smell.

SRJ

 

[CJGibson]

The trials were related to OR.1025. The rounds were either break-up or fitted with a small bursting charge. They were thought to be more accurate than a 3in RP with a gas head. The idea appears to have been to hit a vehicle with around 10 x 30mm rounds, they break up/burst and release the gas which gets sucked into the vehicle and the crew succumb. One crewman incapacitated was deemed a 'soft kill' while two crew or more, a 'hard kill'.

As pointed out earlier, even at 1200rpm, getting 10 rounds on an AFV was challenging.

Interesting stuff.

Chris