A shot trap is a deficiency in an
armoured vehicle's design. It is a location where a
shell that has struck but fails to penetrate may
ricochet in such a manner as to hit another area of the vehicle where it is more likely to cause damage.
For example, the initial turret design of the
Panther
Panther may refer to:
Large cats
* Pantherinae, the cat subfamily that contains the genera ''Panthera'' and ''Neofelis''
**'' Panthera'', the cat genus that contains tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards.
*** Jaguar (''Panthera onca''), found in S ...
,
Tiger II,
M26 Pershing and
KV-1
The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks are a series of Soviet heavy tanks named after the Soviet defence commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov who operated with the Red Army during World War II. The KV tanks were known for their heavy armour pr ...
tanks had shot traps. The lower edge of the curved mantlet acted as a shot trap by deflecting incoming shots downwards towards the hull roof or into the turret ring where the shell could potentially jam the traverse mechanism. In an attempt to minimize the shot trap potential, some late production Panther G and the
M26 Pershing T26E5 prototype modified the lower edge of the mantlet. The final Tiger II production turret did not feature the curved front of the early turret, instead using a flat plate sloped back 10 degrees.
[Jentz and Doyle 1993, pp. 13–16.]
File:Munster Koenigstiger Porscheturm Modell detail.jpg, alt=A tank turret with a front face which curves up and down. The sides are slanted vertically and curved laterally, A model depicting the curved front of the early Tiger II turret
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-680-8282A-09, Budapest, Panzersoldaten in Panzer VI (Tiger II).jpg, alt=A tank turret with an almost square, flat, vertical face, the sides are almost vertical, and curve laterally only slightly, The flat front of the later Tiger II production turret
File:Panzerkampfwagen V A 2.jpg, Panther with regular rounded mantlet
File:Panzerkampfwagen V G 1.jpg, Panther with flattened lower 'chin' mantlet
Notes
References
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Vehicle armour
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