Hero of the Soviet Union, tanker D.F. Loza, talked about one unique case from his practice. When their crew was refueling the Sherman tank, mortar and tank shelling began. Naturally, it was necessary to hide, including under the tank itself, which was also burning at that moment. Everything turned out to be claps and no explosion followed, which saved the lives of the soldiers. After all, in an explosion, no one would have been able to escape. What is the mystery of this effect and why did this not happen in Soviet models?
1. Unique development of the USA
We can say that this American invention really allowed tankers to escape, it would seem, in the most hopeless situations. And the car remained intact, and this is extremely important in difficult war times. After all, the timing of her return to the battlefield depended on the speed of recovery. At first, the Americans kept tank shells in specially designed sponsors. Their walls were 37 millimeters thick. This did not help and the tanks continued to explode quite often.
Then they began to put special pads - armor, which, contrary to the expectations of the developers, also did not always save, especially from high temperature indicators. This was the reason for further searches for technical solutions and as a result of a system unique in its essence, which was ready already in the summer of 1943.
The ammunition storage technology consisted of fairly simple steps. In a box with ten 75-mm shells intended for the M-3, the gun installed on the first Sherman models, there were fourteen liters of water, to which ethylene glycol was added. The latter increased the density of water and served as an anticorrosive agent and antifreeze at the same time.
For 76-mm ammunition, they also made racks for storing shells in such a mixture. The exception was 105-mm ammunition for the Sherman, which was equipped with an M4 howitzer. The fact is that their origin was semi-unitary, and the shells themselves were not in all cases characterized by good tightness. They would have had to produce special armored racks. Moreover, ammunition was taken from the lower compartment of the compartment.
By the way, in her story, Loza says nothing about wet styling. At that time, such tanks were supplied to the USSR in limited quantities. In total, there were approximately a little more than 2,000 copies. And the fact that it was Lohse and his crew who got such a car was akin to a miracle or great luck.
As for this effect, the tanker himself in the description makes a hint rather at the quality of American gunpowder, which has undergone increased purification. In general, it is not entirely clear why the shells from this tank did not explode. Most likely, several factors in the aggregate played a role.
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As for the "wet styling" itself, according to the results it turned out to be both useless and dangerous at the same time. Especially with the beginning of the use of cumulative ammunition. At the moment of the action of the jet (meaning cumulative), the shells exploded easily.
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2. Why there was no such development in the USSR
The Soviet Union did not have such a development. During the Second World War, no one was particularly worried about the safety of the tank's crew. Only in the post-war period, active work began to be carried out in this direction, which led to the creation of a tank that was really well protected. But in the war, the T-34 was a mediocre machine. Of course, there are no complaints about the designers. Despite not the best working conditions, they created a tank, which is the basis for subsequent advanced modifications.
Continuing the topic read, why many Soviet tanks during World War II did not have a muzzle brake.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/110820/55649/