Chapter 1022 Pleasant Details

"Oh my God! Look at this, new! It's shining, it's shiny silver! New, everything is new! There's no trace of paint falling off, my God, this is amazing! Hahahaha!!!"

"What a big breech block, comrade commander! Look at this, it's amazing! Everything, everything is amazing, I love it!!!"

As Malashenko said, Iushkin was like a completely different person as soon as he got into the tank. He was no longer like a normal person.

It was like he was possessed by a demon, yes, it was true.

Although he was not as crazy as Iushkin, Malashenko was also observing some subtle changes in his position as the commander.

The 85mm fixed shell ammunition rack originally placed behind Malashenko was replaced with a 122mm split shell ammunition rack because of the huge change of the main gun from 85mm to 122mm.

The entire 122mm full-caliber projectile ammunition rack is divided into two groups on the left and right at the rear end of the turret, with each group having a capacity of 14 rounds, and a total capacity of 28 rounds.

Correspondingly, the vehicle body contains the propellant cartridges for the 122mm full-caliber sub-loading shells.

These metal shell propellant cartridges are not only thick in caliber, but also very long, almost equal to the length of the original 85mm fixed shells.

The 122mm propellant cartridges that cannot be placed are placed in three groups of ammunition racks in the vehicle body, and one group is placed flat directly under the turret. The advantage of doing this is that it can reduce the front projection area of ​​the ammunition rack. If the armor is penetrated by the Germans' high-penetration tungsten core armor-piercing bullets, the probability of being hit by the ammunition rack and causing a sympathetic explosion will be much smaller than that of the vertically placed ammunition racks.

The remaining two groups are directly behind the fuel tanks on the left and right sides of Seryosha. Unlike the ammunition racks in the vehicle body, these two groups of ammunition racks, one on each side, are placed vertically, which just makes perfect use of the remaining space in the two relatively narrow vehicle bodies.

If you are worried about the armor being penetrated and the ammunition sympathetic explosion caused by the vertical placement of the ammunition racks, then there is no need to worry about it.

Diesel is very non-flammable at normal temperature and pressure, which is the opposite of the German gasoline tanks that catch fire as soon as they are hit.

The two long fuel tanks distributed in front of the ammunition racks can protect the two groups of ammunition racks very well. The viscous diesel has a great weakening effect on kinetic energy armor-piercing shells, which is even more effective than the kinetic energy attenuation effect of bullets shot into water.

If the main armor belt on the front of the vehicle body is penetrated by a solid tungsten core armor-piercing shell without warhead charge, then the tungsten armor-piercing shell core with seriously insufficient remaining kinetic energy will most likely be directly swallowed by the two fully loaded diesel tanks with a length of more than 1.5 meters, and will not harm the propellant cartridge ammunition rack placed behind it at all. Before penetrating the fuel tank, it will exhaust all the kinetic energy and remain in it.

Of course, if the armor is penetrated by a full-caliber armor-piercing shell with charge, there is no need to consider the fuel tank and the like, which is completely unnecessary.

Once the warhead charge explodes, all the people in the vehicle will be gone, so what's the point of saving the ammunition rack?

Of course, in addition to protecting the ammunition rack when the front is penetrated, the two long diesel tanks on the left and right sides of Seryosha can also provide some protection for the driver. The premise is that the caliber of the weapon that penetrates the front side armor of the vehicle body is not too large, and the viscous diesel in the tank will consume the kinetic energy of the projectile as much as possible to intercept it.

Of course, like the previous IS1, Malashenko's projectile ammunition rack has no protection measures. It is impossible to put the tank in the narrow turret to play a protective effect.

If the turret ammunition rack is penetrated, Malashenko's fate will only be to be blown into a pile of bloody minced meat on the spot. Hua Tuo can't save him. The best result is to have someone shovel the remaining minced meat out of the car with a shovel.

In order to facilitate the loader to load, Kirill has an extra set of 3 propellant cartridges on his right hand. When you need to take it, you can just take it out. It is very convenient. It is also the fastest propellant cartridge that Kirill can reach.

The other set of propellant cartridges is on the left hand side of the gunner Iushkin. If the wartime situation allows, Iushkin has to temporarily act as a deputy loader to hand over the propellant cartridges to Kirill. He can't let Kirill get through Iushkin's arms or get it himself.

In fact, it's not just Iushkin. Malashenko also has to act as Kirill's deputy loader during wartime.

For example, when Kirill bends down to get the propellant cartridges from the vehicle body, Malashenko has to turn around and take the heavy 122mm projectiles from the first ammunition rack built into the turret behind him and put them at the rear end of the breech block in advance.

In this way, Kirill, holding the propellant cartridges in his arms, can complete the loading work directly and neatly, greatly reducing the loading time, provided that Malashenko, as the commander, really has time to do so during wartime.

The 122mm gun is certainly powerful, but the loading work that could be done by one person before now requires the gunner and the commander to find the right opportunity to help the loader.

Otherwise, even if Malashenko tired Kirill to death, he would not be able to load all 28 shells in the vehicle in a high-intensity battle.

Iushkin, who was fiddling with the gunner's sight in front of him, was a little disappointed.

Since the last time he entered the German Tiger tank, Iushkin has been obsessed with the Tiger's binocular Zeiss sight. The comfortable field of view of both eyes is much better than the monocular sight in front of him.

"Hey, I thought our sight would become the same as the Germans, but it's a pity that it's not."

Iushkin, who was sighing and mumbling, then put his arm on the breech block. The 122mm main gun firing rod, which was changed to a pull-rod firing, was right next to Iushkin's hand. I guess it will take some time to adapt to it in the next battle.

But as Iushkin expected before, the biggest change in the entire gunner position is undoubtedly the newly added electric steering gear.

As Shashmurin explained in detail at the station, the IS2 turret electric steering gear is indeed very different from the Tiger tank.

The operating mechanism of this electric steering gear is directly integrated into the existing hand-cranked steering gear wheel. When the turret electric steering gear is in normal working condition, Iushkin shakes the wheel clockwise, and the turret will turn right faster with the assistance of the electric steering gear.

Conversely, when Iushkin shakes the wheel counterclockwise, the turret will also turn left faster with the assistance of the electric steering gear.

Shashmulin promised that the turret electric steering gear designed by the Second Special Design Bureau will be better than the complex electric steering gear of the German Tiger tank, easy to maintain and more reliable.

And as far as Iushkin's current hands-on operation is concerned, it can be said that this is indeed the case.

Iushkin no longer needs to adapt to the forward and backward operation of the pedals, and can directly use the hand-cranked steering gear wheel that he has long been accustomed to to complete the turret steering work.

Although the manual cranking method sounds old-fashioned, after Iushkin actually tested it, he found that he used to need to crank the turret for more than ten times to complete the turret pointing, but now he only needs to crank it three times with the help of the electric steering gear, which is more than double the efficiency.

The better news is that if the electric steering gear breaks down or fails to work, the turret steering gear wheel in Iushkin's hand can still be used. It's just that there is no electric support and it becomes a pure mechanical operation. It is the same as the hand cranking before. It is a bit slower, but it is better than having no use.

This design generally reduces an extra operating device that seems unnecessary, and integrates the operating terminals of the electric steering gear and the manual steering gear into a steering gear handwheel. It can minimize the possibility that the gunner will panic in an emergency situation and lose sight of the other when switching the operating terminal, which will eventually lead to mistakes.

Similarly, this Soviet Red Army version of the electric steering gear is also easier to maintain than the German electric steering gear. Because there is only one operating terminal, there is no need to prepare two sets of spare parts. The operating terminal also has only one circuit, which is conducive to inspection and maintenance. In addition, the Soviet mechanical design has always been solid and reliable, which can bring great benefits to maintenance in wartime and save a lot of trouble.