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From: thos@softway.sw.oz.au (Thomas Cohen)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Rail/Coil guns
Summary: Electric Tank
Message-ID: <1990Dec17.052014.267@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 17 Dec 90 05:20:14 GMT
References: <1990Dec7.012346.2212@cbnews.att.com> <1990Dec15.014458.16688@cbnews.att.com>
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From: thos@softway.sw.oz.au (Thomas Cohen)
In article <1990Dec15.014458.16688@cbnews.att.com> mes90@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Sykes ME) writes:
> [ about electric powered 'boost' systems for tanks ]

then Bill says,

>[mod.note:  Not quite the first... the Porsche prototype for the Tiger
>tank used petro-electric drive (and this proved highly unreliable at
>that time, but should not reflect on its potential today), as did
>the later Maus.  - Bill ]

Not to forget the Ferdinand or Elefant, the tank destroyer with the
88mm A/T gun mounted. It too used the petro-electric drive and in a tie in 
with another thread, was first used at Kursk and had a great deal of
trouble with Russian infantry coming around behind it and 'brewing it
up'. Later they mounted some machine guns around the back, but on first 
appearance, they were undefended round there.

As I recall, the drivetrain was complex, the machine unreliable and slow.

[mod.note: For the record, I didn't forget;  the Elefants were built on
the hulls of the Porsche Tigers, and thus retained their drive trains.
Also, the story on the machinegun isn't quite right.  Initially, the
Elefant had no machineguns, which made it very vulnerable to infantry;
after Kursk, a ball-mount MG was added on the right front of the driver's
plate (i.e., co-driver's position).  None was mounted in the rear. - Bill ]

-- 
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