Why no kill chance here?

[Der Kuenstler]

Here I've slipped up behind one of those tough as nails KV tanks with my Panzer III - Notice his armor ratings:



Now look - I have AP and am only 43m away - pointed at his backside. Here's the PzIIIJ AP chart:



Yet my targeting line says "None" for kill chance - why is that???



Notice he is not hulldown but the PzIIIJ is....

[kineas]

I guess you can only shot the tank side at an angle of 45 degs, 0.7*94=66mm penetration, and you need 75

[Der Kuenstler]

Yeah it must be the angle of the rear hull - because the other PZIIIJ pictured actually knocked him out from farther away, but was firing at the '0' degree side armor. I should have paid more attention in Physics.

[Copper]

Yeah it must be the angle of the rear hull - because the other PZIIIJ pictured actually knocked him out from farther away, but was firing at the '0' degree side armor. I should have paid more attention in Physics.

Rear upper hull value: 60mm at 50 degrees slope. Add on another 10 degrees for sloped downward incline = 60 degrees slope.

Therefore at under 100m you cannot hit lower hull (hull down at 10 degree decline negates lower hull hit at weaker armor) and turret facing frontal at 100mm and 15 degree curved (plus 10 degree decline).

Therefore the only place you can get a kill on the Kv is the rear lower hull that is below the crestline (or at a very small percentage hit as compared to the rest of the hull).

Front curved at 25 degrees and 100mm armor (top penetration by MK III is a little higher than 73) NO KILL.

Rear upper hull at 60 degrees and 60mm (top penetration by MK III is 42mm) NO KILL.

The best way to take out a KV is not from the rear but FROM THE SIDE.

That should solve your problem.

Cheers!

Leto

[Der Kuenstler]

OK that helps - thanks Leto and Kineas...

[PoorOldSpike]

To its credit, the CM program does take into account the angle at which a shot strikes a tank, and oblique is the most difficult to penetrate as these tests confirm. In shots 3 and 7 the kill chance reads 'None'.
I rotated the KV-1 in small anti-clockwise increments and logged the readouts from the PzIII's L/60 gun firing AP-











PS-And just for the record in the last two shots below I replaced the panzer with one fring Tungsten, and as expected the penetration was much better; it could penetrate at any angle, even oblique-