Sunday, April 22, 2018

Computers

When I was a stripling soldier, I was introduced to computers.  Not the kind I'm typing on now, but e an electro-mechanical computer that figured ballistics for tank ammo.  It was mounted to the right side of the gunners station and fed inputs from the range-finder into the gun, to help assure a first-round hit.


You can click on it to see a bigger version.  When used, you could hear the cams working

For the uneducated, elevation is the angle of the gun from level.  Super elevation is that minute change, based on the ballistics of the ammo, to make the bullet hit the target. 

I found this picture on the Book of Face this morning, and it brought back a lot of old memories.
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2 comments:

  1. Old NFO8:14 PM

    Yours was a 'tad' smaller than the MK-8 used on the BBs... :-) http://navsource.org/archives/01/057/015706s.jpg

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  2. mostly cajun8:55 AM

    Changing or re-arranging those cams was a job left to deport maintenance or an enterprising you buck sergeant with a penchant for things mechanical.

    All the way in - HEAT-T or TP-T, our most common training round at Knox. All the way out - HEP-T. In the middle APDS-T, which was NEVER used at Knox.

    And firing APDS (Sabot) withe the HEP cam selected would almost put something into orbit because HEP was 2700 FPS and Sabot was 4850.

    MC

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