Turret rotation speeds on WW2 tanks

[siegfried]

MY first go at starting a thread Topic.
I thought it may be a good idea to list known WW2 tank turret traverse speeds for those who want to try and model this on their tanks.

As I like to make my 1/16 RC tanks look and move as close as possible to the real thing, I have been doing a bit of research and below is what I have read about the Panther. As I read more about other tanks I will try and add more tank turret traverse details to this thread. If people reading this thread could add their knowledge too about other tanks turret traverse then it would make a good resource for everyone. Feel free to add any known tank turret traverse speeds for a 360 rotation and supply source material details. Thanks guys.

Panther D
From reading about the Panther D, it had a turret rotation rate of between 15-93 seconds, depending on engine and rotation speed ratio selected.
Source; Osprey New Vanguard Panther tank 42-45, page 21

[43rdRecceReg]

Interesting notion. Perhaps you should also consider how fast a turret could be rotated manually, after the powered option had been knocked out? I expect that would be variable too, and It would depend on the strength of the guy cranking the turret round; his level of panic, and the knowledge that the next hit could be the last.....

[Dug]

I've been interested in turret traverse speeds for some time. Interestingly Jentz and Doyle state in their book in on the Tiger 2:

"A letter sent by Porsche to Krupp on 5 June 1942 revealed that the specification for the turret traverse speed when using the electric motor was 15 degrees per second (equal to one revolution in 24 seconds). this is slower than contemporary American or British tank turrets, usually rated as one revolution in 15 seconds."

I've not been able to find a companion comment on the hydraulic powered series turret. It does seem though that German tanks generally traversed their turrets more slowly than allied. Also, of course the last version of the Pz4 only had manual traverse. the impression that I get from reading late war accounts is that allied tanks frequently used their better turret traverse speeds to get off more shots.
Regards
Doug

[tao]

Good topic and for my taste..in this scale..to make it feel like a full size model..the slower the better both in speed of the tank
and in things such as turret rotation..large animals and things tend to start/move slower so in my view it adds to the realism

[B_Man]

According to the Haynes Tiger 1 Manual: "At low engine speed it could take up to 360 seconds to complete a full turret rotation. At high speed the turret could complete a full turn in 60 seconds." and "Should the hydraulic system fail, the commander or gunner could turn the turret by the much slower hand traverse method. It would take 720 turns of the of the hand wheel to fully rotate the turret through 360 degrees"

[Afrikakorps]

Here is some of the info I have collected.
I will look for more that i have gathered.
Cheers
Afrikakorps

[siegfried]

Excellent info, thanks for adding to this thread, interesting posts, please keep adding info as you find more, I will add more rotation speeds as I work through osprey vanguard tank series. Cheers.