Extracting spent shells

[Athelstan]

Hey folks,

I've tried looking around for an answer this but so far have not been successful and I thought the wealth of knowledge on this forum might be able to help!

How did tank crews deal with the shell casings left over from the main gun having been fired? Were these casings removed from the tank by some kind of automated mechanism or did the crew have to stow them inside the hull?

Did different tanks have different ways of dealing with them?

Thank you

[Storky]

Hi
As far as I know, There is usually a small hatch on the side of the turret that they opened and just threw the shell casings out on to the ground or rear deck of the tank. Depending on which way the turret was facing at the time.
Phil

[Dietrich]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that in the heat of battle the empty shell cases were just left on the floor of the turret. The time taken to collect the empty case, open a hatch ( Whilst under enemy fire ) throw out the case,shut the hatch and then reload the cannon, would simply have been suicidal.....and I am sure that the rest of the crew would have had some words to say to a loader who opens an armoured hatch whilst enemy shells and bullets are flying around !!
Alb

[panzerfahrer]

During battle, spent shell cases were ejected on to the floor, you wouldn't want to handle a just fired casing, they would be removed after the battle.

[panzerfahrer]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that in the heat of battle the empty shell cases were just left on the floor of the turret. The time taken to collect the empty case, open a hatch ( Whilst under enemy fire ) throw out the case,shut the hatch and then reload the cannon, would simply have been suicidal.....and I am sure that the rest of the crew would have had some words to say to a loader who opens an armoured hatch whilst enemy shells and bullets are flying around !!
Alb

Sorry Alb we must have replied at the same time. Doug.

[Dietrich]

Hi Doug, :~
It looks like we did....No worries mate
I am not sure, but I think the loaders wore gloves.....which might allow them to 'shove' a hot shell case out of the way.
Alb.

[Athelstan]

Interesting! It's really hard to appreciate how stressful it would have been to be under fire while sat in such a cramped, noisy tin can..

I can understand why you wouldn't want to be opening a hatch to chuck spent shells out but by the same logic it doesn't sound appealling to be throwing kilos of hot, smoking brass in to a cabin already lacking in space!

There was a bit of an ulterior motive to asking; I was curious as to how this was dealt with but the original question came about after I hit on the idea of using the airsoft mechanism to build a system to eject empty casings from the turret. See, 5.56mm rounds are almost exactly the correct scale for a 1/16th 88mm round (in diameter, at least; 5.56 x 16 is just under 89) and I was thinking that, if the casings were indeed ditched from the turret, it ought to be possible to make a hatch (kept shut by a spring) from which a 5.56mm case could be pushed through (not quickly, I don't mean for it to be "fired" out). A simple magazine system would allow you to load several empty casings in to the turret before you set off for a drive, with a gravity feed ensuring that the next case gets rolled in to position to be ejected once the previous one has been fired...

It's probably a ludicrous idea but I intend getting rid of the airsoft gun in my Tiger to make room for a flash unit and I thought it might be nice to use its components for something.

It would only be nice if it wasn't completely unrealistic, however

[nickmow]

Mate that is a bonkers idea but I love it, 5.556 wouldnt that be a bit of a fat cartridge ? maybe you could make shell cases out of brass or plastic tube ?

[Dietrich]

Hi Athelstan, :~
Its an interesting idea, Use the machine gun button to activate an internal motor that opens the rear turret hatch and chucks out a couple of spent cases ..!!!..BUT.....
I think that the 5.56 rouns are too short to imitate the Tigers rounds ?? I had an idea a few years ago of putting a couple of these 'shell cases' on the rear deck of my Tiger.....but when I measured them compared to a scale model of an 88MM round they were only about half the length.
I got the spent gun case rounds from a farmer friend of mine...and of course I have now 'Put Them Somewhere Safe'...and I cannot find them !! ...but the scale plastic shell case is about 39.5MM in length...and I cannot see any small bore gun bullet / round having quite THAT much power from such a long case. I may be completely wrong....as I only had one size of case so I am more than happy to be corected. or maybe you can use the plastic ones painted or get a length of brass tubing and cap off one end.
Alb.

[Athelstan]

Mate that is a bonkers idea but I love it, 5.556 wouldnt that be a bit of a fat cartridge ? maybe you could make shell cases out of brass or plastic tube ?

88mm divided by 16 is 5.5; so the scale diameter of an 88mm round is only just different to the diameter of a standard 5.56mm round. The actual casing itself is a bit fat in comparison though, you're right

I've been trying to figure out some scale figures based on some actual figures I've found describing an 88mm round. A 5.56x45mm round scales up to 89x720mm . The calibre, then, is almost exactly correct but it's the length that is the bigger issue. The "length from shoulder to base" of the 88mm round is just over 29 inches, or 73.6cm. 73.6cm is of course 736mm - very close to the scaled up size of the 5.56x45mm round...

So in terms of scale and calibre it's not too far off. The final important dimension is the diameter of the actual case, though. The diameter of the 5.56x45mm round's shoulder is 9mm, or 144mm when scaled up. The diameter of the 88mm round's shoulder is 3.98 inches, or or 10.1cm/101mm. That means that the 5.56x45mm round is over 40% too wide to accurately represent an 88mm round

Sorry, that was pretty much me just thinking aloud; looks like scale model rounds or brass tubing might be necessary after all