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76mm HEAT projectile?

K

Kilroy

Well-Known Member
I was just talking to a dealer who has a small number of US 76mm HEAT rounds complete from WWII era
as he says.

He says the projectiles still contain the copper cones which would be consistent with the composition of
a hollow charge. I know that there were a number of calibers that had heat rounds made for them
in early times. This was before they discovered that the spin from rifling in the standard barrel was not at all
helpful to the Monroe effect, which preferred no spinning of the bomb to cause it's super hot plasma generation.
Was such a round produced for the American 76mm, and if so would anybody have a picture of what they look like?

He was describing it, and it did not sound like it was shaped like a standard ogive shaped projectile of the time,
nor did it seem to have a fuse assembly similar to the standards of the time. This may all be consistant with how
it's design needed to be, but seeing a picture or a drawing of this would be helpful before I become any more
interested in what he is talking about.

Thanks!
Walt
 
As I have said before, "without a photo it is a moot point". Pictures talk, BS walks.
 
I got a walker here Hazord. I sent the dealer a note asking if he has any photos of these things, and
he did not have any of the ones he has recieved, but he has a picture of the same type...see atachment.

I don't think any ordnance of this design was around in WWII was it? I know the Germens had several hollow charge
types up to 75mm, but this design looks more modern than that era.

HAZORD said:
As I have said before, "without a photo it is a moot point". Pictures talk, BS walks.
Click to expand...

76mm_Heat.jpg
 
About 25 years ago, a scrap yard in the Midwest got a bunch of these 76mm HEAT projectile bodies minus fins, and this one is also missing the forward tophat piece that goes on the end of the spike. EOD has identified it. It is the HEAT projo for the Walker Bulldog tank. I've never seen one with factory fins and the tapered rear end. I have seen one with repro fins, some time back.
 
Walker Bull Dog didn't come out around the Korean era, not WW II for sure. It was to be the first air droppable tank, but didn't work. This tank was used by the South Vietnamese during the war, and if I remember correctly this was the first HEAT round to use a spike for standoff. I'll go through my docs on the Walker to see what I can find.
 
The 76mm was first used during WW II in the M4, but the only rounds it had for many years were HE, smoke and AP. This was because of it reason for being designed as a high velocity gun. The HEAT round came out after Korea, but was the fin stabilized not a spin stabilized.
 
Mike, to what I have seen the US Army also used Bulldogs in VN. At least they had US Army markings on.
 
No the US didn't use them, but gave a load of them to the Vietnamese. Seemed the Bulldog fit them better and we had a great surplus of them, so it wouldn't be a surprise to see US marking on them. Bull dog was a nice fast tank, wasn't worth shit in the jungles though. And the gas engines had a small problem when an RPG hit, but so did the early M48's, wasn't until the A3 model came with a diesel engine that things improved.
 
So the South Vietnamese kept the "US ARMY" markings and did not replace them or add other markings?
 
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