To kill or to be killed. To what extent is that statement true? It all depends on the situation, but most would do anything to keep Death's scythe away from their necks. By the time you realize Death's blade is swinging towards you, it's already too...
The 183 mm is the largest anti-tank cannon ever attempted to be fitted onto a tracked vehicle. With a shell velocity nearing 1,000 m/s, or possibly even exceeding that number, its long barrel provides it with superb range greater than that of the 128 mm.
The modifications required to make the cannon take both HE and AP munitions, on top of its original intake of HESH shells, have made the Maus turret incompatible with the size of the new internal mechanisms that make this possible.
As such, the Maus turrets have been expanded to the point where both of them are located further away from each other and closer to the edge of the Ratte. Just like with the naval gun upgrade, sections of armor hang over the edge of the Ratte.
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Whether or not a turret is facing to the side or directly behind doesn't matter; there will always be armor overhang. Bigger turrets means more protection, but at the cost of slightly less rotation speed, elevation, and depression.
Though part of that lies in fault with the length of the 183's barrel, reload speed should, in hindsight, remain unaffected as no human crew means no one struggling to load man-sized shells.
360 degree rotation is still maintained, even with more topside space consumed. So long as the barrel of the 183 is lifted to the max elevation, both can turn in a full circle without hitting each other or the flaks.
This limits the overlapping coverage the new expanded Maus turrets can have. But that's not really a problem when you're talking 183 mm shells. The explosive power from HESH rounds is more than enough to reduce most things to ashes.
HESH, or High Explosive Squash Head, in the most basic of words, is an enhanced HE shell with a delayed fuse.
The shell's main strength is not to completely penetrate armor, but to produce a shockwave so powerful that the armor breaks apart from the inside, producing molten, high-speed shrapnel.
Of course, HE and AP are still options, as mentioned earlier.
If there's one thing that both the 183 and 128 mm cannons have in common, is that they are both first and foremost anti-tank guns. Neither have the ability to naturally look up as high as an AA gun, and neither can take in air-burst shells.
The only reason why the 128's could shoot at Avis was because of the way he was positioned during that fight and because the air target was so big. The 128's were the pak versions, not the flak ones.
Which is really unfortunate, considering the dot in the sky was getting bigger and bigger.
Moving along the flattest ground ever, he looked through the flak gun sights. Interestingly enough, even though the 183 mm's were originally British made, the gun sight was still German.
The dot in the sky passed over him, and continued on its way. It looked as if the thing above didn't notice him.
