Quote:
Originally Posted by redcoat2
Quote:
Originally Posted by thatguy96
Discharger types were very common for flame tanks as one of the accepted tactics (at least according to Osprey's Flammpanzer book) was to cover targets in flame fuel, without igniting it, and then launch a smoke grenade at it to ignite the entire area.
|
Hmmmm. Maybe they were used for that purpose rather than for self-protection? Or … perhaps they could be used for either purpose? |
Smoke and para-illuminating rounds are usually pyrotechnic devices of some sort.
for example, on a recruits course we had the 2 inch mortars taken out of storage (they were armoury queens, only ever seen at the recruit course really).
The 2 inch smoke round had little holes at the base of the body, and when ignited these operated to spray fire and smoke out like a big firework.
The rounds went into the Barry Buddon turf, and likely were buried at the point that the stream of fireworks were at grass level. Result was a platoon of recruits were pulled off the rifle range nearby to help our class beat out grass fires that had started in the turf. We then had to fill up a couple of water trailers and tow these behind land rovers to soak the area in order to get the pockets of smouldering embers deep in the turf. In subsequent recruit courses, they simply fired off a few illuminating rounds in daytime since those were burned out above ground.
Same happened when on the ranges at Vogelsang in the hot summer a year or 2 later (76?) - but it was either tracers or the falling stream of hot cartridges from some Westland Scout helicopters firing GPMGs. Same drill of a platoon of guys with beater poles for a couple of hours, then towed water trailers to soak off the smouldering turf.
Cheers
Andy