Lethalhavoc, on Sep 03 2016 - 21:35, said: You ever hear of a Stuka or an HE-111? Also no one said it was returning to base with a bomb load. You might also want to look up the bomb types used in WWII.

There are only a few ways a bomb could have hit the engine deck on the place where the detonation was. An attack from the side, or an attack from behind, simply because bombs don't fall straight down but at an angle. A bomb coming from the front would hit the turret instead. Flying your approach over a length of enemy lines isn't smart since you show yourself to way more enemy fire than by a frontal attack. Attacking from the rear isn't smart either because you have to cross over enemy lines/territory to start your bombing run. Which is kinda safer when done above friendly territory. A plane returning from a mission behind the front line would, if he could not reach his primary, secondary etc targets as soon as possible since returning with a bomb load will impede plane performance but is also dangerous to do. You don't land with bombs anyway, so why carry them to friendly territory if you can dumb them over enemy territory? And no, bombers don't have the time nor intel to go look for tanks.

Also, why would a HE-111 target tanks?

Block Quote It could have very easily been destroyed in the initial stages of the battle, which means that it was on the front line. Remember that this tank was first knocked out by the Germans who over run these positions, and then over ran again by the Americans who took them back.

The debate was over what caused the damage. When doing that, the time is irrelevant. I look for various different things to determine what caused the damage. For all I care, the Americans could have blown it up because they wanted to. Or the Germans wanted to have fun and blew it up after they knocked it out. I don't care, I'm just looking for what caused the damage.

Block Quote The armor on that Sherman as already noted in previous posts, state that it was near the first, if not the first vehicle made. So the quality of the welds are also in dispute.

And why would the quality of the welds be in dispute, actually?

Block Quote So a 155mm arty round could well have done that damage. The armor on a Shermans engine deck is how thick exactly? 10mm? So is that enough to stop an artillery shell?

Engine deck is 19 mm. Depends. It would stop a 105 mm, probably not a 155 mm. But then again, getting the shell to where the point of detonation is would be tricky since there would be a turret in the way of the shell.

And even if you do manage to place a hit and penetrate, the damage would still look different, since there would be a pretty significant hole in the armour. Which would have an effect on the pressures, shock waves, etc. The damage simply would not have looked the same.

Block Quote You also didn't answer my question of, where would you have placed the demo charge? Engine compartment, or crew compartment? You also didn't answer my question of, if this tank had already suffered an ammo explosion that was sufficient to destroy the fighting compartment and remove the turret, would you feel the need to place a demo charge on it?

Why is this relevant? You want to blow up a tank for yourself or something? I'm willing to give up a lot of information and knowledge, but the knowledge on how to best blow up things isn't one of them.

Also, coming back to your first few sentences, could you stop being so condescending? Thanks.