Sorry for the sporadic updates, it’s been another tough week. This time, however, I do have a special picture for you, courtesy of Artem Gavrilov.
Check this out. War in Syria, of course. The tank is probably a T-55 or some of its variant. Not important. Check the explosion (detail in lower left corner). What happened here is a HEAT shell was fired by another tank and detonated in mid-air when triggered by flying debris. The dust trail you see next to the tank is actually the HEAT shell “jet” traveling through air. The original video is unfortunately no longer available.
You don’t see that kind of timing much on photos :)
neat
Oh my oh my. This tank does not know anything about proper angling :) Syrian tomato :)
How can the debris trigger a shell fuse?
You can trigger a HEAT shell by any solid material.
The fuse on the shells used in that conflict are rather simple and will be triggered by a shovel.