I just uploaded two figures that Doug sent in. Both show the instrument panel
that the driver used to lay the 75mm. The caption for one of them states that
the only way to align the gun was to traverse the whole tank.

I guess it's important to keep in mind that this gun was never intended to be an
anti-tank weapon, but was meant to engage infantry and strongpoints. The story
behind the Italian 11/39 is similar; the 37mm was meant to be used against
strongpoints and the MG turret was meant to engage infantry in any direction.
The tank was not intended for use against armor at all.

-Chris P.

--- In panzertruppe_game@yahoogroups.com, Douglas Lefler <drlefler_gcl@...>
wrote:
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> They had a driver, a loader and the commander in the turret. The sight was in
front of the driver, and he had a fancy electric steering rig to aim the gun
with. That's why it took years to get the vehicle into production. You can't aim
a gun with a manual transmission. I doubt the loader had any idea where the gun
was pointing. They should have stuck in an extra man, and used limited traverse
like most other sp guns, and left the turret off. The turret just made it
impossible for the commander to actually command the vehicle. About what you
would expect from an army that spent 50 years trying to replace the 1886 Lebel
rifle. Proof that perfect is the enemy of good enough.
> Doug
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> --- On Tue, 6/23/09, Chris P. <cpagano@...> wrote:
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> From: Chris P. <cpagano@...>
> Subject: [panzertruppe_game] Re: Cuttsthroats
> To: panzertruppe_game@yahoogroups.com
> Received: Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 2:03 PM
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> That's interesting. I didn't realize that the 75mm on the Char B had no
traverse. I'd be interested to see what the sight looked like.
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> I don't think that sponson MG's on the Stuart had a sight, the driver probably
just aimed with the tracers, as with the bow MG on the Sherman. But that's not
going to work with a 75. With the Stuart it was probably envisioned that the
MG's would be fired on the move, similar to how a pilot of a fighter plane fires
his MGs. In practice it was probably impossible to get the elevation right.
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> With the Char B I assume that the driver essentially switched from 'driver
mode' to 'gunner mode' when the tank was stopped. Did the gunner (i.e. not the
driver) control the elevation?
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> -Chris P.
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> --- In panzertruppe_ game@yahoogroups .com, "A. J. Ralston" <nordland11@ ...>
wrote:
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> > Chris,
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> > The 75mm gun mounted in the hull of the French Char B series was both
aimed and fired by its driver. Thankfully he didn't have to load the weapon
though. Still that is an overload for just one person. In one of my books I'm
sure I have the targetting sight that the driver used. Trouble is I have over
2,500 research books, (when we moved out into the Aussie Outback I had 300+
stolen too). If I ever find it, I'll attempt to post it here, but I wouldn't
hold my breathe.
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> > Ashley (Snoopy - T.o.E.'s moderator)
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