NAZIS IN ARMOUR

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20990, 18 December 1939, Page 4

NAZIS IN ARMOUR

REPORT AROUSES INTEREST PENETRATION OF BULLETS Much interest has been roused in military circles in England by news ot the appearance on the Western Front of German soldiers wearing extensive body armour. Military men are recalling the many tests and experiments made between 1914 and 1918 in which some of them took part. Not one shield, whether officially submitted or of private manufacture, stood up to a direct hit from a rifle bullet, though some resisted the entry ot a revolver bullet at a range of 20 yards. Even if armour can be constructed of a metal that will stand up to the direct hit of a rifle projectile at, say, 100 yards, and of a weight that can be carried by the soldier without undue fatigue, the phenomena of "collision dynamics” come into

lay when the armour is hit. At 100 yards the su'uung energy of an ordinary rifle projectile is about 2000 toot-pounds, and at 500 yards about 000 foot-pounds. Considerable and weighty padding is necessary between armour and body to prevent such a blow from having severely disturbing effects even if there is no penetration. The answer to body armour'that will withstand the usual type of rifle projectile is the armour-piercing bullet. The new German armour is apparently less than one millimetre jin thickness. The armour-piercing rifle bullet will penetrate 10 milii metres of good armour plate at 100 | yards. The projectile of the anti- | tank rifle or heavy machine-gun will ■ go through more than 30 millimetres of armour at 200 yards and about 20 millimetres at 500 yards.