Source:http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/02/06/on-german-armour/
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本文作者为EnsignExpandable，仅代表作者本人观点。
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A while ago, I wrote a Q&A special on Soviet tank armour. Since then I have gotten periodic requests to do a similar special on German tank armour. Initially, I did not intend to write such an article, but duty calls. However, this is no ordinary article.
不久之前，我做了一份专注于苏联装甲的QA。在那之后我就一直收到有人想要我做一个类似的但是是关于德国人装甲的QA的请求。一开始呢，我本来是不想写的，但是使命在肩，我不得不写。然而这并不是一篇普通的文章。

Usually, archive materials do not particularly surprise me. I see a “that’s interesting” here and there, maybe a “huh, I didn’t know that”. I’ve even come to terms with ridiculous things that happen when you try to compare reports from the two sides involved. But this, this is something unprecedented. Many things I have written shocked my readers, but this discovery shocked even me.
通常来讲呢，档案之类的东西其实并不会让我感到惊讶。我经常会在各处发现“挺有意思的”内容，偶尔会有“恩，我不知道这事嘛”的样子。我个人碰到过许多把参与某事件的双方的报告进行对比时，出现非常奇怪的状况的例子。但是以下的东西是史无前例的。我曾经写出的很多东西都震惊了我的读者，但是以下发现甚至震惊了我自己。

It all started, as it usually does, with an argument on an internet forum. As it often happens, we were discussing a DTIC document, specifically “Metallurgical Examination of Armor and Welded Joints from the Side of a German PzKw (Panther) Tank“, to be precise. This report says lots of things one would normally expect to see in a report about late-war German armour: “The steel quality rating was “D”…which is borderline acceptable”, “the fracture was extremely brittle in nature, with a bright flat crystalline surface”, “inferior toughness, as evidenced by brittle fractures and low impact resistance”, “extremely poor shock properties”, etc, etc. If you looked into German armour in any serious manner, you’ve seen it all before. However, WoT forums poster Daigensui brought something unexpected to my attention, a claim by American intelligence that the quality of German armour did not deteriorate from 1942 to 1945. I did not believe my eyes. How could that be? Surely German armour in 1942 was not as bad as it was in 1945? Let’s take a trip back in time, through many years of armour samples, to see where it all went wrong.
像往常一样，这事是在一个网上的论坛里头挑起来的。正如往常一样，我们在讨论一份DCIT（国防技术信息中心(Defense Technical Information Center)  ）的档案，准确的说是“对于德国的豹式坦克（国服称黑豹坦克）侧面的焊点以及装甲的冶金的实验”这份报告。报告中说了很多可以在一般的关于战后德国装甲的报告中看到的内容：”装甲质量是“D”……也就是最低的可以接受的程度”，“装甲本身就很脆弱，表面呈明亮平坦（平滑）的水晶状”，“极差的（抗）冲击性能”等等之类。如果你用任何严谨的角度来观察德国装甲的话，这些东西你以前也应该都看过。然而，WOT论坛的Daigensui提出了一些我没有料到的东西，即是：美国情报局表示德国装甲的质量在1942年~1945年间并没有变坏。这让我大跌眼镜，这到底怎么回事？德国人在1942年的装甲质量真的比1945年的装甲质量要好？让我们回朔时间，通过观察许多年的装甲样本来看看到底什么地方出现了问题。

The aforementioned report is from 1945, past the end of the war. Let’s rewind a bit and look at a slightly earlier study, “Metallurgical Examination of a 3-1/4″ Thick armor Plate from a German PzKw V (Panther) Tank“, written in January of 1945. Not surprisingly, it’s full of the same reviews: “poor toughness”, “resulting fracture exhibited a rough crystalline surface”, etc. All right, but that was only a few months prior, let’s go back even further.
上述报告是1945年战后写就的（美国情报局的）。我们再往回走一点，看看早些时候的研究，“对于德国的豹式坦克（国服称黑豹坦克）侧面的焊点以及装甲的冶金的实验”，与1945年1月写就。不出意外的是，报告中的点评也差不多：“硬度很差”，“测试用的平面在测试后展现出一种粗糙的透明的表面”之类的。好吧，但是这只是几个月前的东西。我们继续往回走。

In August of 1944, the Soviets captured a shiny new German tank, the Tiger II (depending on who you ask). Obviously, the Soviet were curious about the tank’s thick armour, and it was tested extensively (courtesy of litl-bro). The Soviet findings are largely the same: “The front plates of the hull and turret, as demonstrated in the trials, are low quality. When the armour was not penetrated (dented), the armour formed large cracks, and large fragments broke off the rear side.” Don’t worry about the “front” qualifier, the side armour is discussed in a later section of the report. “Due to a decrease in the armour quality, and due to relatively weak side armour, the tank is vulnerable to domestic 85, 100, 122, and 152 mm guns, as well as the American 76.2 mm gun”. The gunnery report is also quite critical of the armour: “The quality of the armour of the Tiger B dropped radically compared to the quality of armour of the Tiger H, Panther, and Ferdinand”. Translations of parts of these reports are availablehere, here, here, here, and here.
在1944年的8月，苏联缴获了一辆崭新的德国坦克，虎王（这要看你问谁了）（链接内是一封信件，信中称虎王为“Tiger Imperial Tank”，也就是“虎式皇家坦克”）。 显然，苏联人对坦克厚重的装甲很感兴趣，坦克被广范的测试了一下（感谢litl-bro的好意）（链接内为俄语PDF文献的扫图一份）。苏联人的发现也都差不多：“车身和炮塔的正面装甲板如同实验中所展示的一样，质量都很差。当装甲没有被击穿时（出现了凹痕），装甲上会出现很大的裂痕，在装甲板的背部会有碎片掉落。”别被“正面”这个词限定住了，侧面装甲在报告后面的部分也有提到。“鉴于装甲质量的下降，以及侧面装甲薄弱，这辆坦克容易受到我们国产的85,100,122以及152毫米的主炮的攻击，同样也易于被美国人的76.2mm主炮所攻击。”射击报告（同样为毛文扫图）也对装甲进行了批判：“虎式B型的装甲质量相比于虎式H型，豹式坦克（国服称黑豹坦克），费迪南都有从根本程度上的下降”。该报告可在这里, 这里, 这里, 这里, 以及 这里 找到。

Oh hey, there it is, radical drop in quality! Could this be it? I mean, in 1944, it would make sense for German armour quality to drop. Their allies are leaving one by one, their factories are being bombed, the Western Allies are moving up through France, the Soviets crossed their old borders and are on German territory. But we’re not satisfied with conjecture! Forward and onward backward, to 1943!
啊哈，有了！从根本程度上的下降！难道就是这个？我的意思是，在1944年，德国人的装甲质量出现下降好像还说得通。他们的盟友正在一个一个的退出舞台，他们的工厂也正在遭受轰炸，西边的盟军也一直在通过法国向前推进，而苏联也跨过了自己原来的国境线，踏上了德国的领土。但是只有猜想是没办法满足我们的！让我们继续前行后退，到1943年去吧！

May, 1943. The Red Army has seen a number Tiger tanks by this point, and drags one to the proving grounds to see just what makes them tick. I’ll skip to the conclusions: “As a result of hits from 57, 85, and 122 mm guns, the armour cracks and fragments break off. … The welding seams are very fragile, and are destroyed when the armour is hit by armour piercing shells.” If you go and click the links above, you’ll see the nitty gritty pictures and details, but the nature of the damage is the same as to the King Tiger: burst welding seams, crystalline cracks, breaches much larger than a caliber in size. The quality of the armour on the King Tiger might have gone down, but it didn’t go down that far compared to its predecessor. Seems that we have a bit to go before we find what we’re looking for.
1943年5月，苏联的红军在此时已经看见了不少虎式了，他们也把一辆虎式拖到了试验场上，搞清楚到底是什么才让他们做出这个选择。我直接上结论吧：“57,85,122毫米开火后的结果如下，装甲裂开，碎片飞出……焊线看起来非常脆弱，在装甲受到穿甲弹攻击时（焊线）就会被摧毁。”如果你点开上面那些链接的话，你会看到一些很多（弹）孔的图片以及细节什么的，但是性质和虎王的测试结果是一样的：会裂开的焊接线，呈水晶状的裂痕，（被炮弹打穿的）缺口比炮弹（原本的）口径要大很多。虎王的装甲质量也许会下降了，但是相比它的前辈来说还没下降那么的多。看起来还要往前走一段时间才能找到我们想要的东西了。

Even further back, to 1942. Many Lend-Lease, domestic, and captured guns are tested against German vehicles. Here’s where something strange happens. The StuG that is being tested performs very well. No cracks after being shot at with a 45 mm gun, penetrations only slightly larger than a caliber in size. Then the PzIII is swapped in, and the performance is absolutely abysmal. Huge cracks from the same anaemic 45 mm peashooter, the front armour plate falls off, breaches up to 120 mm in size form. When the 76 mm gun comes into play, the results are even worse: a single penetrating shot shatters a meter-long section of armour. Breaches increase up to 240 mm. The PzIV doesn’t do much better. If you want, details are found here and here, as well as the above links. Aside from the StuG, the armour quality is low, which is mentioned by Malyshev himself in a note complaining about the shape of Soviet shells: “There are two reasons why we do not need to worry about the armour piercing properties of our shells. One is that our 45 and 76 mm guns are very powerful. The other is that German tanks are weakly armoured (40-50 mm in the front, 30 mm on the sides), and German armour is of poor quality.”
继续往回走，回到1942年。许多通过租借法案，国产的以及缴获武器都在德国车身上进行了测试。但是在这里发生了些奇怪的事情。三突在测试中表现良好，遭受45mm炮的攻击后并没有出现裂痕，击穿后的炮弹缺口就比炮弹口径大一点点。三号坦克上场后，情况就变得非常糟糕了。同一杆没啥威力的45mm玩具炮在三号身上打出了很大的裂痕，正面装甲板掉了下来，（炮弹击穿的）缺口大约有120mm的样子。当测试用武器换成76mm炮之后，结果就更差了：一发击穿了装甲的炮弹直接打碎了一米的装甲。击穿缺口大约有240mm的样子。而四号的表现也没好到哪去。如果你想看的话，可以在这里 和 这里 找到更多细节。除了三突以外，装甲质量都普遍偏低，而Malyshev本人在抱怨苏联弹药形状的笔记中也提到了这一点：“我们不需要担心我们的AP弹的属性的原因有两个。一是我们的45mm以及76mm主炮的威力都足够大。另外一个是德国坦克的防护都很差（正面40-50mm，侧面30mm），而且德国的装甲质量很糟糕。”

We’re on a roll, so let’s keep going. In his memoirs, “Memories of a Soldier”, Guderian writes some reasons why German engineers, as excited as they were about captured T-34s, could not produce a copy. Among those reason, there is one we case about: “… our hardened steel, whose quality was dropping due to a lack of natural resources, was inferior to the Russians’ hardened steel.” The events he recalls in this section happened in November 1941, a few months after Barbarossa started, long before any kind of significant damage to German factories caused by Allied bombings.
恩，这就是两条了，接着搞下去。在他的回忆录“士兵的记忆”中，Guderian写到了一些德国工程师，对于缴获了一辆T-34表示很激动，但是没办法制造复制品的原因。在这些原因当中，有一条是我们要寻找的：“……我们的由于缺少自然资源而质量下降的硬化钢，要比苏联的硬化钢差。” 在这本回忆录的这个部分中，它所提到的事情都发生在1941年11月，也就是在巴巴罗萨计划之前的几个月，也是在盟军的轰炸对德国能够造成任何程度上的有效伤害之前的事了。

Why stop at 1941? Let’s go way back, to the start of the war. As a part of the agreement between the USSR and Germany, the USSR got a copy of Germany’s latest and greatest in tank technology. Of course, they tested every molecule of the tank they received. The results were bad. Really bad. The German armour failed catastrophically when subjected to the absolute minimum condition for acceptance by Soviet engineers. They were so shocked, they made an identical section of armour out of Soviet steel, just to make sure that there wasn’t anything about the armour’s shape that made it crumble to bits.
为什么停在1941年呢？让我们回到战争刚开始的时候。作为德国和苏联的协议的一部分，苏联获得了德国最新的科技的一份复制品。当然了，他们对拿到的坦克的每一部分都进行了测试。 结果 相当糟糕，真的很糟糕。德国的装甲在与苏联工程师的可接受底限进行对比时，获得了灾难性的失败。他们（苏联工程师）也很震惊，他们使用苏联的钢铁造出了同样的东西，仅仅是为了确认不是装甲的形状才导致结果如此之差的。

This was armour made before the war, before Allied bombings, before any lack of vital metals. This was German industry’s finest hour, and their output was unacceptable by the standards of the Soviet military. Even without any excuses, the mythical Krupp steel does not measure up to Izhor’s product.
这是在二战前制造的装甲，是在盟军的轰炸之前，在任何程度上的钢铁短缺出现之前。这还是德国工业的最好的时期，而他们所获得的成果甚至连苏联军事工业都无法接受。神秘的克虏伯钢铁再也为比不上Izhor的产品找不出什么借口了。

“But Ensign!” some of you may complain, “Doyle himself said that 30 mm of German armour was worth 60 mm of other armour on Overlord’s blog!” The people that claim this aren’t remembering the specific post very well. 30 mm of high quality German armour was worth as much as 60 mm of Czechoslovakian armour, which wasn’t particularly amazing either. From the Soviet trials of the Pz38(t): “The armour of the Czechoslovak “Praga” 38T tank is very brittle, fragments easily, and gives large cracks.” Armour that’s superior to that isn’t particularly difficult to obtain. He also states that quality of German welding did not deteriorate throughout the war. If you follow the articles linked above, this is true, their welding seams burst from penetrating and nonpenetrating hits in 1942 just as well as they do in 1945.
“但是少尉啊！”有人会这样抱怨。“Doyle他自己也在Overlord的博客上说过30mm的德国装甲的防护能力和其他装甲的60mm装甲的防护能力一样啊！”这么说的那些人一定没好好记住那个帖子。30mm的高质量德国装甲相当于差不多60mm的捷克斯洛伐克的装甲，当然了，捷克人的东西也不是什么好货。以下是从苏联对于Pz38(t)的测试报告中截取的：“捷克斯洛伐克的“布拉格”38T坦克很脆弱，很容易散架，而裂痕也很大。”想要超越捷克人的装甲质量并不是什么难事。他同时表示了德国人的焊线质量在战争期间并没有变坏。如果你去上面那些链接中的文章读过一遍的话，你会发现这是真的。他们的焊线在1942年和1945年都会在击穿和未被击穿的情况下直接爆开。

Now, I’m not saying that all German armour was bad. From that StuG tested above, you can clearly see that not all German armour was that abysmal. But what you can also see is that German armour varied wildly in quality (see also the “soft” British Tiger), leaning towards the bad more so than the good. There is no magical Krupp Steel that is somehow superior to all (or even some) steel from the Allies.
当然了，我并不是说所有的德国装甲质量都很差。从上述的三突的实验可以看出并不是所有的德国装甲都那么烂。但是你也应该看到德国装甲在质量上的确参差不齐（去看看“柔软的”英国虎式） ，更偏向于坏的反面，而不是好的方面。并没有什么所谓的神奇的克虏伯金属比所有的（或者一部分）盟军的钢铁质量要好。