not aviation but a tank question
 

As the thread title states, not aviation related, but if Ppruners will grant me a little licence, I have accepted that this forum is the font of all (military) knowledge

Just bought the grandson a Heng Long model of a Panzer iv with the short 7.5 cm gun. Attached to, and slung underneath, the gun is a Y shaped piece of steel with the two arms of the Y pointing towards the turret and the other end following the line of barrel.

'what's this piece for grandad?' left me moving my mouth, but with no words coming out. Anyone any ideas?

I was interested in this as I was once armoured, so had a google.

Turns out it's an antenna deflector for when the turret traverses and doesn't break the antenna (stops it shorting according to some answers).

A problem we didn't have on Warrior as the antennas were on the turret.

Source

5 mins - must be something of a record, but I knew someone would know/find out.

Thanks

So presumably the radio was in the hull, rather than the turret?

Some detailed information on the comms suite of a Panzer IV :8

trim it out,

Thanks.

Not a lot of room in the turret of a WW2 era tank, with commander, gunner, loader, dirty-great gun breach and ready-use ammo. Like many aircraft of the era, a "wireless set" took a lot of room, was complex and needed a crew member to handle it as a primary duty so, put it in the hull. Wireless operator would generally have secondary duties of hull machine-gunner and driver's assistant.

Interestingly, many German tanks also had a facility to rotate the antenna down into a protective sconce when not in use. Perhaps your model has this?

Things aren't too different in current armoured vehicles. I was in a command variant Warrior fitted with 4 radios which took up a fair amount of space in the back, plus a data terminal which required a dedicated signaller to operate. His secondary duty was ensuring the BV was always toppers for brews.

no, the model has a very thin whip aerial on a spring attachment to pick up the radio control signal, although it is in the same position. However the turret on the model only revolves around 340 degrees, 170 each direction.

It is a cracking bit of kit, but beware of buying one for your grand offspring. It fires little yellow balls as bullets from the main gun and Mrs Staircase is getting a bit upset ............!

I also asked the Tank Museum this question, and got an answer this morning. They confirmed that it was to 'move the aerial', but not to prevent shorting, but too prevent the coaxial machine gun shooting it off. They also said the the device was also fitted to the long gun version of the Panzer iv.

Great answer, thanks for looking it up.

Drifting off subject but . . .

I watched a few youtubes on The Chieftain's Hatch channel

Very informative as I've often wondered what it was like inside a tank, where people sat etc. And it's not something you get many chances to see unlike aircraft, where I've been inside quite a few here and there