External Fuel Tanks

Why did so many of the tanks of World War II have external fuel tanks? Mostly Russian ones but also the Crusader for example. Was it such an advantage to have greater range, that the risk of storing fuel where it was virtually unprotected and presented a huge risk for the tank as a whole, was acceptable?

 

Today, the fuel tanks are used as an active part of the armour, but I doubt this was the case back then.

Perhaps it was seen as being better that the fuel tanks ignited outside the tank than inside it?

 

A counter-question - where else could you store the fuel?

It seems to me that unless you make the tank itself bigger, there is no other way to increase the range that external fuel tanks. Most were (I think...) jettisonable, just in case.

 

I would not store my fuel anywhere but inside the tank, simply because I wouldn't want to run the risk of stuff blowing up because it wasn't as protected as the rest of the tank, which may make short work of the whole tank.

 

The only tanks I can think of off the top of my head that had external fuel tanks had them at the back of the machine. An enemy would have have had at least be able to hit the side of the machine to hit these tanks.

Here's a model example I've found.

http://www.biwa.ne.jp/~h-naba/jpg/crusaider/Mk2_1.jpg

 

The T-34 had them at the side (admittedly towards the rear).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/p ... te_b_d.jpg

However, I have never actually seen a wartime pic of a T-34 with these external fuel tanks. :-?

 

Which might mean that while in theory they were a standard piece of kit in practice they might have got 'lost' rather easy in the field.

 

It might indeed...

 

IIRC, they were jettisoned before combat. Internal fuel tanks would then be used... anyone verify this?

 

Valentine & Matilda also had them.

Matilda's mounted on rear, not as bad as Valentine & Crusader (side).

 

The Crusader's external fuel tank was located at the rear, and it doesn't seem jettisonable because it's connected to the engine.

Panzerman: I reckon the need for range in combat is determined by its objectives, and therefore some battles may require the addition rather than the discarding of external fuel tanks (especially in Blitzkrieg operations). What I was really wondering about is, why take such a huge risk for a little bit of extra range?

 

Presumably the external tanks are used first so that they are drained by the time you reach combat.

petrol is normally not ignitable by small arms fire

a lot of combat reports I have read for the allies generally involve lots of driving, a stop to reorganise and plan, then a brief hectic attack/combat, then more driving

So the tanks may be removed prior to engagement, or drained by the initial drive.

Also the fuel tanks whilst flamable should not actually instantly explode, killing the tank/crew immedaitly. So if they do go up, the crew gets a chance to bail which would probably give better odds than after being struck and penetrated by an 88 or long 75

FNG

 

Sorry.

Roel is correct re Crusader tank placement.

 

The british great war tanks had thier fuel tanks external to the crew compartment at least, so that if hit it wouldn't incinerate the crew.

Most WWII british cruiser tanks seem to have the capacity to carry external tanks and they all seem to use the same tank and attachment method. Its placement seems to inidcate that it could be discarded in a hurry although I've never heard anything about how it was done. On the Crusader (got copied on the Sentinel too) and Matilda it's hung out over the back, Valentine/Bishop out on the left track guard, so if it wasn't being held on anymore it should just fall clear of the tank.

I've also seen photos of M3 Light tanks with long range fuel tanks so it wasn't an uncommon idea.

 

... i thought that they were intented for use in non-combat environments only (at least the Russian ones)

Aglooka

 

You might consider whether the fuel tdanks were to hold gas or diesel. The latter is sometimes rather reluctant to burn under even extreme conditions. Gas, on the other hand, wouldn't sit on the outside of my tank if I could help it.

 

Didnt most tanks run on Diesel? (Excpet the German tanks I'am pretty sure they only used petrol.

 

Most tanks ran gas, only russian and some western tanks ran diesel.

 

Hi.

All japanese tanks (except the late-war prototype type 5 tank) had diesel engines.

Yours

tom!

 

Hi , in the case of the russian tanks there was no spare space inside ,as both the T34 and the JS2 were notoriously cramped ,the operational practice was for the tank armies to be committed once the shock amies had achieved a break trough the two german defensive line , the tank faced a good 20Km drive through safe but broken frontlines with no expectation of supplies , then most would follows the lead battallions shooting it out ,until it was their turn in front , by wich time every drop was critical ,