"Blind shooting"

Thanks for all responses. Actually what triggered this post is guy trying to sell me a story that Israeli Centurion (probably Mk 10 because of L7 gun) killed (he didn't say how many shot though) a tank during Six-Day War on 1000 m only by commander guiding gunner because his sight was obscured by something. I am not saying that killing a tank with L7 gun at 1000 m is not possible but its very hard to believe it was done wihout gunner having clear LoS on the target.

 

TC spots opposing infantry but brush obscures them from the gunner. Fire a round of canister to clear the brush and the opposing infantry (hopefully). With canister you don't have to be all that accurate and after the first shot a line of sight should be available.

 

I agree for HE shells which have larger blast radius but AP shell (whatever type it is) needs to be much more accurate. Issue is that even if after first shot commander tells you where shell landed you cannot make needed corrections because you don't see the target and barrel doesn't return on the same exact spot. At 1000 m few mils error is quite a big miss.

 

At long range you are unlikely to get a hit with AP. However it will have an effect on the enemy vehicle. For instance they might be expected to turn toward the firing vehicle possibly giving a flank shot to another vehicle. At close range the TC might even be able to correct the shot enough to get a hit sooner or later. Also consider that during WWII some US tanks defaulted to having a smoke round in the gun. Smoke in a case like this could have a number of uses.

A lot comes down to the details of exactly what is going on. I also suspect that most TC would try to position their vehicle in such a way that their gunner had a clear line of sight at least toward expected enemy approaches. I get the feeling that this question is based on an incident (real or fictional or perhaps game related) that caught your interest. If you could post some more information on it we might be able to respond with a bit more precision.

 

You just need a gun that shoots purty goo-ood.

 

AlanHR,

What you may have actually heard is what's known as a "war story".

When I was in the army I was told the difference between a fairy tale and a "war story". The fairy tale starts out with "Once upon a time..." while a "war story" begins with "This is no shit...: