Möbelwagen in action

[Bullitt]

Hi

I was wondering how life was on board a Möbelwagen during combat.
It seems logical that during transit the side armourplates were in upright position and during action, these plates were lowered as to make a bigger platform and the 3.7cm gun could be moved freely.

How were these steel armour plates lowered or put upright?....I don't see any device with cables or gear to crank it up. it all looks like it was done manually.
Now the larger steel sideplates were 2cm thick and measured about 280cm x 100cm......that must come down to 400 kg at least for just one plate
That doesn't seem handy at all.

anyone has another valid explanation?

ciao
Bullitt

[recceboy]

There were a few different type of side armour for the Möbelwagen .There were straight shield and angled type. And it would depend on which gun was mounted on the chassis .They were held in place by latches on the bottom and sides. Lowered by undoing the shield latches, giving a platform in which to operate the gun with the crew on the deck.

Anton

[johnM]

The side shields of the Mobelwagen were spring loaded, therefore not too much of a chore to drop.

[Bullitt]

shields

Hi John

thanks for your imput ....but how do you know the shields were springloaded?
I went through my doc ( eben panzertracts) and nowhere I could find how the panels were lowered or raised. Secondly I don't see any springs on those shields, especially not on the late version which had a single plated shield.

ciao
Bullitt

[beufighter]

Bullit if you have a look at this picture you can see the latchs holding the armour together in the box shape and the hinges on the bottom and what looks to be possible springs attaching to the hinges
[IMG]<a href="http://s1272.photobucket.com/user/beufighter/media/6253624338_aec5ed0d33_o_zpsda260fd1.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y398/beufighter/6253624338_aec5ed0d33_o_zpsda260fd1.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 6253624338_aec5ed0d33_o_zpsda260fd1.jpg"/></a>[/IMG]

[beufighter]

and on this picture we can see what appears to be ropes on both the furthest and nearest armour sides
[IMG]<a href="http://s1272.photobucket.com/user/beufighter/media/modelwagen_zpsf3fa63bc.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y398/beufighter/modelwagen_zpsf3fa63bc.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo modelwagen_zpsf3fa63bc.jpg"/></a>[/IMG]

[johnM]

Hi - if you look closely at the hinges inside you can see the springs (torsion bars). Secondly, it's not rocket science and common sense to make them spring loaded. I have a sheet of steel which is the same thickness but less than half the size of one of these shields and it's HEAVY, so trying to raise or lower all four shields manually, even with help, would be very difficult. And trying to raise them, possibly under fire, would be unacceptably slow.

N.b. the torsion bars are fairly obvious in most photos of the Mobelwagon with dropped shields.

[birdie]

Vehicle

Wow what a cool machine....

[Bullitt]

torsion bars

Hi

it wasn't clear to me what the rod-like structures were , but some sort of torsion bar is an acceptable explanation as to get the large panels up and down.

I read that the Möbelwagen wasn't appreciated much by its crew, so probably the whole operation to get it in combat mode was still cumbersome and heavy, even with the spring loaded panels.
The wirbelwind was the logical sollution to cope with these time-consuming problems.

ciao
Bullitt

[Gran Sasso]

I read that the Möbelwagen wasn't appreciated much by its crew

I can tell it´s a great toy at least ;-)

[birdie]

cool pics but...

why would you block the crews faces?