They tried to fire the main gun and the round failed to go off. This is a 'hang fire' - so called because quite often the round goes off ofter a delay, especially if you are dealing with a Black Powder weapon (which, of course, this wasn't).Renegadenemo wrote:And again - for those who don't understand tank-speak?Spoke to one of the collectors over there, they had a hang fire on the main armament, rather than leaving the shell in battery, they cleared it and it went off out of battery....you can work out what happened next.
Rather than leave the dud round in the gun whilst it is in the ready to fire position with the breach closed ('in battery') they opened the breach and at least started to remove the round ('clearing the gun'). As they removed the round it went off, either when clear of the gun or when it was still in the gun with the breach open (ie. when the gun wasn't ready and safe to fire, 'out of battery').
What happened next would have either been an explosion (actually a very very rapid burning, deflagration) or an intense jet of flame in the turret (most film of real tanks that 'explode' when hit actually show massive jets of flame exiting the turret, like rocket exhaust, for a few seconds, sometimes but not always followed by a bigger 'bang').