Tank gunnery training aid.

[Wayne McGee]

Wow...some excellent photos in this thread. Just some observations/speculations to note.
First, the .50 Cal rifle that was slaved to the 106RR fired a modified catridge/projectile that would mimic the trajectory of the full bore and was used to confirm the lay of the sight before the full bore was fired to assure a first hit, a spotting rifle.
Next, the various rifle caliber weapons shown (speculation here), were probably used with likewise modified projectiles as a cheap alternative to the use of full bore ammunition plus you could conduct a range practice with no more templating than you would require for a conventional rifle range. A modern example would be the use of 6.5mm & 7.62mm Tracer in the Carl Gustav Sub-Cal device.
Finally, the use of a pistol caliber weapon (Thompson) could be used under even more austere conditions (25yd?-50yd?) using small paper cut-out tank tgts representitive of tanks at engagement ranges. More modern examples would be the 6.5mm & 7.62mm Gallery round for the Carl G, the .22Cal insert for the FN rifle etc.
Anyways, it's wonderful to see these wartime versions. Thanks for posting

Cheers