Testing Reproduction WWI German Trench Armor

[@Dizzyfatpigeon]

So you're telling me I can't sprint up a mountain in Italy massacring hundreds of Austro-Hungarian troops wielding an MG 08/15 with 1000 rounds of ammo?

[@JL-dance]

Hariskillsstuff no, for some reason WW1 wasnt fun.

[@phildelmedico96]

Not by yourself, you have to have a support guy and a medic behind you mashing R1

[@888nevik]

nah your gonna have to wear 2 suits

[@Caparco71]

888nivek yeah you gotta wear one ton of led armor to sustain gunshots from that many troops

[@waryag72]

Tou can in BF1.

[@Lobos222]

I think the reason some stormtroopers used it during trench raids with smgs wasnt because it was bullet proof, but because when most used action bolt rifles or similar. Having metal armor front would be beneficial if anyone tried to bayonet you after a missed shot or similar.

[@jothegreek]

yeah like the italian stromtroopers arditi

[@jakewolf079]

it also serve as an extra protection mentality, it just FEELS safer. I would be a lot braver if they gave me one of those.

[@TheHandgunhero]

It helps protect from shrapnel. Nothing like jumping in a trench and accidentally getting tagged by fragments from a grenade through by your buddies. And yeah, could stop blades.

[@a.kf.c4393]

vodka is better choice :)

[@Caparco71]

Lobos222 a real well placed bayonet could surely penetrate less it deflect or completely bend out of shape so even if I wore it before I stormed a trench on the German side, I'd still be scared shitless because in War you never know what to expect, anything can happen to you and no amount of preparation can prepare you truly from the wars unforgiving nature

[@BigMek456]

My left ear likes the video!

[@Rosi_in_space]

+BigMek456 You headphones are broken

[@Fuzti13]

+turbostewi no

[@weltarchiv4]

+BigMek456 just put the audio plug in only half-way.

[@hroudbrecht4303]

This man saved a life

[@17hmr243]

dosnt work with usb

[@baarni]

Ned Kelly and his associates used 1/4" thick iron plow blades (moldboards and shares), not just any "stuff". The Kelly gang spent up to 5 months building their armor and testing various metals for best bullet proofing and found plow blades to be the most resilient. All armor was quench hardened and tempered and could easily stop the bullets of the day. Ned Kelly's armor weighed 97 lb. Padding is only known from Ned's armour and it is not clear if the other suits were similarly padded. Ned wore a padded skull cap and his helmet also had internal strapping so that his head could take some of the weight. After the shootout there were five bullet marks on the helmet, three on the breast-plate, nine on the back-plate, and one on the shoulder-plate. Interestingly even though Ned Kelly was a horse thief, murderer and generally an all round criminal he is basically seen as a folk hero in Australia because of his utter contempt for the law of the day that was feared for being particularly brutal and corrupt.

[@andrew-ripley1747]

+baarni People have always romanticized "outlaws", similarly with Jesse James and Bonnie & Clyde. I guess those people live in a highly interpretive form of reality.

[@baarni]

Andrew Tadsen yeah I guess so....

[@trollemall7016]

Andrew Tadsen Only because you break the law doesn't make you a bad person. There are many countries and regimes where we would celebrate people breaking the law and fighting the authorities. A terrorist is somone elses freedom fighter. Ofcourse we can choose some values and say that a regime is just if it respects certain rights and upholds certain laws but in the end that's technically still a subjective view. Most Americans would probably celebrate someone attacking the North Korean government and call someone attacking the american government a terrorist. While the North Korean government would judge these two the exact opposite way.

[@drogomuircastle7175]

@@andrew-ripley1747 The James Gang in that respect are a bit odd. They were all in Anderson's Missouri Guerilla band in the American Civil War and were NOT offered amnesty at the end of the war.

[@Jargolf86]

Its a different when someone get shot with Black-Powder Weapons while wearing Armor or smokeless Powder... a HUGE difference ;-)

[@dogboy0912]

Great as always. fyi, the audio is only coming out the left, unless it's just me.

[@prowokator]

+dogboy0912 yeah, it's only on left channel

[@I_Poke_Holes_In_Paper]

+dogboy0912 Not just you, thought my jack wasn't plugged in all the way first.

[@kutzewalters5530]

+dogboy0912 Same here, I hope InRangeTV notices this. It's been happening with at least one other of their KZbin video too.

[@crashandburnbirner]

I'm getting both

[@abefroman9565]

I thought my headphones had broken.

[@SurvivalRussia]

You should test the WW2 Soviet Russian SN-42 body armor too. That would be cool :) The SN-42 armor is a pretty interesting design making the soldier able to shoulder a rifle. They were mostly issued to "Sturmoviks" and Engineer/sapper soldiers.

[@druisteen]

WW1 vs WW2 but why not but personally , i think those armor was inefective

[@capthowitzer]

They served their purpose - protecting engineers from shrapnel and close-in detonation of explosives. The fact that the SN-42 also happened to protect from pistol calibre and (at range,) rifle calibre rounds was just a nice bonus.

[@ncrranger06]

+Survival Russia What were sturmoviks? Never heard a them.

[@antwanarmstrong5987]

Garrett Whitbey il2s were Russian ground attack aircraft built during ww2.

[@ncrranger06]

+Antwan Armstrong Thanks bud.

[@otm646]

Ian, I'm a materials engineer very well versed in ASTM testing procedures in A2LA certified labs. Brinell hardness is designed specifically to test a large volume of the material not surface hardness whatsoever. For surface hardness testing of case depth (usually 20 microns max) you'd use the Rockwell 15 N scale. If you have questions about materials testing and heat treat I'd be more than happy to lend my expertise.

[@chinesesparrows]

Wow nice to see a real expert in youtube comments heh. Curious though, ive heard there needs to be a fine balance between brute stiffness and soft flexibility to prevent spalling, is that true?

[@peytonthomas2102]

My left ear enjoyed this video

[@InrangeTv]

Awesome!

[@zoixy82]

When Karl said Ned Kelly, I had to rewind. Next Ian will tell us about Kokoda in World War 2.

[@ryanconstantino853]

Put ballisic gel behind the armor and use the explosive ammo

[@Luk4zguy97]

Very happy to see you talking about the hardness of steel armor! most people don't even mention it even though it can be an important factor.

[@abelbabel8484]

Information on the Ulfberth swords is a bit off. For one, the inscription is not in runes, but latin letters and contains equilateral crosses. They really weren't scandinavian swords at all, even "Ulfberth" is not a norse, but a Frankish name - these blades are thought to originate from somewhere in today's German Rhineland. The swords were most likely known and commonplace high-end weapons and status symbols all over Europe and not just Scandinavia, but we have more finds from the north because they, being pagans, would bury the swords with their owners instead of passing them on until they eventually broke or were lost. That said, the part about the counterfeit ones is exactly right - inferior material and even the inscription misspelled. tl;dr: Ulfberth swords aren't scandinavian, they're German and everyone used and loved them. We find mostly viking ones because their burial practices favours survival of the swords.

[@InrangeTv]

Ok. Thanks.

[@abelbabel8484]

I'm a huge nerd like that.

[@polyuztunzopilofunkolomilo4867]

Damn that is a nasty back-face deformation pattern

[@goalieman1830]

The met has a FANTASTIC arms and armor exhibit, easily the best museum exhibit I have ever seen.

[@FantadiRienzo]

Ernst Junger writes in his WW1 diary Storm of Steel about how they shot down a british trench raid patrol, and one of the british officers was wearing metal armour. He was shot at a very close distance with just a pistol, and it made the wound even worse because it punched parts of the armour into his body.

[@armoredp]

I love your videos, but please consider increasing the base volume. I have all my volumes turned up to max and I can just hear you. It's especially hard to hear at the beginning and the end discussion. Thanks!

[@Hakugard]

What an amazing test, thanks to IMA for letting InRange shoot this. Pretty impressive considering the steel.

[@HerrGesetz]

Thanks for all the great videos guys. My Great Granddad fought in WW1, he refused to be deployed to combat in WW2 but the New Zealand government made him at least train soldiers so he spent most of WW2 training NZ soldiers at Army Bay in Whangaparaoa

[@GreyDevil]

really thorough video, was a real treat to watch. Great job as usual guys

[@scottsaylors9037]

Awesome video. this might be the best channel on youtube

[@photonthief]

G'day from Australia!!!! Would love to see you guys do a video on Ned Kelly!

[@BigMek456]

+Jake Boyle Would this trench armor be illegal in Australia?

[@luisecobian3691]

+BigMek456 the police are still butt hurt after all these years.

[@mikew735]

I love these channels both forgotten weapons and in range, but you guys often talk about books you have read that I would love to read as well, I recently purchased the one wherein that german sniper talks about the exploding ammunition, could you guys maybe give a list of interesting ww1 books with accounts and really anything interesting? ww2 books would be cool as well but mainly focusing on ww1 currently, maybe just a few personal favorites and really anything else of note all is welcome.

[@TrueTreeRadioNetwork]

Great video, I've always been interested in body armor. I think it really is a force multiplier, makes one man capable of taking on many more in theory.

[@TealcJack]

Nicely done. Great information that is not discussed in high school history class.

[@mattmorrisson9607]

Great video! I liked it so much, I watched it again, and moved by headphones around so my right ear could enjoy it too

[@calebsone1630]

great video this has to be my new favorite channel you two have it down. please keep it up

[@johnwizeman3894]

In Australia to this day a post office drop box is known as Ned Kelly's helmet.

[@InrangeTv]

That's interesting, didn't know that. Thanks! ~Karl

[@abefroman9565]

+InRangeTV My left ear really enjoyed this vid. Thanks and keep up the good work.

[@YourRulerSkeletos]

+InRangeTV Some people over there have mailboxes shaped like the actual helmet.

[@waveman1500]

+InRangeTV If you believe that, then watch out for drop bears!

[@sextuspompeius1266]

That's a long name

[@evilpebble]

"It was a little low." So humble! Awesome video guys!

[@theproton5837]

best channel ever

[@GadgetPonyGal]

Ned Kelly actually made his armor out of a plowshare. If I remember correctly, they only managed to take him down with two shotgun blasts to his unprotected knees. Pretty brutal, but they couldn't penetrate the armor any other way with the guns they had.

[@TheWhatssofunny]

Leg meta lmao

[@Jargolf86]

Blackpowder Weapons dont have the Penetration, but Smokeless Powder Rifles just punch trought. Ned Kelly's Luck was, smokeless Powder wasnt invented in 1880. Otherwhise his Standoff got ended like 2 seconds after start.

[@Mr9Guns]

Gotta give the 8mm Lebel cartridge credit being the first smokeless round in military service. The original 1903 .30-03 cartridge was very similar ballistically the 06 was an improvement.

[@imagifyer]

a few quick points I'd like to make re: Ned kelly The armour made by Ned Kelly and his gang was made from iron roughly 1/4 inch thick, they stole ploughs from local farms specifically for the thick iron moulder-board from the plough (they also unsuccessfuly tried circular saw blades stolen from lumber camps). According to local legend the armour was made in a bush forge and shaped cold using a log as a mould, chemical analysis made by ANSTO (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) showed that the armour was unevenly heated at temperatures consistent with what would be expected from a combination of a bush forge and work hardening. Total weight of the armour was roughly 44 kg (97Ib) and sources from the time claim that the armour could withstand a bullet at 10 yards, a fact also proven by Ned's personal suit having sustained at total of 18 non penetrating hits across various areas including 5 to the helmet

[@DethVmnt]

I have an old letter from my grand-grand father which includes a very small picture with him and two guys in such an armor. It has written "die Blechkameraden" (tin comrades) on the back.

[@tonyennis3008]

I like that 8mm carbine. There's something to be said for mobility.

[@WeWillAlwaysHaveVALIS]

The high end steel values you mentioned at the start of the video could be attributed to pre nuclear steel being used. Cool video guys!

[@raymondnelson7919]

Another enjoyable and informative video, fellas! Keep up the awesome work.

[@TheMrkunekune]

my favorite inrange episode

[@kenhelmers2603]

Simply - very cool guys! Thanks for sharing this with us

[@willie_brydon]

You can actaully see the difference between a real ulfberht sword and a fake one, the real ones are spelled +ULFBERH+T, while fake ones are (almost always) spelled +ULFBERHT+. Of course most people at the time would've just heard the name and assumed it was spelled with the cross at the end like every other sword.

[@lordilluminati5836]

most people at the time also could not read.

[@Rickmon01]

You’ve gotta remember for the Great War is that black powder cartridges were used throughout until the end. Plus most projectiles weren’t jacketed either and lower velocities so it was much more effective.

[@demanischaffer]

Pretty sure the standard issue rifles of every major nation (not counting Ottoman Marti-Henrys) were not black powder

[@DavidSmith-xv2hc]

Oh, I wish you mentioned you upload extra videos to youtube. Until today I have only watched InRangeTV on Full30. So I didn't realize you guys did extra here.

[@InrangeTv]

We don't. Everything goes to Full30 first, actually. ~Karl

[@DavidSmith-xv2hc]

+InRangeTV You are right, I am wrong about this video. But the shoutout video for Vortex was never on Full30 (unless I am horribly mistaken) as well as the Remington thing where you guys blurt out at the end.

[@InrangeTv]

Ok, fair enough. Those super short things didn't make it to Full30 because we didn't want to torture anyone with a commercial for that minimal content. :) ~Karl

[@EatsBox]

Kudos to Karl for the Ned Kelly references :)

[@deadmoneyjoe8878]

guys you may be find some of this armor in the " Villa Hügel" that´s a industrie museum in germany / essen. and there is some set of this armor

[@chinesesparrows]

Ive heard such armor was issued to sentries as well, who discarded them due to their weight and the discomfort they cause

[@gozer87]

I visited a fortress near Dresden that displayed some stormtrooper armor. It was basically scales sandwiched between canvas.

[@benjaminirvan9860]

These videos are so awesome!

[@trebizond790]

Interesting as ever, although a slight pity no .303 :)

[@Tm0g762]

Nice shooting Ian!

[@CheapSushi]

Great to see this, I was always curious about the armor.

[@dingo7055]

Ned Kelly used 1/4" thick IRON armour. Very different. But love your work guys, thanks for this informative and entertaining video, as is all your content. :)

[@jacobstaten2366]

He was also going up against black powder.

[@LongBinh70]

Interesting that the front profile of the baseball cap and strange ear protection mimics the silhouette of a German helmet!

[@arthurthedented]

you could use that repro armor for mobility tests or seeing if you could shoulder a rifle ...Its also worth noting that as gun guys you forgot the greatest killer of all.. shrapnel which it would certainly stop and which someone in a well protected bunker is more likely to be dealing with... or which grenade hurling trench raiders are likely to face as well. but firing tests were pretty useless. As a side note.. face hardened steel plate body armor was sold during the American Civil war.. but I'm not surprised Krupp did an exceptional job on it.

[@glueguzzler9548]

You should tyr and surface harned it to make it more accurate

[@spestnaz44]

If you guys wanted to "revist" this I feel like you should try a slight ricochet from a 30-06 round. For example the machine gunner is firing his gun and a bullet hits the gun slightly in front of him.

[@bakters]

You can tell the hardness of steel by the sound it makes when you strike it. Soft steel has a low note, hard steel a high note. Guys in the old days would know if the +Ulfbert+h sword they got was real or a forgery. The real one would often be plainer in appearance but would *ring true*.

[@heldaneurbanus5135]

Well done lads! Great video. I'm with Karl on this one. I would definitely have worn that had it been issued. I can also see why trench raiders would have made use of it. Jump into a trench a watch their pistols shots and melee weapons bounce off! till the defence can get organised enough to point a rifle at you the assaulter is in great shape!

[@totenkopfan6296]

The test of the american armor would also be neat. It is much bulkier, video recordings from the time show it stopping full power rifle bullets, and can stop maybe even bigger.

[@Pprokop87]

You know what You should do? Get a steel plateof the right parameters to match the best WWI German Trench Armor, take it to the blacksmith and tell him: i wish to turn this plate into this armor? and show him the picture. Then You should have a perfect reproduction of WWI German Trench Armor to test it ;)

[@mikeblair2594]

You'd have to tell him to case harden it deeply. As a blacksmith I can't think of anything big enough to hold the armor to case harden it with the technology available for the time.

[@JeanLucCaptain]

truly showing hopw brutal trench warfare is both sides used all sorts of medieval weapons both improvised and otherwise. i heard of a British trench catapult that was used to lob hand grenades. AN ACTUAL MIDEVEL STYLE CATAPULT.

[@TheHornedOne81]

Ulfberht swords were Crucible steel, likely from India. They didn't bend, but they did Flex. They were also able to be hardened to a higher level, so could have done significant damage to the edge of other swords, while taking minimal edge damage. Microscopy done on samples from Ulfberhts and fake show massive differences. The most glaring difference being in inclusions of impurities in the steel.

[@EnhancedNightmare]

I read somewhere that the majority of casualties were from shrapnel and such armour or even flak armour would be very helpful.

[@TwentythreePER]

Very interesting. I would love to see you test k-bullets against body armor.

[@rikusschulze6249]

German machine gunners were considered artillery troops and weren't used that often in the 25 yards apart fashion you mentioned. You mentioned volley shooting in a "rainbow arc" in the (much newer) operators guide for the henry repeating rifle and that kind of shooting was extensively trained by german machine gunners, as they were supposed to be able to do that with some kind of accuracy and success. especially german machine gunners in the alpen korps, the ancestors of modern day mountain infantry (Gebirgsjäger) were known to use their machine guns in ranges up to 3000 m to shoot at ridges and mountaintops and harass enemy troops as well as prepare the field for raiding parties and assaults. It didn't work that well, though.

[@alexdemoya2119]

A lot of volksturm were WW1 vets. I could totally see one remembering this thing and getting one. Then some soviet sniper being spooked by it and using an explosive round to take out the armored old man.

[@therealoptimist453]

I understood that .45 colt was the most potent cardridge in wwI times ( I heared that even the 9mm luger had been used in weaker charges at that times compared to today .. with respect to that fact they recommend not to shoot "vintage" 08 models with todays factory loads) .. but what is about the 7.63 Mauser cardridge of the c96/ broom hande. Never shot this, but I hearded it shout have been pretty much stronger then 9mm Luger.. and the C96 was sold interationally ( I think I read even china bought them). At some the sights ladder is up to 1000m ( how ever one would think about the sense behind this ).

[@adamnurvddin5230]

Thank you for scaring me and making me think my earbuds were already broken.

[@InrangeTv]

You're welcome. ~Karl

[@adamnurvddin5230]

0_0 Up until this moment I have never before seen a new comment on a video from more than a year ago be replied to by the creator. Wow.

[@InrangeTv]

InRangeTV - where we're resilient enough to reply to comments on old videos. :) ~Karl

[@adamnurvddin5230]

Such determination!

[@thunderloong]

To Point Out: The body armor also had fairly good protection from acute angles, so the more to the side you were the better the armor worked to deflect rounds. This armor would likely slow/deflect .338lap if the round struck it in the front in a prone firing position - something that would otherwise result in nearly certain death.

[@pant0sand0hat]

I love you guys! Thanks.

[@SwitchFeathers]

Interesting to see that it actually stopped the 45 FMJ. Wasn't actually expecting that, especially with this being technically "Weaker" than the original stuff.

[@farmerboy9029]

.45 is slow

[@kieronbevan7489]

Just an afternoon. Nice to see Karl antsing around to use the explosive ammo. Pitty you didn't back the armour with jello 😁

[@toddwebb7521]

The lower end of the hardness range is similar to AR400 which is what dump truck beds, steel flatbeds, and bullzoder buckets are generally made of. If you have a thickness measurement of the armor you could maybe get a piece of AR400 of the thickness to maybe represent it

[@saenes6295]

Cool video guys!

[@lucasdog1]

the splash to the srms and chin would be nasty. put it on a manequin and test for that

[@drmaudio]

that was fun. I'm surprised at how well it did.

[@SteampunkGent]

Suggestion have a word with a gas welder who uses oxy-acetylene kit. You can, by using a slightly smokey flame, surface harden mild steel

[@Sableagle]

I'm a little late to the party here but it would have been interesting to see what the splash damage on a watermelon resting on the collar would have been.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

Interesting tests, was educational too

[@Szalami]

Quality video as always. If you're at it, could you possibly take the WWI German appliqué helmet armor to the test? It would be pretty interesting to see what that could hold up against.

[@ethanstang9941]

Basically speaking it has better protection if it had a higher carbon content in the armor.

[@dustinandersen8176]

you should do a exploding ammo vs flack jackets and modern Kevlar. I hear Kevlar burns easily but its not like i'm about to take my plates out in the field and try and light it with matches as i can't afford to replace it currently.

[@carnut015]

That was fascinating.

[@spacemanmoe5622]

Thanks I enjoyed it a lot.

[@dudehaha3000]

Lovin' the keppi Ian

[@TodayLifeIsGoood]

I personally think that the neckguard should have been significantly longer/higher so that it would just reach the chin when the wearer is comfortably standing upright.

[@marzattackz6736]

i liked this demonstration alot! gj

[@bigbrowntau]

re: the explosive ammo....it gives an idea of what'd happen if you were hit in a helmet in WW2

[@Persojet]

Also to point out that shoulders give much higher protection in trench then chest area because of the high angle it becomes.

[@MilesRDavis]

Great video, but make sure to double check your audio. I got left only, really quiet audio. My headphones have been fucky for a while, but I know it's not them.

[@jarofyellow2408]

Next on inrange: WW1 reproduction trench armour, bank rob test

[@davevoecks6264]

It may not fit with the theme of testing the threats German armor would have faced, but I'm also curious about testing the calibers against each other with regard to penetrating this type of steel. In addition to the 9mm, I would like to see what 7.63 Mauser would do to it, too. Maybe some day? In typing that out, I came up with another idea... I'd actually be pretty happy seeing shots into bare gel and gel behind fabric representing the typical uniforms. We all know that full-power rifle cartridges are going to have the "stopping power", but comparing the tissue disruption that the various sidearms carried by trench raiders on each side would also be quite interesting. I'm even curious to know what uniform fabric does to something as anemic as .32 or 7.62x38 compared to bare gel.

[@ragnar338]

Karl with a Basecap is just wrong - let me send you a Feldmütze in Tropentarn!

[@Verdunveteran]

As allways, very interesting! :)

[@callhoonrepublican]

The british developed exploding rounds in ww1 for shooting down zeppelins... it would be awesome if somebody could find some if it and compair it to the russian and german ww2 ammo

[@Bongstahable]

Ned Kelly, represent.

[@NRH111]

coat this in rubber and wear a lighter kevlar underneath and you might just stand a chance with it in battle today if you indented the shoulder to allow for rifle use

[@BlacksheepMediaNZ]

Thanks to the comments - otherwise I wound have thought that this video had no sound

[@berner]

It reminds me of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

[@Totally_Not_Nanael]

Well even though that is mild steel it can still be cased harden it. This will make the 0.3 mm to 0.5 mm of the top of the armor very hard.

[@davidgoodnow269]

You'll see U.S. and other versions of trench armor, with details of development and deployment, in the museum at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.

[@jonnybravo4389]

I'm surprised you didn't talk about shotguns, I'd be interested in seeing what a 12 gauge did to that, I know it's highly unlikely that it would penetrate but a 00 buckshot at 15 yards is still quite a bit of lead and it wouldn't have much time to spread so I'd have to guess that the result would either be a bunch of smaller dents or one large area being deformed with smaller dents where pellets made contact within the deformation. But I say shotgun because they were a real menace to men in the trenches