Smoke candles - PIV F2

[Dazzer]

I'm currently working on a PIV F2 and was wondering, what were the chains hanging from the Smoke candle box at the rear of the tank for?

Have done some searching but i cant find anything. I assume they could be used by infantrymen exterior to the vehicle (as i believe the crew could set them off from inside)?

Thanks

Darrin

[Dazzer]

or are the chains used to remove used smoke 'candles'? :confused:

[Coops]

G'day Dazzer, not getting much help from the 'guru' builders a?
I found these pics, I hope they help [despite the fact that we are using a kit part for reference :rolleyes:].
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/bgilard/PzIVAusfF2-GDragon/VoyagerPEA068-2.jpg?t=1231502981
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/bgilard/PzIVAusfF2-GDragon/VoyagerPEA068-1.jpg?t=1231503326

[gibsonfndr]

Here are two pics of the real stuff.
One from under :
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/gibsonfndr/smokecandles-1.jpg
One from "over"
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/gibsonfndr/smokecandles-2.jpg

In no way was a soldier supposed to use the chains from outside to start the smoke grenades as they were electrically fired from the inside of the tank (or so I've been told but as a matter of fact one can clearly see the electric wire on the Panther turret roof for example).
The chain was tied to the lid on one hand as seen on the picture and the other end to the grenade, the grenade beeing held in place by some sort of a hook (sorry i do not know the english word)

[James Tainton]

Nice pics Laurent. Thanks for sharing.

[James Tainton]

I went through some old emails from when I was researching this in the past and came up with this from my friend Harry Stein. While his artist rendering is a bit simplified it may help explain it more?

here is just a small drawing to accompany my description of the candle rack.....

It may not be 100% right as to were the chain is attached to the tube and I'm still a little insecure as to how the commander selected a single candle (maybe not possible and all go in one as the fixation that holds them in the tube against the spring force are sitting on one rod that can be moved via a wire) ....or may be they were ignited by a electrical "signal" and jumped out via a small load as their later smoke canles .....

Bye,
Harry

the drawing- BTW maybe it needs to flip 180 degree
http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/planetArmor/General/candle%20flying%20out.jpg


and another of Laurent's pics that I have on the hard drive, of a different Panzer II type but it helps explain the concept.
http://panzerfaust.sslpowered.com/planetArmor/General/smoke.jpg

[gibsonfndr]

The way one candle was selected was by the way of an "arbre à cames" ...
I take it you say "camshaft" ?
It'd trigger the fixation.

One thing I'm not sure of is whether there was a spring or not as some of them definitely are electrically fired but I can't remember seeing either a spring or a wire on these Pz IVs launchers ...