A firing port, sometimes called a pistol port, is a small opening in

armored vehicles Military vehicles are commonly armoured (or armored; see spelling differences) to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include armoured fighti ...

, fortified structures like

bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...

s, or other armored equipment that allows

small arms A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originate ...

to be safely fired out of the vehicle at enemy

infantry Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...

, often to cover vehicle or building blindspots. Examples of this can be seen in the

Crusader tank Crusader, in full "Tank, Cruiser Mk VI, Crusader", also known by its List of tanks of the United Kingdom#General Staff numbers, General Staff number A.15, was one of the primary British cruiser tanks during the early part of the World War II, ...

Sherman tank The M4 Sherman, officially medium tank, M4, was the medium tank most widely used by the United States and Western Allies in World War II. The M4 Sherman proved to be reliable, relatively cheap to produce, and available in great numbers. I ...

Tiger I The Tiger I () was a Nazi Germany, German heavy tank of World War II that began operational duty in 1942 in North African Campaign, Africa and in the Soviet Union, usually in independent German heavy tank battalion, heavy tank battalions. It g ...

T-34-85 The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank from World War II. When introduced, its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was more powerful than many of its contemporaries, and its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against Anti-tank warfare, ...

, and even modern armored vehicles today such as the Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle (MICV) program, its successor the Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV) featuring the

M231 Firing Port Weapon The M231 Firing Port Weapon (FPW) is an adapted version of the M16 assault rifle for shooting from firing ports on the M2 Bradley. The M16, standard infantry weapon of the time, was too long for use in a "buttoned up" APC, so the FPW was devel ...

, and Russian

armored personnel carriers An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world. Acc ...

. Some firing ports are improvised for such use. For example a late production Tiger I manual shows the

Nahverteidigungswaffe The ''Nahverteidigungswaffe'' was a roof mounted, breech-loaded, single shot, multi-purpose, 360 ° rotating grenade launcher that could fire a variety of ammunition. It was typically found on German tanks such as the Panzer IV, Panther I, Tige ...

being used as a firing port. Some pistol ports, such as on the Sherman, included vision slits such as "protectoscopes" increasing visibility around the tank.

Ballistic weakspot

Being a ballistic weak spot, firing ports are often reinforced with additional armor, and in subsequent designs reduced in number (BFV), or deleted altogether (Sherman and Tiger I anuary 1944. Other armor is improvised such as

slat armor Slat armor (or slat armour in British English), also known as bar armor, cage armor, and standoff armor, is a type of vehicle armor designed to protect against high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) attacks, as used by anti-tank guided missiles (ATG ...

to stop

shaped charge A shaped charge, commonly also hollow charge if shaped with a cavity, is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, ...

s or chicken wire to stop grenades. However, due to strong crew demand, they are sometimes brought back, as happened with the Sherman. This was in part due to its use during ammunition resupply in the Sherman, eliminating the need for an additional crew member to pass ammunition through the loader's hatch, instead of being able to simply pass the ammunition from the ground through the firing port. One of the Tiger I's firing ports (right) was converted into a loader's escape hatch and the other covered with an armored plug and eventually deleted from the design to improve production time and reduce costs.

References

{{reflist Armoured vehicles Military terminology

Ballistic weakspot

See also

References