Help!!! I am in the beginning stages of a winter dio including an M1 undergoing reloading at a field depot. My question is this. When re-loading the main gun ammo is each round hand loaded through the loader's position, or is each round loaded through the blast-off doors on top of the turret? None of my research documentation talks about ammo re-loading. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Jaws

They are manually handed from a crew member on the ground to one on the outside of the tank to the loader inside. They are handed through the loader's hatch unless loading the semi-ready rack. Then they go through the TC's hatch.

When handling ammo, one hand covers the round's base plate. The other hand grips the nose of the round. Usually held with the pointy end down.

Here's pics of how the loading is done, as an accompaniment to Sabot's post:

Note: pix from Scott Cunningham's www.armorinaction.com

Thanks for the quick responses, and the pictures are worth a thousand words. Well gotta get ready for work, so I can feed my plastic habit. Thanks again this info is invaluable.

Thanks Jaws