July-August - Air Defense Artillery School

12
Infantry Tank better known as the i\latilda. There were
only t{\"enty-two ~ latildas in France. but they proved
many things for the German tacticians. Here was one piece
of enemy armor which outmoded the standard 37mm A.T.
The French had experimented with a 47mm gun made
principally by the Czechs, and no sooner did the Czech arms
industry fall under German control than they seized upon
this 47mm and produced it as a mobile A.T. gun. Shortly afterwards
they produced it mounted on the early pzKw 1this
vehicle was called by the Germans the Tank Hunter.
This was the first of an e\:entual series of self-propelled high
velocity AT. guns. J\leanwhile, the 37mm type had gone
through usage in the pzKw III Tank and had been succeeded
by the first of the 5cm I German tank guns (the
K\V.K, Kampf 'Fago1l KmlOne).
The German Afrika Korps was formed to bolster J\lussolini's
unreliable colonial arm\' then in the midst of much
difficulty in Libya. The Ko~ps armor carried a 20mm
machine gun in their pzKw II's; the short barrelled 5cm
gun in the pzKw Ill's; the short barrelled 7.5cm K\V.K in
the pzKw IV's; while the pzKw I was used either as a light
reconnaissance or command vehicle, or to carry the 4.7cm
Czech gun in the role of Tank Hunter.
Backing up the armor piercing possibilities of all these
tank guns was the old 37mm A.T. gun plus the newly
developed 5cm antitank P.AK 38-(the Pmlzer Abwehr
Kano1le).
The possibilities of attack or defense by these Gennan
Panzer units was formidable indeed. The ammunition used
in anyone of these weapons was such as to insure penetration
with subsequent detonation at astonishing ranges. Long
range battles became an actuality in the Libyan Desert;
and when the bigger guns were in the tanks, battles often
started at ranges of 4500 yards.
THE FLAK18 AND OnrEH HEAVYDEVELOPMENTS
Prior to 1940 the Germans had worked on developing a
weapon which would demolish the then-formidable Maginot
Line Forts. As the effective penetration of armor lies
in giving the biggest shell possible the greatest velocity obtainable,
only one really excellent weapon was then available.
That was the German Flak 18 (Flllgzugabwehr
Kanone) gun. By the simple expedient of making a worthwhile
armor piercing shell for this already excellent AA
gun, the Germans produced the weapon they needed. They
carefully worked out all the problems and proved the gun
on sample Maginot Line Forts built to specifications on
their own proving grounds. And so by the time the Libyan
campaigns were underway the Afrika Korps had a new dual
purpose gun: the Flak 18 with its excellent AP-HE, C and
BC shell.
Now there is nothing astonishing in this weapon of itself;
but the German adaptation together with clever tactical use
made it a devastating surprise to the British 8th Army.
It cost many Allied tanks to purchase the information that
armor cannot protect a~ainst the Flak 18, but the gun must
be mastered tactically. To armor against this weapon would
produce a fort, not a tank. As 1941 neared its close the
Germans realized that they would soon face bigger and
better tanks. Never letting up in their unending drive for
1Gennan calibers are usually stated in centimeters.
THE COAST ARTILLERY JOURNAL
the ultimate in tank destruction, they sensed the in
quacy of their smaller weapons both in and out of ta
And so they turned to a new e:-.:pedient.
In Russia the German Army had captured quantities
the fine 76.2mm combination AT. and field guns, toge
with enough ammunition to equip several batteries for
in Libya. They also substituted their own satisfactorv 7
K.\\'.K. (short' barrel) AP-HE, C and BC shell fo~th
Russian shell, loading it in captured cases. Thus a
AT. gun appeared in the Desert early.in 1942. Later
the year this same gun appeared mounted on German
tracks. Crude as this modification was, it still was a
propelled AT. gun which paved the way for the powe
tank destroyer of today.
As the earlv summer battles in the desert came to a cI
and the hare( pressed 8th Army moved deep into Eg,
the Germans realized that in the new medium Ameri
tanks (the Grants and the Lees) they were facing g
armor which represented a definite threat. l\Iany of t
tanks survived scores of hits while dishing out greater fi
power than the Germans had ever experienced. The fail
of these hits to stop the Grants and Lees was attributable
the use of the German short barrelled 5cm K.\V.K. \\"h,
hits were registered by the 5cm P.AK, penetration \\
usually effected.
Because of this experience, Rommel in his trial pus
along the edge of the Quatarrah Depression in the la
summer used pzKw Ill's fitted with the 5cm long ba
relied K.vV.K and pzKw IV's with a long barrelled 7.5
gun. These new guns put the German tanks back in t
field as a serious threat. However, this was September, a
the brilliant 8th Army, newly equipped and under a ne
commander, staved off attack. Another breathing spe
now set in, with the 8th Army destined to pack a treme
dous punch heavily augmented by new American Ort!
nance.
DEVELOPMENTOFTHEP.A.K. 40
The Germans speedily appreciated the value of the Ru~
sian 76.2mm piece in its original design; and practicall1
parallel with it they developed a new P.AK. of 7.5 calibe
called the P.A.K 40. >I- So we see the progression from 3.7~
to 5cm to 7.5cm. I
It is decidedly worthy of note that all these weapo~
developed about the same velocity: about 2600 feet pel
second; this despite the fact that the shell weights started al
1.5 Ibs., went to 4.5 Ibs., and then to 15 Ibs.
Each weapon was adequate for the job it had to do i~
terms of existing tank armies at the time of develop~e.nJ
The 7.Scm is able to destroy any tank attacking its pOSJtI
today, as has been amply proven in Tunisia and RUSS
The 5cm P.A.K is still able to penetrate heavy hom(
gencous armor at ranges up to 1000 yards.
Even while the 7.5 P.AK. 40 was being developed. ex
periments were going on in the field of raising the velocitie
of other and even older patterns of weapons. Here the ole
Russian 76.2mm gun comes to the fore again, its chambe
bored out to use the same case as the new 7.5cm. Ob\'iousk
*The long.barrelled tank gun K.W.K. 40 is actually the tank vera
of the P.A.K. 40 A.T. ,(:un. Proiectiles for both weapOns are the ~
save for slightly different rotating bands. The cartridge cases are q.
different. but the resulting velocities are believed to be almost iden u
The K.W.K. case is shorter, but thicker.