panzerabwehrkanone

Panzerjagers

Panzerjager

German Artillery

Panzerjager [ Mike Kaspar ]

Just as every German tank was a Tiger for many Allied soldiers so every anti-tank gun was an 'Eighty Eight'.One of the great artillery weapons of all time the 8.8-cm anti-aircraft gun was certainly a tank killer of note.But it was not the only such weapon in the Wehrmacht's armory,not even the most numerous.
PaK was the standard abbreviation for PanzerabwehrKanone , or anti-tank gun. The more advanced PaK 41 was a superiorweapon.The Krupp design was one of the first 'cone' or 'squeeze bore weapons to enter service.The internal bore of the barrel tapered slightly from breech to muzzle.The pressure behind the Pzgr Patr 41(HK)tungsten shot increased as it travelled down the barrel and it emerged with a muzzle velocity of 1,125 m/s.The shell consisted of a light ballistic cap behind which was a tungsten carbide shot.The shot was enclosed in an outer case with flanges at the center and base.The flanges were compressed as the shell passed along the barrel.
The penetrative power of the advanced new weapon was remarkable ; the PaK 41 could punch through 145mm of armour at a range 1,000 metres.Fortunately for the Allies there was a shortage of tungsten in Germany.Another problem was barrel ware : the high pressures meant that the gun tube had to be replaced every 500 rounds.Eventuallyonlyy 150 PaK 41's were built.

75mm Anti-Tank Gun

Emplacement of a 75mm Pak 40 in the Carpathian foothills (May 30 , 1944) .The heavily armored Soviet T-34 and KV-1 tanks gave a new urgency to anti-tank gun design and two new 7.5cm guns were developed , the PaK 40 being manufactured by Rheinmetall-Borsig and the PaK 41 produced by Krupp entered service.Both were fairly powerful , though the PaK 40 was effectively scaled up version of the PaK 38

Pak 40 75mm Anti-Tank Gun
Shell	Weight	Muzzle Velocity	Penetration
Anti-tank	6.8 kg	792 meters/sec	132mm at 500 meters
Hard-core	3.2 kg	930 meters/sec	154mm at 500 meters

75mm Anti-Tank Gun

The new gun was an enlarged version of the earlier 50mm Pak.The muzzle brake , the double shield and the torsion-bar suspension were retained.The mount still had tubular spars but now they were made of steel instead of aluminum.The ballistic performance could thus be increased.The newly introduced Anti-tank shell 40 weighed 6.8 kg and achieved a penetrating power of 132mm of armour at a 500 meter range with a muzzle velocity of 792 meters per second.The hard-core shell that was also introduced at the time weighed 3.2 kg but with a muzzle velocity of 930 meters per second and could penetrate up to 154mm of armour at 500 meters.These shells had to be replaced later on account of a serious shortage of tungsten.A 2.7 kg shell with a core diameter of 60mm was not introduced , but a hollow shell only achieved a short range because of its lower muzzle velocity of 450 meters per second.
The new gun made a more imposing impression then the earlier Pak types by its appearance alone.Just the long barrel , the solidly built muzzle brake and strengthened shield and armored axle , plus the hight of the gun itself showed that the 75mm Pak ranked in the heavy artillery class.The arc of aim of the barrel was somewhat less then that of the 50mm Pak , extending from -5 to +22 degrees elevation , while the 65-degree traverse to the left and right remained the same.Production of the 75mm Pak moved at full speed only as of February 1942.The average monthly production reached 175 in 1942 730 in 1943 and 975 in 1944.Just in October of 1944 1050 of the guns were produced despite ongoing Allied bomb attacks on the factories.In January of 1945 some 1000 guns and 335 in February 1945 were still produced.In January 1945 81% of them were sent to the front , as did 67% in February.
The loss of guns was enormous as was to be expected with the enemy's increasing superiority.The total losses of 75mm Pak 40 amounted to :

September 1944 = 669
October 1944 = 1020
November 1944 = 494
December 1944 = 307

The total number of these guns with the troops at the front on October 1 1944 was 4805 and on January 1 1945 4817 to cite just two days.

Panzerjager Photos

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Hetzer Tank