The first weapon of the German Panzerjäger ( armour hunters or
tank hunters) was the humble Panzerbüchse which was in service from
1917 through to 1943. Panzerbüchse literally means "armour
rifle" and German anti-tank rifles originated back in 1917 with
the Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr, the world's first anti-tank rifle. It was
created as an immediate response to the appearance of British tanks
on the Western Front. A single shot manually operated rifle, it
enjoyed moderate success, with approximately 15,800 rifles eventually
produced. The Panzerbüchse 39 (PzB 39) was the main German anti-tank
rifle used in World War II. It was an improvement of the unsuccessful
Panzerbüchse 38 (PzB 38) rifle.
German Panzerbüchse development resumed in the late 1930s. In an
effort to provide infantry with a man-portable lightweight anti-tank
rifle. The task fell to Dipl.-Ing. (certified engineer) B. Brauer at
Gustloff Werke in Suhl who designed the Panzerbüchse 38 (PzB 38). It
was a manually loaded single-shot weapon with a recoiling barrel.
When fired, the barrel recoiled about 9 cm, which opened the breech
and ejected the spent cartridge casing. The breech block was then
arrested in the rear position, remaining opened for the gunner to
manually insert a new cartridge. The gunner then released the cocked
breech with a lever at the grip. The breech and barrel would then
move forward again and the trigger was cocked in preparation to fire.
This rather complicated mechanism was prone to jamming as the system
easily fouled in field use.
Although manufactured with pressed steel parts that were
spot-welded, because of the complicated vertical breech block
mechanism the Panzerbüchse 38 was difficult to manufacture and only
a small number of 1,408 PzB 38 rifles were built in 1939 and 1940 at
the Gustloff Werke plant; only 62 of these weapons were used by
German troops in the invasion of Poland in 1939.
The Panzerbüchse 39 was the next development, and was found to be
a major improvement as a result the Panzerbüchse 38 declared
obscelescent and production was immediately switched to the
Panzerbüchse 39. However it too featured a vertical breech block
mechanism and used the same cartridge. It retained the barrel of the
PzB 38 and had an only slightly increased overall length of 162.0
centimetres (63.8 in); weight was reduced to 12.6 kilograms (28 lb).
Its performance data was basically the same as that of the PzB 38. To
increase the practical rate of fire, two cartridge-holding cases
containing 10 rounds each could be attached to both sides of the
weapon near the breech - these were not magazines feeding the weapon,
they simply enabled the loader to extract the cartridges (that he
still had to manually insert into the gun) from the conveniently
placed magazines. 568 PzB 39 were used by the German army in the
invasion of Poland; two years later, at the beginning of the war
against Russia, 25,298 PzB 39 were in use by German troops; total
production from March 1940 to November 1941, when production ceased,
was 39,232 rifles. The PzB 39 remained in use until 1944, by which
time it had become hopelessly inadequate against all but the lightest
armored vehicles.
OKW recognised the need for a more powerful form of anti-tank
weapon and the design of a horse-drawn, 3.7 cm anti-tank gun
(designated 3.7 cm Pak L/45) by Rheinmetall commenced in 1924 and the
first guns were issued in 1928. However, by the early 1930s, it was
apparent that horse-drawn artillery was obsolescent, and the gun was
modified for motorized transport by substituting magnesium-alloy
wheels with pneumatic tyres for the original spoked wooden wheels.
Re-designated the 3.7 cm Pak 35/36, it began to replace the 3.7 Pak
L/45 in 1934 and first appeared in combat in 1936 during the Spanish
Civil War. It formed the basis for many other nations' anti-tank guns
during the first years of World War II. The KwK 36 L/45 was the same
gun but adapted as the main armament on several tanks, most notably
the early models of the Panzer III.
The Pak 36, being a small-calibre weapon, was outdated by the May
1940 Western Campaign, and crews found them inadequate against allied
tanks like the British Mk.II Matilda, and the French Char B1 and
Somua S35. Still, the gun was effective against the most common light
tanks, such as the Renault FT-17 and saw wide service during the
Battle of France and the T-26 during Operation Barbarossa. The
widespread introduction of medium tanks quickly erased the gun's
effectiveness; miserable performance against the T-34 on the Eastern
Front led to the Pak 36 being derisively dubbed the "Door
Knocker" (Heeresanklopfgerät, literally "army
door-knocking device") for its inability to do anything other
than advertise its presence to a T-34 by futilely bouncing rounds off
its armor.
Not surprisingly The Pak 36 began to be replaced by the new 5 cm
Pak 38 in mid 1940. The addition of tungsten-core shells (Pzgr. 40)
added slightly to the armour penetration of the Pak 36. Despite its
continued impotence against the T-34, it remained the standard
anti-tank weapon for many units until 1942. It was discovered that
Pak 36 crews could still achieve kills on T-34s, but this rare feat
required tungsten-cored armour piercing ammunition and a direct shot
to the rear or side armour from point-blank range.
As the Pak 36 was gradually replaced, many were removed from their
carriages and added to SdKfz 251 halftracks to be used as light
anti-armour support. The guns were also passed on to the forces of
Germany's allies fighting on the Eastern Front, such as the 3rd and
4th Romanian Army. This proved particularly disastrous during the
Soviet encirclement (Operation Uranus) at the Battle of Stalingrad
when these Romanian forces were targeted to bear the main Soviet
armoured thrust. The Pak 36 also served with the armies of Finland
(notably during the defence of Suomussalmi), it was also deployed in
Hungary, and Slovakia.
In 1943, the introduction of the Stielgranate 41 shaped charge
meant that the Pak 36 could now penetrate any armour, although the
low velocity of the projectile limited its range. The Pak 36s,
together with the new shaped charges, were issued to Fallschirmjäger
units and other light troops. The gun's light weight meant that it
could be easily moved by hand, and this mobility made it ideal for
their purpose.
The replacement for the outdated Pak 36 was the 50cm Pak 38. The
longer barrel and larger projectile produced the required level of
kinetic energy to pierce armour . The PaK 38 was first used by the
German forces during the Second World War in April 1941. When the
Germans faced Soviet tanks in 1941 during Operation Barbarossa, the
PaK 38 was one of the few early guns capable of effectively
penetrating the 45 mm (1.8 in) armor of the formidable T-34.
Additionally, the gun was also equipped with Panzergranate 40 APCR
projectiles which had a hard tungsten core, in an attempt to
penetrate the armor of the heavier KV-1 tank. Although it was soon
replaced by more powerful weapons, the Pak 38 remained a potent and
useful weapon and remained in service with the Wehrmacht until the
end of the war.
The 7.5 cm PaK 40 (7.5 cm Panzerabwehrkanone 40) was the next
generation of anti-tank gun to see service. This German 7.5
centimetre high velocity anti-tank gun was developed in 1939-1941 by
Rheinmetall and used extensively from 1942-1945 during the Second
World War. It was the PaK 40 which formed the backbone of German
anti-tank guns for the latter part of World War II. Development of
the PaK 40 began in 1939 with development contracts being placed with
Krupp and Rheinmetall to develop a 7.5 cm anti-tank gun. Priority of
the project was initially low, but Operation Barbarossa in 1941 and
the sudden appearance of heavily armoured Soviet tanks like the T-34
and KV-1, increased the priority. The first pre-production guns were
delivered in November 1941.
In April 1942, Wehrmacht had 44 guns in service. It was remarkably
successful weapon and by 1943 the PaK 40 formed the bulk of the
German anti-tank artillery.The PaK 40 was the standard German
anti-tank gun until the end of the war, and was supplied by Germany
to its allies. Some captured guns were used by the Red Army. After
the end of the war the PaK 40 remained in service in several European
armies, including Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Norway,
Hungary and Romania.
Around 23,500 PaK 40 were produced, and about 6,000 more were used
to arm tank destroyers. The unit manufacturing cost amounted to 2200
man-hours at a cost of 12000 RM. A lighter automatic version, the
heaviest of the Bordkanone series of heavy calibre aircraft ordnance
as the BK 7,5 was used in the Henschel Hs129 aircraft.
The Pak 40 was effective against almost every Allied tank until
the end of the war. However, the PaK 40 was much heavier than the 50
cm PaK 38, It was difficult to manhandle into position and its
mobility was limited. It was difficult or impossible to move without
an artillery tractor on boggy ground.
The PaK 40 debuted in Russia where it was needed to combat the
newest Soviet tanks there. It was designed to fire the same
low-capacity APCBC, HE and HL projectiles which had been standardized
for usage in the long barreled Kampfwagenkanone KwK 40 main battle
tank-mounted guns. In addition there was an APCR shot for the PaK 40,
a munition which eventually became very scarce.
The main differences amongst the rounds fired by 75 mm German guns
were in the length and shape of the cartridge cases for the PaK 40.
The 7.5 cm KwK (tank) fixed cartridge case is twice the length of the
7.5 cm KwK 37 (short barrelled 75 mm), and the 7.5 cm PaK 40
cartridge is a third longer than the 7.5 cm KwK 40.
The longer cartridge case allowed a larger charge to be used and a
higher velocity for the Armour Piercing Capped Ballistic Cap round to
be achieved. The muzzle velocity was about 790 m/s (2,600 ft/s) as
opposed to 750 m/s (2,500 ft/s) for the KwK 40 L/43. This velocity
was available for about one year after the weapon's introduction.
Around the same time, the Panzer IVs 7.5 cm KwK 40 L/43 gun and the
nearly identical Sturmkanone (StuK) 40 L/43 began to be upgraded with
barrels that were 48 calibers long, or L/48, which remained the
standard for them until the end of the war.
In the field, an alarming number of L/48 cartridge cases carrying
the hotter charge failed to be ejected properly from the weapon's
semi-automatic breech, even on the first shot (in vehicles). Rather
than re-engineer the case, German Ordnance reduced the charge loading
until the problem went away. The new charge brought the muzzle
velocity down to 750 m/s, or about 10 m/s higher than the original
L/43 version of the weapon. Considering the average variability in
large round velocities from a given gun, this is virtually negligible
in effect. The first formal documentation of this decision appears on
May 15, 1943 ("7.5cm Sturmkanone 40 Beschreibung") which
details a side by side comparison of the L/43 and the L/48 weapons.
The synopsis provided indicates very little difference in the guns,
meaning the upgrade had little if any benefit.
All further official presentations of the KwK 40 L/48 (
"Oberkommando des Heeres, Durchschlagsleistungen
panzerbrechender Waffen") indicate a muzzle velocity of 750 m/s
for the gun. As for the PaK 40, the desire for commonality again
appears to have prevailed since the APCBC charge was reduced to 750
m/s, even though case ejection failures apparently were never a
problem in the PaK version of the gun.
For reasons which seem to be lost to history, at least some 75 mm
APCBC cartridges appear to have received a charge which produced a
muzzle velocity of about 770 m/s (2,500 ft/s). The first documented
firing by the U.S. of a PaK 40 recorded an average muzzle velocity of
776 m/s for its nine most instrumented firings. Probably because of
these results, period intelligence publications ("Handbook on
German Military Forces") gave ~770 m/s as the PaK 40 APCBC
muzzle velocity, although post war pubs corrected this (Department of
the Army Pamphlet No. 30-4-4, "Foreign Military Weapons and
Equipment (U) Vol. 1 Artillery (U) dated August of 1955-this document
was originally classified).
In addition, German sources are contradictory in that the Official
Firing Table document for the 75 mm KwK 40, StuK 40, and the PaK 40
dated October, 1943 cites 770 m/s on one of the APCBC tables therein,
showing some confusion. ("Schusstafel fur die 7.5cm
Kampfwagenkanone 40").
The 88 mm gun (eighty-eight) was a German anti-aircraft and
anti-tank artillery gun from World War II. It was widely used by
Germany throughout the war, and was one of the most recognized German
weapons of the war. Development of the original models led to a wide
variety of guns.
The name applies to a series of guns, the first one officially
called the 8,8 cm Flak 18, the improved 8,8 cm Flak 36, and later the
8,8 cm Flak 37. Flak is a contraction of German Flugzeugabwehrkanone
meaning "anti-aircraft cannon", the original purpose of the
eighty-eight. In informal German use, the guns were universally known
as the Acht-acht ("eight-eight"), a contraction of
Acht-komma-acht Zentimeter ("8.8 cm"). In English, "flak"
became a generic term for ground anti-aircraft fire.
The versatile carriage allowed the eighty-eight to be fired in a
limited anti-tank mode when still on wheels, and to be completely
emplaced in only two-and-a-half minutes. Its successful use as an
improvised anti-tank gun led to the development of a tank gun based
upon it. These related guns served as the main armament of tanks such
as the Tiger I: the 8.8 cm KwK 36, with the "KwK"
abbreviation standing for KampfwagenKanone ("fighting vehicle
cannon").
In addition to these Krupp's designs, Rheinmetall created later a
more powerful anti-aircraft gun, the 8,8 cm Flak 41, produced in
relatively small numbers. Krupp responded with another prototype of
the long-barreled 88 mm gun, which was further developed into the
anti-tank and tank destroyer 8.8 cm Pak 43 gun, and turret-mounted
8.8 cm KwK 43 heavy tank gun.
Vehicle designs
Designs of the
Panzerjäger vehicles varied based on the chassis used, which could be of three types:
- Early war open-topped superstructure on a light tank chassis
- Mid-war fully enclosed crew compartment on a medium or heavy tank
chassis, as an added-on entity not usually integral to the original hull
armor
- Late war unarmoured or shielded mounting on a half-track chassis
Notable tank destroyers in the Panzerjäger classification were:
The later
Jagdpanzer designation was used from the beginning for the following more integrally armored vehicles:
