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The Panzergranate 39 or Pzgr. 39 was a German armor-piercing shell used during World War II. It was manufactured in various calibers and was the most common anti-tank shell used in German tank (German: Kampfwagenkanone; shorted to KwK) and anti-tank guns (German: Panzerabwehrkanone(n); shortened to PaK) of 37 to 88 mm (1.5 to 3.5 in) caliber.
The Pzgr. 39 was an APCBC-HE-T design. It consisted of the shell body that was armour penetrating (AP) using a cap (C) to increase performance against sloped armour, a ballistic cap (BC) to increase aerodynamic performance along with a high explosive (HE) filler and tracer unit (T) that was incorporated into the base fuze. Phlegmatized PETN or RDX were commonplace as the explosive filling. Pzgr. 39 was only used in guns firing fixed ammunition. The same Pzgr. 39 shells of a certain caliber could be fitted to different cartridge cases. For example, the 7.5 cm Pak 40 L/46 antitank gun and the 7.5 cm KwK 40 L/48 tank gun fired the same projectile, even though they had completely different cartridge cases.
Different versions of the shell were made, but the changes were usually minor. For instance, in the 88 mm Pzgr. 39-1 version the quality of steel was improved. The 75 mm Pzgr. 39/42 of KwK 42 and Pak 42 guns had two driving bands instead of one. In the Pzgr. 39/43 of KwK and Pak 43 guns, the driving bands were made wider than those of Pzgr. 39-1. The widening took place because the high gas pressure in these long-barreled guns presented certain problems when firing the older Pzgr. 39–1 shells with narrower driving bands. The abbreviation 'FES', found on many Pzgr. 39 rounds indicates the presence of sintered iron driving bands.
Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour.
The 8.8 cm KwK 36 was an 88-millimetre (3.5 in) tank gun used by the German Army during World War II. This was the primary armament of the PzKpfw VI Tiger I tank. It was developed and built by Krupp.
The 8.8 cm KwK 43 was an 88 mm 71 calibre length tank gun designed by Krupp and used by the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War. It was mounted as the primary armament on the Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf. B Tiger II. The 8.8 cm Pak 43, an anti-tank gun, was very similar in design but mounted on tank destroyers or deployed stand-alone on the field.
A shell, in a military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. Modern usage sometimes includes large solid kinetic projectiles, which are more properly termed shot. Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used.
The Jagdpanzer 38, originally the Leichter Panzerjäger 38(t), known mostly post-war as Hetzer, was a German light tank destroyer of the Second World War based on a modified Czechoslovakian Panzer 38(t) chassis.
The 8.8 cm Flak 18/36/37/41 is a German 88 mm anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery gun, developed in the 1930s. It was widely used by Germany throughout World War II and is one of the most recognized German weapons of the conflict. Development of the original model led to a wide variety of guns.
The MG 151 was a German 15 mm aircraft-mounted autocannon produced by Waffenfabrik Mauser during World War II. Its 20mm variant, the 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon, was widely used on German Luftwaffe fighters, night fighters, fighter-bombers, bombers and ground-attack aircraft. Salvaged guns saw post-war use by other nations.
The 75 mm gun, models M2 to M6, was the standard American medium caliber gun fitted to mobile platforms during World War II. They were primarily mounted on tanks, such as the M3 Lee and M4 Sherman, but also the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber aircraft, etc. There were five main variants used during the war: M2, M3, M4, M5 and M6.
The Ordnance QF 75 mm, abbreviated to OQF 75 mm, was a British tank gun of the Second World War. It was obtained by boring out the Ordnance QF 6-pounder 57 mm anti-tank gun to 75 mm, to give better performance against infantry targets in a similar fashion to the 75 mm M3 gun fitted to the American Sherman tank. The QF came from "quick-firing", referring to the use of ammunition where the shell has a fixed cartridge. The gun was also sometimes known as ROQF from Royal Ordnance Quick-Firing.
The 5 cm Pak 38 (L/60) was a German anti-tank gun of 50 mm calibre. It was developed in 1938 by Rheinmetall-Borsig AG as a successor to the 3.7 cm Pak 36, and was in turn followed by the 7.5 cm Pak 40. Note the unique curved gun-shield design which differs from most WWII anti-tank guns which have either one flat or two angled and one flat gun-shield plates for ease of manufacturing.
The 7.5 cm Pak 40 was a German 75 millimetre anti-tank gun of the Second World War.
The Pak 36 is a 3.7 cm / 37mm caliber German anti-tank gun used during the Second World War. It was the main anti-tank weapon of Wehrmacht Panzerjäger units until 1942. Developed by Rheinmetall in 1933, it was first issued to the German Army in 1936, with 9,120 being available by the beginning of the war in September 1939 and a further 5,339 produced during the war. As the predominant anti-tank gun design in the world during the late 1930s, demand was high for the Pak 36, with another 6,000 examples produced for export and the design being copied by the Soviet Union as the 45 mm anti-tank gun M1932 (19-K) and by other nations such as Japan.
The 7.5 cm KwK 42 L/70 was a 7.5 cm calibre German tank gun used on German armoured fighting vehicles in the Second World War. The gun was the armament of the Panther medium tank and two variants of the Jagdpanzer IV self-propelled anti-tank gun. On the latter it was designated as the "7.5 cm Panzerabwehrkanone 42" anti-tank gun.
The Type 1 machine gun was a Japanese aircraft-mounted heavy machine gun widely used during World War II. It was also known as the Ho-103. The weapon itself was largely based on the American .50-caliber (12.7 mm) M2 Browning heavy machine gun, while the design of its ammunition was initially sourced from various Italian Breda-SAFAT 12.7 mm rounds. Japanese-designed and produced rounds would eventually mostly replace these imported rounds.
The Pak 43 was a German 88 mm anti-tank gun developed by Krupp in competition with the Rheinmetall 8.8 cm Flak 41 anti-aircraft gun and used during World War II. The Pak 43 was the most powerful anti-tank gun of the Wehrmacht to see service in significant numbers, also serving in modified form as the 8.8 cm KwK 43 main gun on the Tiger II tank, the open-top Nashorn and fully enclosed, casemate-hulled Elefant and Jagdpanther tank destroyers.
The 7.5 cm KwK 37 L/24(7.5 cm Kampfwagenkanone 37 L/24) was a short-barreled, howitzer-like German 75 mm tank gun used during World War II, primarily as the main armament of the early Panzer IV tank. Slightly modified as StuK 37, it was also mounted in early StuG III assault guns.
The 7.5 cm KwK 40 was a German 75 mm Second World War era vehicle-mounted gun, used as the primary armament of the German Panzer IV medium tank and the Sturmgeschütz III and Sturmgeschütz IV assault guns which were used as tank destroyers.
The 5 cm KwK 39 L/60(5 cm Kampfwagenkanone 39 L/60) was a German 50 mm calibre tank gun used during the Second World War, primarily as the main armament of later models of the German Panzer III tank from December 1941 onwards. It was produced when the well-armoured T-34 and KV-1 tanks were encountered in ever increasing numbers on the Eastern Front, although it was only partially successful in its role. It was later superseded by the 7.5 cm KwK 40 L/43.
7.5 cm Pak 39 (L/48)(7.5 cm Panzerjägerkanone 39) was a 7.5 cm German Second World War era anti-tank gun. The gun was used to equip Jagdpanzer IV/48 and Jagdpanzer 38 tank destroyers; no towed version of the weapon was made. The Pak 39 was an electrically fired weapon fitted with a semi-automatic breech mechanism and a 48 caliber long barrel. The gun was able to destroy the most common allied tanks at up to 1,000 meters. It used the same 75 x 495R ammunition as the 7.5 cm KwK 40 of Panzer IV and 7.5 cm StuK 40 gun fitted on the Sturmgeschütz assault guns. The Pak 39 was manufactured from 1943 onwards by Rheinmetall-Borsig AG in Unterlüß and by Seitz-Werke GmbH in Bad Kreuznach. The main types of ammunition used were: Panzergranatpatrone 39 (APCBC), Sprenggranatpatrone 37 (HE) and different versions of the Granatpatrone 39 HL (HEAT).
The Stielgranate 41 was a German shaped charge, fin-stabilized shell, used with the 3.7 cm Pak 36 anti-tank gun to give it better anti-tank performance.