Chapter 367 Pak 40
"How about it, Lavry, do you know what kind of gun this is?"
After hearing the question from Malashenko, he shook his head slightly and swore that this was the first time he had seen this new type of German anti-tank gun.
"It's strange, I have never seen this kind of German anti-tank gun before. Although the general structure and design are not much different, the caliber of this gun is far better than those 50 small water pipes in the past, and the barrel diameter ratio is also longer. The armor-piercing ability must be improved. If I am not mistaken, the culprit who just destroyed our tank should be this thing."
In a series of battles before this, Malashenko and his troops, who had fought with the German infantry many times, had captured the German anti-tank guns more than once. The relatively complicated models ranged from the PAK36 37mm small water pipe to the PAK38 50mm main anti-tank gun.
But this time, the anti-tank guns that Malashenko captured after taking the position were very different from the previous ones.
The longer barrel laid a solid foundation for a stronger penetration than the PAK38, and the further enlargement of the caliber provided a guarantee for the larger volume of the cartridge for the fixed integrated shells. The combination of the two finally created such a magical weapon that could destroy the KV1 head-on at a distance of 100 meters - the PAK40 75mm anti-tank gun.
This type of anti-tank gun originated from a contract between Rheinmetall and Krupp to jointly develop a new tank gun. It was mainly because the heavy tanks of the British and French coalition forces that appeared on the Western Front caused a great impact on the German army. At that time, the PAK36 and PAK38, which were widely equipped in the German front-line infantry divisions as the main equipment, could hardly cause any substantial damage to the British Matilda and the French B1.
Realizing that their infantry divisions were in urgent need of a new anti-tank gun, the German high-ranking officials issued a research and development bidding plan, but when the two German arms giants Krupp and Rheinmetall came up with a design plan.
The slow and bulky heavy tank units in the hands of the British and French coalition forces had long been divided and surrounded by the German armored forces and eliminated one by one. Almost all the stubborn resisters were named one by one by the 88mm anti-aircraft guns. Even the Soviet KV series heavy tanks could be killed directly by the 88mm guns. It was easy to deal with these British and French coalition iron bastards. As a result, the PAK40 lost its meaning of existence since the beginning of the project.
The smooth progress of the war caused the German high-ranking officials to put the PAK40 plan on hold for the time being. The German army, which did not do a good job in the early intelligence preparation, did not experience the power of the Soviet T34 and KV series for the first time until the launch of Operation Barbarossa.
The small water-tube anti-tank guns used as the main anti-tank weapons in their hands could not do anything to these Soviet tanks, let alone the 37mm PAK36, which was like a stepping stone. Even the best PAK38 in the hands of the German army could not penetrate the T34, whose armor defense was weaker than that of the KV1. This result shocked the German high-level officials and immediately thought of the PAK40 plan that was temporarily shelved due to lack of actual demand.
As if grasping a life-saving straw, the German high-level officials immediately listed the PAK40 plan as the highest priority for production execution. The design indicators jointly submitted by Rheinmetall and Krupp engineers showed that this type of anti-tank gun had the ability to penetrate a 108mm vertical homogeneous steel armor target plate at a shooting distance of 1,000 meters. This was the test result obtained by using a capped armor-piercing projectile with balanced properties.
If the 40-type tungsten core armor-piercing projectile with greater vertical penetration power is used, the PAK40 can penetrate a vertical homogeneous steel armor target plate at a distance of 1,000 meters by an astonishing 127 mm.
Although the paper data of the 40mm tungsten core armor-piercing projectile is very impressive, the Soviet tanks, which are basically all tilted armor with a little effort, will not give it too much opportunity to play. Therefore, in most cases, the actual armor-piercing data of this latest anti-tank gun will still be based on the capped armor-piercing projectile.
After circling around the almost intact new anti-tank gun in front of him for several times, Malashenko, who had been unable to figure out what it was, only reacted when he thought of the significant feature of the larger caliber.
The next standard tank gun on the German tank after the 50mm tank gun is the 75 on the Long Four. From this point of view, based on the theory that there is a great commonality between the German tank gun and the anti-tank gun, the true identity of the anti-tank gun in front of him is naturally obvious.
"If I'm not mistaken, this should be the German PAK40. Originally, this thing was put into the front line for actual combat testing at the end of 1941. However, the production should be very rare for testing actual combat data and feedback effects. This thing can not be mass-produced until 1942. How come I happened to come across these few guns?"
The barrel length of the new PAK40 anti-tank gun with a caliber of 75mm has reached a relatively excellent 46 times the caliber. The combination of a longer barrel and a larger caliber made it the leading anti-tank pillar in the hands of the German front-line infantry division in 1942. Not to mention T34, even destroying KV1 is easy and simple.
The appearance of this type of anti-tank gun may be unclear to others, but it is clear to Malashenko.
The appearance of PAK40 represents the rapid rise and increasing strength of the German anti-tank gun technology. It also means that the "invincible" armor protection advantage that has been retained by Soviet tanks since the beginning of the war no longer exists. The German infantry will be able to deal with these T34 medium tanks and even KV1 heavy tanks more easily, and there is no need to use the 88 guns, which are bulky and complicated.
More importantly, the KV1, which has ignored the frontal armor protection, is now in an awkward situation. When the heavy armor protection is not enough to withstand the frontal attack of the enemy's anti-tank firepower, then this bulky armor defense will no longer be of any use. It is just a burden that drags down the tank's mobility and is used to resist the bullets of small water pipe machine guns.
Standing beside this intact PAK40 and staring at several PAK40s that had been blown into pieces in the snow around him, Malashenko made a rough estimate and concluded that there were about four new 75mm PAK40 anti-tank guns of the German army participating in this battle, two of which had been blown up in the battle and only two were left intact.
Four anti-tank guns may not seem like much, at most they only destroyed two Soviet KV1 heavy tanks and damaged three, and it seems that the casualties were not great, but what Malashenko was really worried about was far more than that.