8.8 cm Pak 43
| 8.8 cm Pak 43/41 | |
|---|---|
|
8.8 cm Pak 43/41 at US Army Ordnance Museum. | |
| Type | Anti-tank gun |
| Place of origin | Nazi Germany |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1943-1945 |
| Used by | Nazi Germany |
| Wars | World War II |
| Production history | |
| Manufacturer | Krupp, Rheinmetall |
| Produced | 1943-1945 |
| Number built | ~2,100 |
| Variants |
PaK 43 on cruciform carriage Pak 43/41 on split-trail carriage KwK 43 vehicle mounted |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 4,380 kg (9,660 lb) |
| Length | 6.4 m (21 ft 0 in) |
| Barrel length | 6.61 m (21 ft 8 in) L/71 |
| Height | 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) |
|
| |
| Shell | See Ammunition Table |
| Caliber | 88 mm (3.5 in) |
| Breech | Horizontal semi-automatic sliding block |
| Recoil | hydro-pneumatic |
| Carriage | split-trail |
| Elevation | -5° to +38° |
| Traverse | 56° |
| Rate of fire | 6-7 rpm |
| Muzzle velocity | See Ammunition Table |
| Effective firing range | 4,000 m (4,400 yd) |
| Maximum firing range | 16,000 m (17,000 yd) |
The Pak 43 (Panzerabwehrkanone 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 the Second World War. 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, to the open-top Nashorn, and fully enclosed, casemate-hulled Elefant and Jagdpanther tank destroyers.
The improved 8.8 cm gun had a very flat trajectory out to 914 m (1,000 yd), making it easier for the gunner to hit targets at longer ranges as fewer corrections in elevation were needed. In addition to this, the gun's exceptional penetration performance made it able to frontally penetrate any Allied tank to see service during the war at long ranges, even the Soviet IS-2 tanks and IS chassis-based tank destroyers. The gun's maximum firing range exceeded 13 kilometers (8 miles).
Design
KwK 43 and Pak 43s were initially manufactured with monobloc barrels. However, the weapons' extremely high muzzle velocity and operating pressures caused accelerated barrel wear, resulting in a change to a two-piece barrel. This had no effect on performance but made replacing a worn out barrel much faster and easier than before.
The massively increased operating pressures of the new gun in turn required a new armour-piercing shell to be designed. The result was the PzGr.39/43 APCBC-HE projectile, which, apart from the addition of much wider driving bands, was otherwise identical to the older 10.2-kilogram PzGr.39-1 APCBC-HE projectile used by the 8.8 cm KwK 36 and Pak 43 guns. The wider driving bands resulted in an increased weight to 10.4 kilograms for the PzGr.39/43.[1] However, up until the full transition to the new PzGr.39/43 round was complete, the older PzGr.39-1 was used for the KwK & Pak 43, but only provided the gun had been used for no more than 500 rounds. Over this, the expected barrel wear combined with the narrow driving bands could lead to a loss of pressure. The new PzGr.39/43 could be fired without loss of pressure until the barrel was worn out, thus requiring no restriction.
PzGr.39-1 FES & Al all up weight: 10.2 kg (9.87 kg without fuse & bursting charge)
PzGr.39/43 FES & Al all up weight: 10.4 kg (10.06 kg without fuse & bursting charge)
The same 278-gram BdZ 5127 fuse and 59-gram Amatol bursting charge was used for both types of projectile (PzGr.39-1 & PzGr.39/43), requiring armoured targets of 30 mm or thicker to ignite after penetration for maximum behind-armour effects.
Versions
The main version of the Pak 43 was based on a highly effective cruciform mount, which offered a full 360 degree traverse and a much lower profile than the ubiquitous anti-aircraft 8.8 cm Flak 37. However the manufacture of this version was initially slow and costly.
To simplify production some were mounted on the two-wheel split-trail carriage from the 10.5 cm leFH 18 field howitzer, resulting in a version known as Pak 43/41. The 43/41 proved heavy and awkward to handle in the mud and snow of the Eastern Front and gunners referred to 43/41 as the "barn door" (German: Scheunentor),[2] a reference to the size and weight of the gun. Nevertheless, the improvised Pak 43/41 proved an effective substitute for the Pak 43 until sufficient of the more complex cruciform mounts could be manufactured to replace it in service.
The Pak 43 was also mounted in German armored vehicles, and this version was known as the 8.8 cm KwK 43. Versions of this gun were mounted in a number of German armored vehicles under different designations, including the Tiger II heavy tank (KwK 43 L/71) and several tank destroyers: the Hornisse/Nashorn (Pak 43/1), Ferdinand/Elefant (Pak 43/2), and Jagdpanther (Pak 43/3 and Pak 43/4). A few examples of the Tiger II-based Jagdtiger were also completed with the 8.8 cm weapon due to a shortage of the 12.8 cm Pak 44, but these tank destroyers are not believed to have seen operational service.
Ammunition and penetration
The Pzgr. 39/43 and HE shells were generally available. Pzgr. 40/43 were in severely short supply.
Pzgr. 39/43 APCBC-HE
- Type: Armour Piercing Capped with Ballistic Cap - High Explosive
- Projectile weight: 10.4 kg (22.92 lbs)
- Muzzle velocity: 1,000 m/s (3,300 ft/s)
| Penetration | Hit probability versus 2.5 m x 2 m target[3] | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Range | RHA plate at 30° from vertical |
in training | in combat |
| 100 m | 202 mm | 100% | 100% |
| 500 m | 185 mm | 100% | 100% |
| 1,000 m | 165 mm | 100% | 85% |
| 1,500 m | 148 mm | 95% | 61% |
| 2,000 m | 132 mm | 85% | 43% |
| 2,500 m | n/a | 74% | 30% |
| 3,000 m | n/a | 61% | 23% |
| 3,500 m | n/a | 51% | 17% |
| 4,000 m | n/a | 42% | 13% |
Pzgr. 40/43 APCR
- Type: Armour-piercing, Composite Rigid construction)
- Projectile weight: 7.3 kg (16 lbs)
- Muzzle velocity: 1,130 m/s (3,707 ft/s)
| Hit probability versus 2.5 m x 2 m target[3] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Range | Penetration | in training | in combat |
| 100 m | 238 mm | 100% | 100% |
| 500 m | 217 mm | 100% | 100% |
| 1000 m | 193 mm | 100% | 89% |
| 1500 m | 171 mm | 97% | 66% |
| 2000 m | 153 mm | 89% | 47% |
| 2500 m | n/a | 78% | 34% |
| 3000 m | n/a | 66% | 25% |
Gr. 39/3 HL (HEAT)
- Projectile weight: 7.65 kg (17 lbs)
- Muzzle velocity: 600 m/s (1,968 ft/s)
- Penetration: 90 mm
See also
Notes
- ↑ US Army Technical Manual TM9-1985-3, United States Government Printing Office Washington, 1953
- ↑ Gander and Chamberlain (1979) p. 119
- 1 2 http://www.fprado.com/armorsite/tiger2.htm citing Jentz, Thomas L.; Kingtiger Heavy Tank: 1942 - 1945; ISBN 185532 282 X
References
- Gander, Terry and Chamberlain, Peter. Weapons of the Third Reich: An Encyclopedic Survey of All Small Arms, Artillery and Special Weapons of the German Land Forces 1939-1945. New York: Doubleday, 1979 ISBN 0-385-15090-3
- Hogg, Ian V. German Artillery of World War Two. 2nd corrected edition. Mechanicsville, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997 ISBN 1-85367-480-X
External links
8,8 cm Pak 43 (L/71) - Panzerworld
8,8 cm Pak (album) - flickr
D/97+ Gerätliste 1943, p.45 - guns.ru
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to PaK 43. |
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