"How about it, Lavery, do you see what kind of cannon this is?"
After hearing the question from Malashenko's mouth, Lavrinenko shook his head and swore that it was his first time to see this new type of German anti-tank gun. Lavrinenko then spoke softly.
"It's strange that 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 of the previous 50mm small water pipes, and the barrel is twice as long
The diameter ratio is also longer, and the armor-piercing capability must be improved to a higher level. If I guess correctly, the initiator who destroyed our tank just now should be this thing."
In the previous series of battles, Malashenko and his troops, who had fought many times with German infantry units, had captured German anti-tank guns more than once. The relatively complex models ranged from pak36 to 37 mm small guns.
There are everything from water pipes to pak38 50mm main anti-tank guns.
But this time, the new anti-tank guns that Malashenko captured after capturing the position were very different from before.
The slender barrel lays a solid foundation for greater penetration than the pak38, and the further enlargement of the caliber provides a guarantee for the larger launch cartridge volume of the custom-fitted integrated artillery shells. The powerful combination between the two
Finally, we created an artifact that can destroy 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 due to the heavy tanks of the British and French forces that appeared on the Western Front battlefield that caused a considerable impact on the German army. At that time, it was the main force
The Pak36 and Pak38, which are widely equipped in the German front-line infantry divisions, are difficult to cause any substantial damage to the British Matilda and French B1.
Realizing that their own infantry divisions urgently needed a new anti-tank gun, the German military leaders issued a research and development tender plan, but it was not until the two German arms giants Krupp and Rheinmetall came together to come up with the design plan.
The slow and cumbersome heavy tank units in the hands of the British and French allied forces have long been divided and surrounded by German armored forces and then eliminated one by one. Almost all the stubborn resisters were called out by 88mm anti-aircraft guns. Even the Soviet KV series heavy tanks can directly kill these 88mm guns.
It was easy for the British and French coalition forces to defeat the Iron King. As a result, the pak40 lost the meaning of its existence since the beginning of the project.
The smooth progress of the war caused the German military leaders to shelve the Pak40 plan for the time being. The German army, which had not done enough preliminary intelligence preparations, did not experience the power of the Soviet T34 and KV series for the first time until Operation Barbarossa was launched.
at.
The small water pipe anti-tank gun that is equipped as the main anti-tank weapon cannot do anything to these Soviet tanks. Not to mention the 37mm pak36, which is a stepping stone. Even the best pak38 in the hands of the German army has no armor defense compared to the kv1.
The weak T34 could not even be worn. This result deeply shocked the German military leaders, who immediately thought of the Pak40 plan that had been temporarily shelved due to no actual demand.
As if grasping a life-saving straw, the German military leaders immediately listed the pak40 project as the highest priority for production and implementation. The design specifications jointly submitted by Rheinmetall and Krupp engineers showed that this type of anti-tank gun has the ability to fire at a shooting range of one thousand meters. The ability to penetrate a 108mm vertical homogeneous steel armor target plate is a test result obtained by using a hooded armor-piercing projectile with balanced properties.
If the Type 40 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 one thousand meters to an astonishing 127 mm.
Although the paper data of the 40 tungsten-core armor-piercing projectile is very bluffing, the tank armor protection design of the Soviet tanks, which are basically all four-two-pound tilted armor, will not give it a good chance to perform. Therefore, in most cases, this The actual armor-piercing data of the latest anti-tank guns will still be based on hooded armor-piercing bullets.
After circling around the almost intact brand-new anti-tank gun for several times, Malashenko, who had never figured out what it was, finally came to his senses when he thought of the distinctive feature of an enlarged caliber.
The next standard tank gun on German tanks after the 50mm tank gun is the 75 on the Chang No. 4. Looking at it this way, based on the theory that there is great versatility between German tank guns and anti-tank guns, this one is The true identity of the anti-tank gun was naturally revealed.
"If you guessed it right, this should be the German pak40. Historically, this thing was put into the front line for testing in actual combat at the end of 1941. However, there should only be a very few produced to test actual combat data and feedback effects. This thing It wasn't until 1942 that mass production could begin on a large scale. How could it be so unlucky for me to encounter just a few of these?"
The barrel length of the new pak40 anti-tank gun with a caliber of 75 mm has reached a relatively outstanding 46 times the caliber. The combination of the longer barrel diameter and the larger caliber made it in the hands of the German front-line battlefield infantry divisions in 1942. The premier anti-tank Optimus Prime, let alone the T34, can destroy KV1 with ease.
The emergence of this type of anti-tank gun may have unclear meaning to others, but for Malashenko it is very clear in his heart.
The emergence of pak40 represents the rapid improvement and increasingly powerful technology of German anti-tank guns. 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, and the German infantry will be able to recover. It is easy to deal with these T34 medium tanks and even KV1 heavy tanks. There is no need to use heavy and complicated things like 88 guns to spend a lot of time.
The more important point is that the KV1, which has ignored its frontal armor protection, is now in an embarrassing situation. When the thick armor protection is not enough to withstand the frontal attack of the enemy's anti-tank firepower, then this heavy armor defense will not be able to withstand the enemy's anti-tank firepower. It has no use anymore, it's just a drag on the tank's mobility and a near-cumbersome thing used to withstand small water pipe machine gun bullets.
Standing next to this intact Pak40 and staring at several Pak40s that had been bombarded into parts in the surrounding snow, Malashenko made a rough estimate and concluded that the German army's new 75mm Pak40 anti-tank gun participated in this battle. There are 4 doors, 2 of which have been blown up during the battle and only two are left intact.
A mere 4 anti-tank guns may not seem like much. At best, they destroyed 2 Soviet KV1 heavy tanks and injured 3. The casualties did not seem to be large, but Malashenko was really worried about much more than that.