Pak 43: The most powerful anti-tank gun of the Wehrmacht, which turned out to be almost unclaimed
After the serial production of the 1942-mm Pak 75 anti-tank gun began in January 40, German engineers did not stop there. Despite the fact that the aforementioned gun more than successfully coped with the task assigned to it, armor protection tanks countries of the anti-Hitler coalition was constantly improving. Therefore, there is a need for a more powerful weapons, which became the gun Panzerjägerkanone 43.
The Pak 43 in 88mm began mass production in 1943. The basis of the most powerful anti-tank gun of the Wehrmacht was the Flak 41 anti-aircraft gun with a barrel length of 71 calibers. The main feature of the new "tank destroyer" was that the muzzle velocity of the projectile could reach 1130 m/s. At the same time, the effective firing range, according to the developers, was up to 2-2,5 km (depending on the type of projectile).
According to open sources, the Soviet IS-2 tank, whose frontal armor often withstood Pak 40 hits, was destroyed by Pak 88 fire in 43% of cases.
It would seem that the Wehrmacht had an ideal weapon. However, as is often the case in practice, the shortcomings negated all the advantages that were noted during the tests.
Firstly, during real battles it turned out that the statements of the designers about the effective range of 2-2,5 km do not correspond to reality. According to the reports of the German gunners, the speed of the projectile at the aforementioned distances fell critically.
Secondly, the traveling weight of the Pak 43 reached almost 5 tons. The maximum towing speed on the highway was 45 km / h. It was extremely difficult to transport the gun off-road, which made the gun and crew a very easy target.
Finally, thirdly, there were a number of economic reasons that made the gun extremely “unprofitable”. This should include an expensive anti-aircraft carriage, which, however, was later replaced with wheels from a 105-mm howitzer, which negatively affected the already low speed of transportation.
As a result, the Pak 43 gun continued to cope with the tasks assigned to the Pak 40 quite successfully. It is not surprising that more than 75 thousand units of 20 mm guns were fired, while 88 mm guns were produced 10 times less.
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