Quote:
Originally posted by TheRedBaron:
TA GArdner
But aint that gun only in the SU-100 TA? I got told off for choosing a gun not in a tank...  Good point on the 128 though. TA you may know the answer to this... What was the 42mm taper like as an A/T gun? My sources are not very conclusive and I am having trouble finding data for its combat use in Africa and Italy. I now it was also issued to some Fj units.
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I don't see where in the original question or poll the word "tank" was mentioned. I did assume that only AFV / anti-tank guns were being considered from those listed in the poll as opposed to various types of artillery pieces.....
On the 2.8cm sPzB 41:
It is one of three designs that used a taper bore system. The other two are the 4.2cm le. PaK 41 using the same Gerlich system (this gun looks like a longer barrelled 3.7cm PaK 36) and the 7.5cm PaK 41 by Krupp (also on the Gerlich principle).
The last mentioned was a truly impressive gun. It penetrated 171mm at 30 degrees obliquity at 500 yards. This puts it on par with the 88/71 in penetration.
But, back to the 2.8cm: Two versions were produced: The aforementioned sPzB 41 and the le Feldlafette 41 version for parachute use.
Performance-wise this gun penetrated about 68mm at 400 yards giving it about double the performance of a 20/55 as fitted on the Pz II or about 1/3 better performance than a 3.7cm AT gun.
As for the 4.2cm, a handful saw service in Africa and Italy. I have seen at least one photo of one in use with Panzer Division Hermann Göring in Central Italy.
This gun penetrated about 88mm at 500 yards. The gun was manufactured from early 1941 until very early in 1942 but, I don't have an exact production figure. It is likely that many ended up in units forming about that time or shortly thereafter. It is also hard to spot in photographs as the only noticable difference in it and the 3.7cm is the length of the barrel.
The round fired went from 4.2cm to 2.94cm at the muzzle, weighed .336kg (11.75 oz) and had a muzzle velocity of 1265 m/s (4149 fps).