37mm Anti-Tank Guns

Hi, which was the best 37mm ATG of WW2, here is some stats,


37mm L/45 m/36 Bofors (Swedish)
Muzzle Velocity: 830 m/s
Rate Of Fire: 30 r.p.m.
Maximum HE Range: 7.100m
Armour Penetration: 33mm @ 500m @ 30°

37mm L/57 M.3 (American)
Muzzle Velocity: 792 m/s
Rate Of Fire: 20 r.p.m.
Maximum HE Range: 6.900m
Armour Penetration: 54mm @ 500m @ 30°

37mm L/46 Type 94 (Japanese)
Muzzle Velocity: 700m
Rate Of Fire: 15 r.p.m.
Maximum HE Range: 2.870m
Armour Penetration: 40mm @ 500m @ 30°

37mm L/50 Type 01 (Japanese)
Muzzle Velocity: 780 m/s
Rate Of Fire: 15
Maximum HE Range: 6000m
Armour Penetration: 44mm @ 500m @ 30°

37mm L/45 Pak 35/36 (German)
Muzzle Velocity:
Rate Of Fire: 13 r.p.m.
Maximum HE Range: 5.484m
Armour Penetration: 31mm @ 500m @ 30°

37mm L/35 H.I.H (Austrian/Bulgarian)
Muzzle Velocity: 525 m/s
Rate Of Fire: ?
Maximum HE Range: 3.200m
Armour Penetration: 29mm @ 500m @ 30°

I my self go for the U.S. M.6,

 

Make it on the technical data´s, i would say the Bofors was the best. The German wasn´t it they called it "Panzeranklopfgeraet" for the bad results on the russian heavy tanks.

 

AFAIK the US gun was strongly influenced by the Rheinmetall Pak 36, but 37mm was just too small a caliber for an AT gun by 1941 when it reached the troops, most countries were issuing 45 to 57mm AT guns with much better performance. Against the thin skinned Japanese tanks it remained useful for longer.

The big advantage of all 37mm guns is they could be manhandled easily, later heavier guns were nearly useless to support advancing infantry, the limitation is that against tanks with 2 to 3 inch armour plates they needed a lot of luck to stop one.
As manhandling is a critical feature you should also add total carriage weight to the comparison. .

 

The U.S. Gun also had a very effective cannister round making it usefull against enemy personnel, as many a son of Nippon found out.
As Tired old Soldier wrote:

It's light weight came in handy at Tarawa where it was lifted by manpower over the seawall. It's fire proved crucial in the early part of the battle.

 

I agree that the Bofors was a good gun for its calibre, one more gun I was going to add to this list was the 40M ATG used by the Hungarians, it was a hybrid weapon using parts from three different waepons (Hungaian/German/Swedish).

40mm L/51 40M
Muzzle Velocity: 824 m/s
Rate Of Fire: 20 r.p.m.
Maximum HE Range: 8.600m
Armour Penetration: 38mm @ 500m @ 30° ? (some say 45mm I am still not sure)

I did not want to enter this gun to this list because of its larger calibre (40mm not 37mm), I will probably end up entering 45mm & 47mm to this list, and even the pak 38, but the 40M was such an unique weapon I thought you might be interested.

 

Yan,



Don't forget to take into account what the use was when considering which was best. The US Marines used canister rounds as anti-personnel in the Pacific Theater. They found those M3 37mm ATGs to be far more effective for that and using HE rounds for bunker/ pill box busting.

 

If you stretch it to 40mm you would really need to add the British 2lb that was a contemporary of most other weapns listed. Pretty good A/T performance but no HE (far less cannister) for most of it's service use. I would not go up to 47mm as
Do we consider things like the littlejohn adaptor or (horror) the Stielgranate 41 Stielgranate 41 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that madethe PAK 36 capable of knocking out even a JS-2 provided it managed to get a hit.

What about the 37mm tank guns?
French Ft-17 (and foreign copies)
French R-35 (was it the same gun as the FT?)
French R-39 and H40
Italian M11/39
Czech Skoda and CKD models (too many to list but AFAIK same gun)

The 37mm were pretty useful bunker busting tools, the Germans knocked out a number of French concrete bunkers by manhandling a few 37mm forward, forcing the defenders to take cover by firing at the embrasures and then bringing up an 88mm Flak gun to finish the job.

I would not include the Pak 38 as it was a "second generation" A/T gun. Most 45mm and 47mm designs were pre-war and were definetly first generation, the Austrian WW1 47/32 Bohler infantry support gun that was the main Italian A/T gus has specs that match well with the 37 guns.

Travel weight 315Kg
Combat weight 227Kg (but when deployed it had no shield and no weels!!)
Muzzle velocity 630 m/s
Armour penetration: 43 mm (1.7in) at 500 m (550 yards)
The larger caliber allowed for a HEAT round (Granata modello 39) but I have no peneration figures for it. As it was considered a support not an A/T gun initially A/T ammo was pretty scarce.

 

I should have included the 2 pdr you are right, I have some nice stats on French Tank Guns, if any one is interested I will post them on this thread.

 

More complete data on US 37....Sorry, should not have copied....Gaines

 

[FONT=&quot]37mmL/57 M3 ANTI-TANK GUN[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]CREW = 5[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]GUN LENGTH = 3.315m
WEIGHT = 414kg.
ELEVATION = -10[/FONT]°[FONT=&quot] TO +15[/FONT]°[FONT=&quot].
TRAVERSE = 60[/FONT]°[FONT=&quot].
SHELL TYPE/WEIGHT = AP & APC 0.87 kg, HE 0.73 kg, Canister 0.88 kg.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]RATE OF FIRE = 20 r.p.m.
MUZZEL VELOCITY = 792 m/s.
MAXIMUM RANGE = 6.900m.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]ARMOUR PENITRATION = 54mm @ [/FONT][FONT=&quot]500m @ [/FONT][FONT=&quot]30[/FONT]°[FONT=&quot].[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]TRACTION = JEEP.[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]QUANTITY = 20.000.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]YEAR = 1937.

[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]

 

Here is a great site that was posted on this form sometime ago:

Guns vs Armour 1939 to 1945

 

Thats a great site, I have used it for loads of data in the past.

 

The Marine Corps used 37mm M3A1's to pretty good effect against troops in the PTO.

the 37mm was also a capable weapon against massed Banzai attacks. On Tarawa, Saipan and Guam, 37mm gunners fired canister rounds at close range into massed enemy formations. Working with other assets in the Marine combat team, 37mm helped to form walls of steel that stopped all but the most fanatical and determined enemy troops.

Antitank Gun, 37mm, M3A1

 

I'm puzzled by these stats in the first post:

37mm L/45 m/36 Bofors (Swedish)
Muzzle Velocity: 830 m/s
Armour Penetration: 33mm @ 500m @ 30°

37mm L/57 M.3 (American)
Muzzle Velocity: 792 m/s
Armour Penetration: 54mm @ 500m @ 30°

The Bofors has a higher muzzle velocity, but the armour penetration of the M3 is much greater. Is there an error here?

 

The muzzle velocity and penetration also depend on the ammunition used.

The German 28mm Panzerbusche M41 is of note here

German Guns up to 30mm calibre

French 37mm tanks guns were not very good

French Guns 37mm calibre

French Hotchkiss 25mm, does not look so bad when compared to some of these 37mm

French Guns up to 25mm calibre

British 2pdr

British Guns 37mm and 40mm calibre

US 37mm Gun

USA Guns 37mm calibre

 

You are right Leccy, I have just had a look on wiki and come up this this:
37mm M3 = 884 m/s
37mm Bofors = 870 m/s
I will have to change my data if this is right. But maybe the M3 fired a better round then the Bofors.
Sorry, Ian.

 

Those chaps In post 13,look like they're firing a 75mm pack howitzer?or am I whistling Dixie?cheers

 

I believe you're right, 4th wilts, good catch!

 

It is indeed a 75mm Pack Howitzer but the picture is part of 1stChutes signature and appears on all his posts.

 

The penetration data I posted for the US 37mm shows a velocity of 792m/s with a penetration of 36mm of armour at 0 degree at a range of 457m using standard AP, weight of projectile 0.87kg.

The Swedish Bofors 37mm firing standard AP had a velocity of 800m/s with a penetration of 32mm of armour at 0 degree, at a range of 500m, weight of projectile 0.71kg. I will have a look at some of my books for some conformation.

Swedish Guns