Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military From: adrian%cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK (Adrian Hurt) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: German Weapons in WW2 Message-ID: <6998@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 31 May 89 03:42:51 GMT References: <6864@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: Computer Science, Heriot-Watt U., Scotland Lines: 67 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Adrian Hurt In article <6864@cbnews.ATT.COM> military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) writes: >uunet.uu.net!bywater!archet!wlm (William L. Moran Jr.) writes: >> >>Why did earlier Pz Kw IVs have a short 75mm gun? They later switched >>to the long version; was there a good reason? I guess what I'm >>wondering is why they would ever have used a short barrel gun? >>(Especially since the Pz Kw III had a longish gun). When was the long-barrel 75mm gun first available? (Maybe that should be "medium-barrel" - an even longer version was fitted to the Panther, and some tank destroyers.) > The PzKw III was to be the "main battle" >tank, for tank-to-tank combat; recall that in the mid-39's, most >tanks were still lightly armored, and a 37mm was thought sufficient >(though room was left to upgun to a 50mm). I thought the front of the turret got redesigned, with one of the two MG's being deleted to make room for the 50mm gun. Later, a longer barrel version of that came out too, and went into the PzKw III; it also went into the Puma armoured car, as well as being used as an anti-tank gun. > The French, in their Char B, had a short >75mm howitzer in the hull for HE and smoke, while the turret-mounted >47mm was to deal with enemy armor... >The famous T-35 mounted a 75mm in the main turret, with 45mm's in two >auxiliary turrets, and two more aux turrets with machineguns. Don't forget the US Lee tank, with a 75mm gun in the hull, a 37mm gun in a turret, and a machinegun in a cupola on top of the turret. >In fact, this concept continued throughout the war. When the PzIV >was upgunned to a long 75mm, the PzIII, now nearly useless, was upgunned to >take the short 75... Is that the StuG series? These were SPG's, featuring a PzKw III hull with a fixed gun mount on top. The first had the short 75, but later versions had the same longer 75 as the PzKw IV, and some had 105mm guns. The PzKw IV also had such variants; as well as a StuG IV, there was the Jagdpanzer IV, with an even longer 75mm gun. Such tank destroyers were also developed from other chassis. The Jagdpanther had a long 88mm gun, like the one in the King Tiger; and the Jagdtiger had a 128mm gun, the most powerful tank gun of the war. >>How many Ta 152s (the fw 190 follow-on :) saw service? I recall >>reading that it was clearly superior to any other non jet fighter in >>the war (although I don't remember where I read this). Can anyone >>recommend a good book on Luftwaffe planes (something along the lines >>of ``German Tanks of World War 2'' by Dr. F.M. von Senger und Etterlin)? > >Green states that 150 Ta-152H-1's were produced, and they were apparently >the only version to reach production. I believe the Ta-152C-1 also reached production; it was the fighter. The H variant had longer wings, and was intended as a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. Incidentally, the "Ta" designation stands for "Tank", as in Kurt Tank, its designer. He was getting annoyed that Willi Messerschmidt was being honoured by his aircraft being called Me---, while Tank's planes were named for their producer, Focke-Wulf - FW. "Keyboard? How quaint!" - M. Scott Adrian Hurt | JANET: adrian@uk.ac.hw.cs UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian | ARPA: adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk