Sunday 23 February 2014

Penetration, Part 5

I talked about penetration tables many times before, but there is always something fresh to be discovered. Here is yet another table from Yuri Pasholok. The data in the table contains some obvious typos, which I corrected in my table. Regrettably, all but a handful of these guns are unknown to me, so the names may not be entirely correct.


"Comparative table of penetration of tank armour by anti-tank and battalion guns (composed by artillery engineer Verkfeld)
1932

Gun name
Penetration
Range in meters
Angle of impact
20 mm Oerlikon gun
30
400
90

36
100
90

40
closer
90
20 mm Holland Society gun, without muzzle brake
20
200
90

18
300
90

15
400
90
with muzzle brake
21
600
90

32
400
90

36
200
90
20 mm Madsen gun



With 675 m/s muzzle velocity
25
175
90
With 780 m/s muzzle velocity
Unknown


American 37 mm M-1 gun
25
900
90
37 mm Bofors gun



0.6 kg shell
20
780
90

10
2400
90
0.8 kg shell
20
980
90

20
620
60
40 mm Beardmore gun
30
300
90
47 mm Bofors gun
40
920
90

40
420
60

30
1650
90

30
1000
60

20
3040
90
47 mm Beardmore gun
20
1250
90

15
1250
60
47 mm Vickers gun
30
300
90

26
500
90

22.5
750
90

20
1000
90

17
1500
90
TO/32 Skoda gun
22
500
90

17
1000
90
65/37 mm Holland Society gun
18
600
90
60/44 mm Vickers gun
30
300
90

20
600
90

12
1000
90

22
360
60

18.5
600
60

11.4
1000
60
60/44 mm Vickers gun
24
300
45

15.6
600
45

10
1000
45
70/47 mm Holland Society gun
20
1000
90
75/47 mm Holland Society gun
40
910
90

30
1600
90

22
2900
90

The above table shows that various gun calibers are used in anti-tank roles, from 20 mm to 75 mm. The main caliber of this time is 37 mm, but, as seen in the table, it does not effectively solve the task it is given. [illegible] are gradually receding, and calibers around 45 mm are becoming popular. As can be seen from the table, the 47 mm Bofors gun more or achieves its goals. Its appearance led to a lot of talk in military technical literature. Many of the guns in the above table are automatic, capable of firing not only at ground targets, but air targets, if installed in special mounts."

A particularly notable gun in this list is the Vickers 47 mm. This gun was installed in the Vickers 6-ton Type B (single turret). As you can see, its armour-piercing effect was quite potent, especially considering the thin armour of the tank itself.

The note about anti-tank guns reaching calibers of 75 mm isn't quite true. The guns with slashes in their names are bicaliber. A replacement barrel allows the use of two calibers in the same gun system, with minimal changes. The actual caliber of the fired shell would be the second one, in the cases of the above table, 37-47 mm.

9 comments:

  1. "Erlikon" could be Oerlikon of Switzerland, but which 20 mm gun the table is referring to is a mystery.
    "Matsen" is probably Madsen of Denmark, which also manufactured 20 mm autocannons in the early 30's.

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  2. When is this table from, by the way? The weapon I think of when it mentions "37 mm Bofors" should penetrate about 55 mm at 600 meters/90 degrees, with late-30's ammunition.

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    Replies
    1. Right, that makes sense. The weapon I'm thinking of didn't exist at that time.

      Delete
  3. "Erlikon" and "Matsen" are Oerlikon and Madsen like TheFluff mentioned. There looks to have been an Oerlikon S cannon from 1927 that would fit the bill.

    The "Holland society" mentioned might be Holland & Holland gunmakers in London, but they specialize in huge hunting cartridges for big game, luxury weapons, that kind of thing. I'm not able to find any 20 mm weaponry made by these guys. Another likely candidate is the 20x105B Solothurn cartridge, which was used in some anti-tank weapons and Dutch aircraft guns in the 1930s, which probably qualifies it for being from Holland.

    And the "Birdmor" refers to the Beardmore 40 and 47mm weapons.

    http://www.jedsite.info/artillery-bravo/bravo/beardmore_series/beardmore-series.html

    The "Holland Society" 47mm weapon might be one of the two below -
    http://www.waroverholland.nl/index.php?page=47-mm-at-gun-pag
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannone_da_47/32_M35

    ReplyDelete
  4. The multi-caliber guns lists penetration with lower caliber, the basic principle of these guns was either two barrels on one mount or interchangeable barrels. The bigger caliber was usually short-barreled HE thrower, smaller caliber was mid-length barrel. Kinda overcomplicated jacks-of-all trades not worth the bother :D

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  5. That "Holland Society" name seems to be nowhere to be found on the internet. Furthermore, it has been spelt three different ways in the same document! Are there any alternative translations for this name? It is quite a mystery, and I just can't find it anywhere.

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    Replies
    1. Never mind, I finally found the mysterious company. Its name is Hollandsche Industrien Handelmaatschappij or Holland Industry and Trading Company (frequently referred to as HIH and HIH Siderius). It seems like they translated the "Holland Company" part of the name into "Holland Society". Links below.

      http://www.network54.com/Forum/330333/thread/1167257231/A+Companion+to+Dutch+light+calibre+guns,+1919-1942

      http://www.overvalwagen.com/HIHSiderius4.html

      (It seems like the Soviets had an artillery encycopedia in 1932 that listed 12 types of HIH guns - it'd be interesting to see what else they listed)

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