Jump to content

Search the Community

Showing results for tags 'guns'.

  • Search By Tags

    Type tags separated by commas.
  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • Discussion Forums
    • AFV Forum
    • General Naval and Air
    • Weapons other than Tanks (WOTTs)
    • King Sargent Military History Forum
    • Military Current Events
    • Armor Scientific Forum
    • Modeller's Forum
    • Gamer's Forum
    • Free Fire Zone
    • Tanknet Library
    • Hall of Remembrance
  • TankNet Features
    • Reception Station
    • The Whine Cellar
    • The Trading Post

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start

    End


Last Updated

  • Start

    End


Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End


Group


Website URL


Jabber


Skype


Location


Interests

Found 2 results

  1. I'm interested in having a look at firing tables for tank ammunitions, especially the ones during the cold war. But they are hard to come by online. I will be very grateful if anyone can share some. 🙏
  2. I was looking through some material ancillary to the Most Powerful Tank Cannon Ever Fielded thread and noticed that the reported figures for the 12.8cm Panzerjagerkanone 80 (nee Pak 44) as mounted on the jagdtiger and maus are all over the place. The British chart showing the performance of various German KwK guns credits the "12.8 cm anti tank" with a respectable 28.3 kg projectile at 1,000 m/s for 260mm of penetration at the muzzle. The penetration isn't exactly mind-boggling by post-war standards, but we are talking old-fashioned full caliber shot projectiles here, no fancy discarding sabots or shaped charges. Tony Williams' ammo tables credit the PaK 44 with similar performance, although the chart is not clear on which 128 is being tested. If this figure is correct, and if this figure refers to the PaK 44 and if the PaK 44 is the same gun as in the jagdtiger and maus, then they actually snatch the title of "Most Powerful Tank Cannon Ever Fielded" away from the M103's M58 120mm cannon with an impressive 14.1 mJ of projectile kinetic energy at the muzzle. The KwK 44 would then be a brutal, high-velocity tank-zapping weapon of the nastiest sort; the very biggest for which a human loader could reasonably be expected to heft the ammunition. Only advances in ammunition design saved later tanks from having to heft weapons like this around. However, there are... problems with this interpretation. This site, citing Jentz and Doyle et al. credits the KwK 44 with a 28.3 kg shell at only 845 m/s and about 200mm of penetration. That's an enormously lower muzzle velocity; much lower than can be explained away by the German tests being carried out with pristine gun tubes and the best ammo while other tests were carried out with worn tubes. These, and testing methodology differences typically explain why the Soviet tests of the same guns came away with somewhat different results. A 155 m/s difference in muzzle velocity, or a 30% reduction in muzzle energy is a bit more than one can credibly explain by worn tubes or somewhat weaker ammunition. So, what could possibly be going on here? It occurs to me, looking at Tony Williams' tables that there were two 128mm caliber German guns that saw significant, albeit small, production in WWII. There's the PaK 44 and there's the FlaK 44. The lowball, 845 m/s figure given for the PaK 44 at wwiivehicles is consistent with the performance given at Mr. Williams' site for the FlaK 44. Could the two guns have been confused? They have very similar designations. Given the confusion that persists about other German guns of the same caliber, e.g. many people are not clear that the 8.8 cm KwK 36, 8.8 cm FlaK 41 and 8.8 cm KwK 43 are three different guns firing three different types of ammunition, it does not seem impossible to me that such a mistake could have been made. A FlaK 44 firing a 20-something kilogram projectile at 845 m/s would have had raw performance to the higher-performance Soviet 122mm guns from the same time, and 200mm ish of penetration is very comparable to what those guns achieved in tests. Jentz, Doyle and Spielberger's Heavy Jagdpanzer gives yet another figure; an intermediate 920 m/s with a 28.3 kg shell. It is interesting to note that the weight of the AP shell is universally agreed upon. However, this book also has another interesting figure concerning the gun; the "diameter of front wedge part, back." This is given as 176.4mm I'm honestly not sure what this is, but it sounds like it might be the diameter of the sliding wedge of the cannon's breech mechanism. If this is the case, then the gun in a jagdtiger is not a PaK 44. The sliding wedge of the breech would be too small to accommodate the 192mm rim diameter of the ammunition case. This diameter would, however, be consistent with a FlaK 44-derived weapon, since that ammunition has a 166mm case rim. I'm not at all clear that this is actually what "diameter of front wedge part, back" means, however. So, what is the correct figure for the muzzle velocity of the PaK 44? Is the gun in a jagdtiger/maus a PaK 44? Is it possible that the PaK 44 and FlaK 44 were confused by postwar authors at some point? Is it possible that the KwK 44 is a derivative of the FlaK 44 and not the PaK 44?
×
×
  • Create New...