Why no 37mm AT Gun In Normandy?

[user1000]

 Are they just missing from the game? Or were there historically few pieces in the theatre? Was it really that bad against tanks in North Africa?

 

I could put the gun to great use in the game.

 

Edited December 8, 2015 by user1000

[JoMac]

By CM:BN, the two major AT Guns were the Infantry Battalions 57mm AT Gun ( mainstay in all Inf Battalions from then till end of war ), and the Infantry Divisions Towed 76mm AT Guns ( fewer in numbers ). 

Italy ( or Southern France ) should be the last time to see 37mm AT Guns. 

[Cobetco]

37mm is available in Quick battles with Market Garden, but i think only in August and September and only as a specialist Team.

-Edit- i have used it before for novelty sake. its not as mobile as your might hope and is really quite useless.

Edited December 8, 2015 by Cobetco

[user1000]

Mistake for the people who decided to phase it out. It could have been used well in Normandy. I like it for half-tracks.. I would set it up on a road junction watching for vehicles crossing down the street

Edited December 8, 2015 by user1000

[MikeyD]

Interesting thing, if you look closely in the game you'll see the Airborne didn't swap out its 37mm for the standard US 57mm gun before D-Day but are instead using the Brit 6 pounder considerably stripped down and with folding legs to fit it into a glider!

 

[Cobetco]

Too many things are 37mm, i thought User1000 meant the German pak-36.

[user1000]

Are you kidding me? Although it was 37mm it was still high velocity.. Extremely maneuverable as well. For heavy armor you had to be at sides or rear big deal?

Edited December 8, 2015 by user1000

[user1000]

Found my answer from one of my books. It was in fact in the European theater for some time..

"By the time the M3A1 had been
taken into service it was obsolete. By
1941 events elsewhere had demonstrated
that something larger than
37 mm (1.46 in) would be required to
penetrate the armored hides of in service
enemy tanks and although the
M3A1 was used in North Africa by the
US Army the type was withdrawn
there and replaced by heavier guns,
But it was different in the Pacific
theater. There the expected enemy
tanks were light (and in any event few
and far between), so a place could be
found for the M3A1 as an infantry support
weapon. High explosive and
canister rounds were developed for
use during the various island-hopping
campaigns and the armour-piercing
projectiles were often called upon
during 'bunker-busting' operations."
 

This was probably why.....

"Although the European war had
shown it tobe obsolete, the 37-mm
M3 was still in US Army use at the
Kasserine Pass in 1943, where its
inadequacy against the veteran
Afrika Korps armour was disastrous.
It was soon to be withdrawn from the
European theatre."

 

So if the failure at Kasserine Pass did it in, and this was the case why didn't they remove the stuart and greyhound from the European theater which had the gun??

Edited December 8, 2015 by user1000

[MikeyD]

Anti-tank guns got that name because they're supposed to knock out tanks. If you've got a lot of obsolete guns lying about they can be repurposed as infantry support guns with some marginal anti-armor performance but they're not really anti-tank guns anymore. I once worked with an old WWII Pacific jungle fighter. He had high praise for the 37mm gun - because of its canister round which was a life-saver. Not for its AP capabilities.

[user1000]

well take a look at german armor it can takeout

easily towed with jeep or truck

easy to

all troop defenses with HE

troops with HE

all german half tracks with AP

all trucks, armored cars and regular cars

just about all dug in emplacements

buildings - stone, brick or wooden

german tanks up to the mark iv on sides or rear and possibly higher models with AP or APC

[womble]

And it needs specialist training. It needs that jeep (the bazooka doesn't).

And it was replaced (for the "stand-off" Anti-armour role) by the 57mm. Which is also pretty nimble for a significant upgrade in armour penetration. The 43 Infantry Battalion has 4 x 37mm, and the 44 Infantry Battalion has 3 x 57mm. I know I'd rather have 57mm for fighting German armour than 37mm (which can't even reliably punch in the front of a Panzer IV by that stage of the war). Sure, the 6lber has to hit anything heavier than a IV in the flank, but the 37mm has to hit any "proper" tank and a fair number of armoured cars in ambush.

But essentially you're arguing a null case: the 37mm didn't disappear from infantry formations, the 4 of them got together and became 3 57mm ATGs.

[Sequoia]

Do I remember correctly some of the poorer German formations in the Market-Garden Module can have the 37mm?

Besides in quick battles I mean.

Edited December 8, 2015 by Sequoia
ps

[Vanir Ausf B]

So if the failure at Kasserine Pass did it in, and this was the case why didn't they remove the stuart and greyhound from the European theater which had the gun??

Because while there was a replacement already available for the 37mm towed gun (57mm gun) there was nothing at the time to replace those vehicles. The M24 Chaffee wasn't ready until November of '44.

[JonS]

 

But essentially you're arguing a null case: the 37mm didn't disappear from infantry formations, the 4 of them got together and became 3 57mm ATGs.

when two 37mms love each other very much ...

[user1000]

Because while there was a replacement already available for the 37mm towed gun (57mm gun) there was nothing at the time to replace those vehicles. The M24 Chaffee wasn't ready until November of '44.

Makes sense