German Recoilless LG40 Gun 75mm

[weapon2010]

What is the effective and optimum range?

[Vacillator]

I was about to say 'according to the manual / aka RTFM' but it doesn't say. 

I have been using some in a late war East Front PBEM though, and one took out a Russian Sherman at about 500m with a HEAT round.  I loved it, my first RCL tank kill I think .

[Centurian52]

44 minutes ago, weapon2010 said:

What is the effective and optimum range?

Wikipedia says the "effective" range is 6,800 meters. Though I suspect they meant "maximum" range. The thing is that an effective range is always a bit subjective. Just how effective do you expect "effective" to be? I believe German recoilless rifles will generally be capable of firing clear across most Combat Mission maps. But there are no modern fire-control systems in WW2. So if by "effective" you mean "a greater than 50/50 chance of a first round hit" then I'd guess it's almost certainly less than 500 meters. But I don't have enough direct experience using German recoilless rifles to be sure. Generally speaking armies in WW2 were content with much lower hit probabilities than we would consider acceptable today (I remember watching lots of 60s and 70s training films shortly after CMCW came out which repeated with amazement that the M60 had a 50/50 chance of achieving a first round hit at 1500 meters, while we would probably never accept anything less than a 100% chance of a first round hit at any range with a modern Abrams).

Since we want to meet your standards of effectiveness, the only correct (if somewhat unsatisfying) answer is that its effective range is whatever range feels effective to you.

Edited March 25 by Centurian52

[weapon2010]

13 minutes ago, Centurian52 said:

Wikipedia says the "effective" range is 6,800 meters.

I saw that as well , that's an absurd range for this small weapon, and it is not listed in the game UI which other weapons have it like mortars and Schreks, from my testing so far they don't kill much at 500m 

[Vacillator]

18 minutes ago, Centurian52 said:

But I don't have enough direct experience using German recoilless rifles to be sure.

I've heard otherwise, you were top of the charts when you were in the Hitlerjugend .

Anyway, sounds like my 500m Sherman kill was pretty good?

[weapon2010]

yes that seems to be an outlier ...500m ....heat rounds are best .......300-400m for ap rounds  200m being optimal kill range for ap , I did some small test samples , its essentially a shrek on steroids

[Warts 'n' all]

7 hours ago, Vacillator said:

I was about to say 'according to the manual ... but it doesn't say. 

It does say. Or at least, it does in the Market-Garden Manual (near the bottom of page 42). And yes, it does give the range as "up to 6,800 m". I suspect that that is the range when firing HE indirectly, rather than when attempting to tank on enemy armour directly.

[wolfgang500]

Comparing the German 7,5 cm recoilles gun LG 40 with the post-war US 10,6 cm recoilless AT gun leeds me to believe that the effective range (meaning a range where there is a reasonable probability for hitting the target) was not much more than 400 m. We used the American 10,6 cm gun in our army up until the late seventies and our manuals said that "Einsatzschussweite" was up to 600 m, but not more. This weapon had a 12,7 mm ranging gun attached, which the German one lacked.

I always told my boys to roll over it with our tanks