Col Deadmarsh Posted November 29, 2002 Share Posted November 29, 2002 Like on the Panzer IVG. It has a 75/L43 main gun. What's the L43? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jard Posted November 29, 2002 Share Posted November 29, 2002 Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's the length of the gun's barrel (measured in relation to the bore's diameter). i.e. 75/L43 = 75mm bore diameter, 75*43=3225mm gun's barrel length. [ November 28, 2002, 08:08 PM: Message edited by: Jard ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cull Posted November 29, 2002 Share Posted November 29, 2002 I've always understood the "L" to simply mean...."long". Which makes sense for the PzIV, as it had short and long barrel variants. I don't know what the numbers mean, though. At first I thought they were just a year designation ("40", "43"), however, I have seen some other numbers that do not fit in the WWII time frame. Great, now I have to go do some searching..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jard Posted November 29, 2002 Share Posted November 29, 2002 The short gun on the earlier PZ-IVs is the 75/L24, later versions have the 75/L43 or the longer 75/L48. Same thing i.e for the T-34 which uses in it's 1940 model the short L-11 76.2mm gun (76/L31) the newer 76.2mm gunned models have the longer F-34 gun (76/L42) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offtaskagain Posted November 29, 2002 Share Posted November 29, 2002 The L defintely means the length of the gun in calibres. It's measured differently from country to country. IIRC the Germans measured it from the base of the cartridge in the chamber to the tip of the muzzle, whereas others measured the barrel length only. The number after Pak, Kwk, Flak, Stuk etc is the year it was designed or introduced, like KwK 42 (Panther's gun) was developed in '42. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cull Posted November 29, 2002 Share Posted November 29, 2002 Ah, thanks guys. I was ignorant about the L. I knew if I put the leg work off for a bit some grogs would enlighten us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pak40 Posted November 29, 2002 Share Posted November 29, 2002 Originally posted by Colonel_Deadmarsh: Like on the Panzer IVG. It has a 75/L43 main gun. What's the L43?Man, you've been on this board for how many years and didn't know the answer to that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col Deadmarsh Posted November 29, 2002 Author Share Posted November 29, 2002 No Pak, I guess I never bothered asking about it before. I find it funny though that when I ask a newbie question on here, I get reamed from the vets of this forum on why I don't know these things by now...like a teacher disappointed in my inability to learn what she's teaching. Now the next question is, does the longer barrel provide a higher muzzle rate? Is that why the 75/43 has better penetration than the 75/23? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offtaskagain Posted November 29, 2002 Share Posted November 29, 2002 Originally posted by Colonel_Deadmarsh: Now the next question is, does the longer barrel provide a higher muzzle rate? Is that why the 75/43 has better penetration than the 75/23?Generally yes. A longer barrel means more time for the expanding propellant gasses to move the shell. However it is possible to reach a point where the burning gunpowder is no longer expanding in the barrel and then the shell actually slows down. The 75/L43 had a longer propellant case to provide more powder to fully utilize the longer barrel. I believe the Soviet 45mm AT gun used the same sized cartridge all war and got better AP performance because new models with longer barrels were introduced. The quality of the actual AP projectiles also improved which would add even more penetration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingknives Posted November 29, 2002 Share Posted November 29, 2002 On a related subject, does anyone know the Soviet convention for designating guns? E.g. the 30mm autocannon on the BMP2 is referred to as the 2A42 and the 125mm gun on the T80 is described as the 2A46. Does this have anything to do with barrel length? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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