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Questions on 75mm L/24 ammunition for the early Panzer IV's


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Indeed I do, I don't have everything I have read at hand and it is important that remember that one might find differing statements in different sources

The date of appearance of the HL grenade I got from Wolfgang Fleischer's book "Die deutschen Sturmgeschütze 1935-1945" Page 30, but I have seen it elsewhere as well. The dates for production of the subsequent versions is given by the same source as late 41 for the "A" and then onwards. As I recall it they followed in fairly rapid succession.

The production figures were taken from this site:

http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Waffen/sturmgeschutze-R.htm

These figures correlate quite well with what I have read elsewhere about an initial shortage of AP ammunition for the 75's forcing the Germans to use of HL rather more than they would have liked at first.

Later on there was again a marked shortage of AP ammunition, the effect of which is discussed by Fleischer in another of his books, "Die deutschen Panzerjägertruppe 1935-1945. On page 124, for example, he states that HL grenades was the default choice of armour defeating ammunition for a late war Pak crew.

The whole subject has been discussed before, a few times. Check out this thread for one:

http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=023655

There is a bit of static in it but there is a few good bits in it. There are more in other threads as well.

M.

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Well - I was able to track down a web-site which I had bookmarked a while back, but it ended up getting shut down.

LUCKILY!!

It was archived. I'm sure most of you will probably remember; Guns vs Armour 1939 to 1945

In any event - while isn't quite as stable as it was when it was actually running, it is still for the most part accessible.

Most importantly, I found this passage;

The Gr.38 Hl entered service in June 1940. The service dates of later patterns of German HEAT projectiles are unknown.

Some clues can be gleaned from Hogg in German Artillery of World War Two where he says of the original Gr.38 Hl design that “…few were used since it was soon replaced by the improved model Hl/A.” I can speculate that the late model Gr.38 Hl/C was used very late in the war because it was developed for so few weapons; nearly all German HEAT projectiles are either Gr.38 Hl/A or Gr.38 Hl/B.

which came from this archived page;

HEAT Projectiles

Anyhow - while not conclusive, it is interesting to note Ian V. Hogg's comments regarding the Gr.38 HL.

smile.gif

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