British 'I' Tank Armament

[Juha Tompuri]

Read this Axis History Forum thread about the US 37mm gun viewtopic.php?f=113&t=90106 it will answer your questions

No it doesn't, it answers one of them. There is nothing definitive in there about issue in North Africa or Europe.

According to this, the canister rounds were availlable from 1942?

Projectiles available to Grant crews included the US APC M51 (APCBC-T), AP M74 Shot (AP-T), HE M63 (Shell), plus an M2 canister round with 122 steel balls packed inside.

http://panzerfaust.ca/AFV%20interiors/grant3.html

Because if I can't knock out an antitank gun at a thousand yards or so...

... then use the ammo designed to that range, HE or AP, depending the target.

But nobody is asking you to give up that ability. It's not a choice. The cannister is a bonus, a freebie, you don't give up anything in exchange for it other than a few rounds of AP for the main gun.

Yep.
The US 37mm tank gun(s) had ammo designed to different purposes.
Some other guns did not.

Regards, Juha

[Urmel]

Thanks Juha.

[mariandavid]

Coming back to the initial British I tank question (though the 37 mm canister discussion was most interesting) note that the original intention was to fit the 'I' tank with both an anti-tank weapon and a much more powerful anti-infantry weapon, the .5" Vickers. The latter was fitted to the Matilda I and by some accounts proved highly effective against personnel and light armour in France in 1940. Alas I have no idea why the .5 was replaced by the far inferior .303 in the Matilda II and later I tanks. I have an unprovable suspicion that this was a War Office decision to compel Vickers to concentrate production on its .303 Vickers MMG and its proposed cannon replacement.

[phylo_roadking]

Alas I have no idea why the .5 was replaced by the far inferior .303 in the Matilda II and later I tanks.

Not for long According to Tony Williams there was only c.1100 of all four marks of Vickers .50 made for Army use anyway...and the .303 installation was very transitory - the arrival of the far more typical 7.9mm and 15mm Besas was due