US 8.8cm Pak 43

[Sturm78]

Hiall,

I'm looking for information and photos about the use of the 8.8cm Pak 43 by the U.S. Army in 1944-45.
I read recently somewhere in Internet ( I can not remember where exactly and I can not find it again )that the Americans formed a brigade of artillery with captured German material.
Have anyone more information and/or photos?
Also pictures 8.8cm Pak 43 in service with the German army will be welcome.

Thanks in advance.
Sturm78.

[jopaerya]

Here a other one from Ebay.de

Regards Jos

[Xavier]

beautiful piece of equipment, and new facts for me!!
thanks for posting
Xavier
Dr Autodidakt

[Sturm78]

Jopaerya, according to your picture it seems that the Americans used the 8.8cm Pak 43 as field artillery, not as AT gun.
Has anyone more information?

Regards Sturm78.

[jopaerya]

Hi Sturm78

I think the 8.8 cm Spr.Gr.43 could be used very well for that purpose .

Regards Jos

P.S. Photo from Ebay.usa

[Carl Schwamberger]

I don not have details at hand, but there were several US Army units which fired the German artillery. The first was a intelelgence test department of the Army Ordinace Department. They evaluated German weapons and test fired them. Technical documents in English were published by this department. Much of that work was acomplished at Ft Aberdeen Maryland. In Europe there was a unit, battalion in manpower size, that was also involved in the intellegence evaluation. I dont know if this was the same unit that used these cannon in combat, or if that was a seperate battalion.

[Manuferey]

The American "Handbook on German Military Forces" of March 45 mentions that the 8,8 cm Pak 43 could be used in an artillery role in which case it had to be fired with its platform on the ground. It's only in the antitank role that it could also be fired from its wheeled carriage.

The only non-AT ammunition mentions in the Handbook is a 20.70 lb HE round.

Here is a picture of a Pak 43 captured by the British in Normandy in 1944. But they preferred using their 17 pdr in the background:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/19/10552 ... 9c.jpg?v=0

Emmanuel

[Erik E]

Here is a link which might be of interest:

http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/ordnance/index.html

[Carl Schwamberger]

Heres a link to a discussion of this same subject, on another forum.

http://www.ww2f.com/battle-europe/22259 ... urope.html

A couple US battalions used German artillery, aside from giving the ordinace intel people a chance to study the weapons in use they also allowed the captured stocks of ammo to be returned to the Germans. This took a tiny bit of pressure off the huge demand for artillery ammo in the US and British armys.

Here is a link to a film on testing German ammo

http://www.realmilitaryflix.com/public/759.cfm

[JonS]

In the ETO the 79th Field Artillery Battalion (Provisional) was formed from personnel of the 79th and 179th Field Artillery Groups to fire captured German artillery pieces during the height of the ammunition shortage. Similarly, the 244th Field Artillery Battalion was temporarily equipped with a miscellany of captured German 88mm guns and 105mm and 150mm howitzers.

Link

See also the various references to "Mac Troop" here

[Carl Schwamberger]

So far I have missed seeing numbers for captured ammo, German or French, available to the US Army. I wonder how much there actually was? Drawing from memory these two battalions of German artillery represent less than 1% of the gross available to the US in NW Europe in the Autum of 1944. Not clear if that was a significant contribution.

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

Thank you very much for your informations and links. Very interesting.
(It's a pity that I can not find the site where I got my information)
According to Ian Hogg ("German artillery of WW2") the Germans also used sometimes the 8.8cm Pak 43 as field artillery under the designation of 8.8cm K43. Any information and/or photos?

Regards Sturm78.

[jopaerya]

Hello

These photo's are not from U.S. troops but it looks Jäger troops with the 8.8 cm Pak 43
http://cgi.ebay.de/5-Fotos-8-8-Pak-Kano ... 240%3A1318

Regards Jos

[bzy16257]

Caption：
an american "88" field piece at "Verdun" France.
Feb 1945

Source:
original photo.

[tiger001]

Caption：
an american "88" field piece at "Verdun" France.
Feb 1945

Source:
original photo.

thats a very interesting photo id nevr seen an 8.8 withut a mundungsbremse