MikeMeech wrote: ↑28 Sep 2021, 12:14
EwenS wrote: ↑27 Sep 2021, 10:44
It is one thing to pull a 1.2 ton 6pdr gun across country by its crew of 6, but it is entirely another to try to pull the dimensionally physically larger 3 ton 17pdr with the same number.
Finding suitable towing vehicles for the 17pdr seems to have been an issue. The intended tow vehicles, Quads and Half tracks, seem to have struggled, leading to tank conversions based on the Ram, Crusader and Stuart before 1944 was out. Nicholas Straussler, inventor of the DD tank, produced a conversion for the 17pdr in an attempt to make the basic gun more mobile. In principle it was a strap on engine unit. It came to nothing more than a prototype. Photos here.
https://forum.warthunder.com/index.php? ... ee/page/4/
Hi
I thought the German 8.8 cm Pak 43 and 43/41 were heavier than the 17 pdr? So how did the Germans cope moving it around in similar circumstances to the British with the 17 pdr?
Mike
The Pak 43/41 was an improvisation and suffered the same problewms as the towed 17 pounder.
The 43/41 proved heavy and awkward to handle in the mud and snow of the Eastern Front and gunners referred to 43/41 as the "barn door" (German: Scheunentor),[13] a reference to the size and weight of the gun. Nevertheless, the improvised Pak 43/41 proved an effective substitute for the Pak 43 until sufficient numbers of the more complex cruciform mounts could be manufactured to replace it in service.
The Pak 43 had a low cruciform platform but at 4.7 tonnes was no easier to manhandle. The 8.8 cm pack 43 & 43/41 were realy a solution to engaging heavy Soviet tanks at long range. Only 2100 were built. The main German anti tank weapon in the second half of the war was the pak 40 which was more than adequate to penetrate any western tank. These equipped the towed batteries K stN herre
https://www.wwiidaybyday.com/kstn/kstn1140n1okt43.htm
The Pak 43/41 on the western front seem to have ended up in the static divisions in the Atlantic Wall. Emplaced in concrete bunkers mobility was not an issue. The one at Vierville may well have caused many casualties on Omaha Beach.
German motorised units used half tracks. These had no more armoured protection that the FET or Matador
The Germans increasingly deployed anti tank guns on SP mounts. Commissioning the panzerjaeger 1 on in time for the 1940 campaign in France. At this point in the war the Germans tended to faced tanks with more armour and better guns. By 1944 most infantry dividions had some SP anti tank guns.