Reichswehr PAK

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luckystrike78
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Location: Saxony

Reichswehr PAK

#1

Post by luckystrike78 » 08 Nov 2019, 16:19

Can anyone give me more details about those guns? Predecessors of the 3,7 PAK 36, proto typs or dummy guns?
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ROLAND1369
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Re: Reichswehr PAK

#2

Post by ROLAND1369 » 08 Nov 2019, 16:24

Dummy training guns.


luckystrike78
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Posts: 224
Joined: 25 Oct 2016, 19:18
Location: Saxony

Re: Reichswehr PAK

#3

Post by luckystrike78 » 08 Nov 2019, 16:53

This is what I first thought as well. But at Wikipedia is written, that the first (real) PAKs had been introduced already in 1928 and at the end of 1932, 264 guns had been in stock. Furthermore, these guns look very "real" on photos.......

SIS 5
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Re: Reichswehr PAK

#4

Post by SIS 5 » 09 Nov 2019, 16:19

Hi luckystrike,

I can confirm Roland. On Your pics are dummy guns, so called "Holzgeschütze" (wood guns). On the first pic a gun with hors-drawn wheels. On pic two and three Holzgeschütze with wheels for motorised-drawn. Because 17th September 1934 the chief of the army command ordered the conversion of all produced AT guns from horse-drawn to motorised. So the pics two and three must be older than pic one.
First a pic with the breach of such a Holzgeschütz. And then a pic of a prototype of the 3,7cm-Tankabwehrkanone" from January 1928.
Source of the information and of the second pic: "Die deutsche Panzerjägertruppe 1935 - 1945" by Wolfgang Fleischer and Richard Eiermann.

Regards

Bert
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luckystrike78
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Joined: 25 Oct 2016, 19:18
Location: Saxony

Re: Reichswehr PAK

#5

Post by luckystrike78 » 09 Nov 2019, 19:34

Thanks for your answer. I read yesterday an article in a German military newspaper (Alte Kameraden) from the mid 1980´s. An interesting journal with lots of first hand accounts. There was a short article about the 3,7 cm PAK. It was not that clear but it seemed to me, that the author wrote that the term "Holzgeschütz" (the author used the same German word, it means wooden guns) was a deception (PAKs were forbidden for the Reichwehr) and the guns were in fact real. This had led to lots of confusion after the war.

You are surely right about the time frame. The first photo is from a 8. (preuß.) Reiter-Regiment photoalbum and the other from a Kraftfahr-album.

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