Panther PzKpfw, kwk42 AP round?
Got a question about this one, am i right this is a AP round from a Panther and ive got the correct shell case? Im planning on selling it and want to make sure ive matched my pieces up right.
Two drive bands, also reading Panther carried two types of AP rounds, APCBC-HE (Pzgr. 39/42) and APCR (Pzgr. 40/42), which version is this?
The Cap is not from a cored round as it is two piece bimetallic and it's not a 40/42 anyway. If you really want to know then look at the Base of the Shell... It's hollow looking at it and the Fuze is missing. Or it's just got a 1cm Diameter hole and it's neither
Are there any markings on the bottom of the shell case. If not the neck opening should be 7.5cm and case length should be 64cm.
No marks visable left on the bottom but those measurements check out, thanks a lotby Granatwerfer
So that cap wouldnt even come with this round?
This is the bottom of the shell
Alone going by the shape and General appearance of the casing it belongs to a 7,5cm kwk 42.
The Cap is definately from a 7,5cm PzSpr Gr. (or APCBC-HE) and wouldn't be found on a 40/42 Hartkern which is cored with Tungsten and doesn't require a soft metal cap to help prevent deflection or ricochet.
We are now all looking thanks to your new Pictures at the fuzewell of a 7,5cm panzersprenggranate 39/42 (or APCBC-HE) where a 5103 or 5103* Base Fuze would have been quite at home
Not a good Picture but it should help to understand the construction...
Ah thanks a lot, really appreciate your help
Teck Old Bean,
"cored with Tungsten and doesn't require a soft metal cap to help prevent deflection or ricochet." I was always taught the although there was an anti-ricochet effect on the soft metal Cap, it's main role was to shatter face hardened armour and cushion the impact of the hard penetrator allowing the AP penetrator to push through the normal steel beneath without shattering.
Are you describing some weird German thing that the rest of us did not follow? The stepped caps were categorically anti-ricochet as well, but in the normal flattened cone type they were only a secondry feature with the removal of face hardened armour and protection of the core being the primary.
APCBC T was the most common in UK service but as you know the Americans and Germans loved the addition of the SAP HE or APCBC HE. Although the HE functions shortly after impact it's effect on penetration is minimal but it does cause the shell to fragment giving a much better effect on the surrounding area.
The 7,5cm 40/42 does not require a Cap (other than the Ballistic) as it uses a sleeve made from Preßstoff to mitigate shock to the penetrator. Caps were originally used to conform the target surface thereby improving Energy Transfer and as such penetration. The Squashing "surface stretch" principle for Hardface removal is fascinating science for itself but as far as I'm aware the R&D wasn't far enough in 1939-1942 to claim it as the purpose of a "Sharp edged" Cap on a pre 1939 Design.
The intended functions on impact and the parallel advances for AP's are as different from another as the physics surrounding them. So... There's still a Kiste Weizen down here waiting for you... Come on down we can carry this on in more applicable conditions
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