The PanzerGranate

[Wulfram]

Hello guys

I have been researching all the 8.8cm guns deployed by the Germans during WW2 for the past months. My goal is to establish a 100% accurate data base for both Historians, Ethusiasts & Collectors. However I have run across a problem, the true weight of the various PanzerGranaten used by the various 8.8cm guns at various times. I'd like to be able to establish the lowest, highest and average weight figure for the various rounds.

So far I've read a multitude of German & US manuals, as-well as being in contact with many collectors & historians. (The collectors have been esp. helpful to my research!)

The confusion I have at the moment is the true weight of these shells for the 8.8cm guns:

PzGr.39
PzGr.39-1
PzGr.39/43

So far my conclusion is the following (Despite some inconsistences from various sources):

8.8 cm Pzgr. 39: Driving bands with a outer Diameter of 90.7 mm & width of 12.3 mm. Weight = 10.16 kg
8.8 cm Pzgr. 39-1: Driving bands with a outer diameter of 91.7 mm & width of 12.3 mm. Weight = 10.2 kg
8.8 cm Pzgr. 39/43: Driving bands with a outer diameter of 92.0 mm & width of 17.8 mm. Weight = 10.4 kg

However to be absolutely sure that these figures are correct or wether I need to correct them I need a few collectors to weigh their rounds for me and I've already recieved a lot of help from a very nice fellow by the name of thekees (I notice he's on this forum as-well, a great chap ). I also noticed that some you posted pictures of complete KwK43 rounds recently, so I wanted to ask wether I could get you to weigh the PzGr.39/43 projectiles you have for me and make a table with results. The help will be VERY greatly appreciated

Many many thanks in advance!

[thekees]

And in addition of the above asked question. When you have found the weight, please note the manufactor, and the prefix before the 3lettercode. It looks like that the steel used by several manufactors, isn't the same quality, so maybe introduces the relative wide spread of weights. i did post the results on another forum, but here they are:

1. (reference) 10231 gram Bczw 225
2. 10350 gram Bczw 245
3. 10420 gram hhg A125
4. 10410 gram hhg A151
5. 10340 gram BYE 263
6. 10230 gram Bczw 239
7. 10410 gram ABYE 243
8. 10230 gram Bczw 229
9. 10440 gram hhg A120
10. 10390 gram hhg A152
11. 10260 gram Bczw 252
12. 10430 gram hhg A120
13. 10280 gram Bczw 228
14. 10220 gram Bczw 244
15. 10230 gram hhg A86

First colom is the number of shell i measured. Second is the weight (10 gram steps) third is the makerscode, sometimes with steel code. last colom is a number, maybe batchnumber.

.

Who's next?

[Wulfram]

Hello mate!

Yeah the manufacturers code and prefix is important as-well, that way I can put them into manufacturer categories. Cause as can be seen in your figures the weight difference stayed very small between shells from the same manufacturer, mostly within 50 grams.

I saw that a guy by the name of Peter S posted a few pictures of a KwK43 round, so I was hoping that maybe he could help us out

Anyway please help if you can people, you'll be helping to uncover history, and it will be very greatly appreciated!

[Peter S]

I will see what I can do. The problem is that I do not have a very accurate scale to weigh it.

[Wulfram]

Thank you very much Peter!

Maybe you could borrow an accurate scale somewhere ?

Again many thanks, yours & thekees help will be truly helpful to my research!

[Wulfram]

Any progress Peter ?

[Peter S]

Any progress Peter ?

No.....household scales are not accurate enough and scales that are accurate enough do not have the weight capacity.

[Wulfram]

Maybe someone at work could help you out ? Depending on what you work with there might be something to weigh it with ?

Anyway the most accurate and actually also the most simple scales are balance scales, and they can normally take a good deal of weight.

Hope you can find some way