7.5 cm Pak 97/38

The Pak 97/38 (7.5 cm Panzerabwehrkanone 97/38) was a German anti-tank gun used by the Wehrmacht in World War II. The gun was a combination of the barrel from the French Canon de 75 modèle 1897 and the carriage of the German 5 cm Pak 38.

Development history

During the invasion of Poland and invasion of France the Wehrmacht captured thousands of 75 mm Model 1897 guns, built by the French arms manufacturer Schneider. These guns were adopted by Germans as 7.5 cm FK 97(p) and 7.5 cm FK 231(f) and used in their original field artillery role.

Soon after the German invasion of the USSR in 1941, Wehrmacht units encountered new Soviet tanks, the medium T-34 and the heavy KV. Thick sloped armor of these vehicles gave them invulnerability against German towed 3.7 cm Pak 36 anti-tank guns. The situation led to requests for more powerful weapons that would be able to destroy them at normal combat range. Since Germany already had a suitable design, the 7.5 cm Pak 40, it entered production and in November 1941 the first pieces were delivered. Until enough of those were manufactured, some expedient solution was required.

It was tempting to adopt the readily available French gun to the anti-tank role. In the original configuration those guns were ill suited for fighting tanks because of their relatively low muzzle velocity, limited traverse (only 6°), and lack of a suitable suspension (which resulted in transport speed of 10–12 km/h). It was decided to solve the traverse and mobility problems by mounting the 75 mm barrel on the modern split trail carriage of the 5 cm Pak 38 anti-tank gun. To soften the recoil, the barrel was fitted with a large muzzle brake. The gun was primarily intended to use HEAT shells as the armor penetration of this type of ammunition doesn't depend on velocity.

Interestingly, another major user of the French gun, the US Army, created and briefly adopted a similar expedient design, known as 75mm Anti-tank gun on Carriage M2A3.^[2].

Production

In 1942, 2,854 pieces were deliviered; 858 more followed in 1943^[3]. In addition, 160 guns on 7.5 cm Pak 40 carriage (Pak 97/40) were built in 1943. The manufacturing cost of one piece was 9,000 reichsmarks, compared to 12,000 for Pak 40. Production was stopped because more powerful anti-tank guns were in service in adequate numbers.

Employment

The Pak 97/38 reached the battlefield in the summer of 1942. Despite moderate effectiveness and violent recoil, it remained in service until the end of the war. The scale of use can be illustrated by the ammunition used: 37,800 HEAT shells in 1942 and 371,600 in 1943. On 1 March 1945 the Wehrmacht possessed 145 Pak 97/38 and FK 231(f) guns though only 14 were employed by frontline units.

Ten barrels with shields were experimentally mounted on the Soviet T-26 light tank chassis, resulting in vehicles designated 7.5 сm Pak 97/38(f) auf Pz.740(r). These self-propelled guns served with the 3rd Company of the 563rd Anti-Tank Battalion before being replaced by Marder III on 1 March 1944.

The gun was also employed by the Finnish Army during the Continuation War. Finns purchased the 75 mm field guns from France in 1940, became disappointed with their performance and in 1943 reached an agreement with Germany about upgrading them to Pak 97/38 standards. 46 pieces were converted in March–June 1943. Seven of the guns were lost in combat, the rest remained in service after the war and only in 1986 were they retired.

Five or six guns each were supplied to the divisions of the Romanian Third and Fourth Armies in October 1942.^[4]

Each of the nine divisions assigned to the Italian 8th Army had an anti-tank battery of six guns assigned to its artillery regiment in 1942. The Italian designation was Cannone da 75/39.^[5]

By November 1942 the Hungarian 2nd Army fielded 43 Pak 97/38s.^[6]

Summary

The Pak 97/38 was produced using captured barrels and could fire captured French and Polish ammunition. Together with light weight, good mobility and sufficient anti-armor performance with HEAT shell (enough to penetrate T-34 in most situations; side armor of KV could also be pierced), it made the gun a decent anti-tank weapon.

It had shortcomings, particularly low muzzle velocity. Although it didn't affect armor-piercing characteristics of its HEAT ammunition, it meant insufficient performance when firing regular AP shells and - because of difficulties in hitting small mobile targets - low effective range of about 500 m even with HEAT. The gun also had quite violent recoil, especially with AP shells. It must be also noted that in World War II the technology of manufacture of HEAT shells was crude, so many shells had armor penetration characteristics significantly below the nominal ones.

Ammunition

It is not clear if German AP shells for Pak 97/38 were produced. Polish AP shells were used in limited numbers.

The Finnish Army used locally produced ones designated 75 psa - Vj4 and possibly old French ones designated 75 pspkrv 59/66-ps. The 75 psa - Vj4 penetrated 92 mm at 300 m, meet angle 90°.^[7]

The HEAT projectiles penetrated about 90 mm at meet angle 90° or about 75 mm at meet angle 60°.

Notes

References

• Gander, Terry and Chamberlain, Peter. Weapons of the Third Reich: An Encyclopedic Survey of All Small Arms, Artillery and Special Weapons of the German Land Forces 1939-1945. New York: Doubleday, 1979 ISBN 0-385-15090-3
• Hogg, Ian V. German Artillery of World War Two. 2nd corrected edition. Mechanicsville, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997 ISBN 1-85367-480-X

• Shirokorad A. B. - The God of War of the Third Reich - M. AST, 2002 (Широкорад А. Б. - Бог войны Третьего рейха. — М.,ООО Издательство АСТ, 2002., ISBN 5-17-015302-3)
• Ivanov A. - Artillery of Germany in Second World War - SPb Neva, 2003 (Иванов А. - Артиллерия Германии во Второй Мировой войне. — СПб., Издательский дом «Нева», 2003., ISBN 5-7654-2634-4)
• Isaev A. - Antisuvorov. Ten Myths of World War II - M., Eksmo, Yauza, 2004 (А.Исаев. Антисуворов. Десять мифов Второй мировой. - М., Эксмо, Яуза, 2004., ISBN 5-699-07634-4)
• Kolomiets M. - Anti-tank Artillery of Wehrmacht 1939-1945 - "Frontovaya Illustratsiya" magazine, no. 1, 2006 (М.Коломиец. Противотанковая артиллерия Вермахта 1939-1945 гг. - журнал «Фронтовая иллюстрация», №1, 2006)
• U.S. Office of Chief of Ordnance. Catalog of Enemy Ordnance. 1945.
• Zaloga, Steven J., Brian Delf - US Anti-tank Artillery 1941-45 (2005) Osprey Publishing (New Vanguard 107), ISBN 1-84176-690-9.
• Finnish Army 1918-1945: 75 PstK/97-38 "Mulatti"