8.8 cm KwK 43

A Tiger II mounting an 88 mm KwK 43 gun, preserved at the Musée des Blindés.

PaK 43/41 at CFB Borden.

The 88 mm KwK 43 L/71 (Kampfwagenkanone —"fighting vehicle cannon") was an 88 mm 71 calibre tank gun designed by Krupp and used by the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War. It was the primary armament of the Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf. B Tiger II.

The 8.8 cm KwK 43 was also widely used as an anti-tank gun, known as the 8.8 cm PaK 43

Design and development

At 6.24 m (20.5 ft) the barrel of the KwK 43 was over 1.3 meters longer than that of the 88 mm KwK 36 L/56 used for the Tiger I. The cartridge was also considerably longer (at 82.2 cm) and wider than that of the KwK36, allowing for a much heavier propellant charge. All guns of the PaK/KwK 43 series could use the same ammunition.

KwK 43 and PaK 43's were initially manufactured with monobloc barrels. However, the weapons' extremely high muzzle velocity and operating pressures caused accelerated barrel wear, resulting in a change to a two-piece barrel. This had no effect on performance but made replacing a worn out barrel much faster and easier than before.

The massively increased operating pressures of the new gun in turn required a new armour piercing shell to be designed. The result was the PzGr.39/43 APCBC-HE projectile, which apart from the addition of much wider driving bands was otherwise identical to the older 10.2 kilogram PzGr.39-1 APCBC-HE projectile used by the 8.8 cm KwK36 and PaK43 guns. The wider driving bands resulted in a increased weight of 10.4 kilograms for the PzGr.39/43.^[1] However, up until the full transition to the new PzGr.39/43 round was complete, the older PzGr.39-1 was used for the KwK & PaK 43, but only provided the gun had been used for no more than 500 rounds. Over this, the expected barrel wear combined with the narrow driving bands could lead to a loss of pressure. The new PzGr.39/43 could be fired without loss of pressure until the barrel was worn out, thus requiring no restriction.

PzGr.39-1 FES & Al all up weight: 10.2 kg (9.87 kg without fuse & bursting charge)

PzGr.39/43 FES & Al all up weight: 10.4 kg (10.06 kg without fuse & bursting charge)

The same 278 gram BdZ 5127 fuse and 59 gram Amatol bursting charge was used for both types of projectile (PzGr.39-1 & PzGr.39/43), requiring armoured targets of 30mm or thicker to ignite after penetration for maximum behind armour effects.

Ammunition

PzGr. 39/43 APCBC-HE

• Type: Armour Piercing Capped with Ballistic Cap - High Explosive
• Projectile weight: 10.4 kg (22.92 lbs)
• Muzzle velocity: 1,000 m/s (3,281 ft/s)

PzGr. 40/43 APCR

• Type: Armour-piercing, Composite Rigid construction)
• Projectile weight: 7.3 kg (16 lbs)
• Muzzle velocity: 1,130 m/s (3,707 ft/s)

Gr. 39/3 HL (HEAT)

• Projectile weight: 7.65 kg (17 lbs)
• Muzzle velocity: 600 m/s (1,968 ft/s)
• Penetration: 90 mm

Anti-tank gun

The anti-tank gun version of the 8.8 cm KwK 43 was known as the 8.8 cm PaK 43. This name was also applied to versions of this weapon mounted in various armored vehicles, such as the Jagdpanther, Hornisse/Nashorn and Ferdinand/Elefant Panzerjäger tank destroyers. The Nashorn was the first vehicle to carry the KwK/PaK 43 series of guns. The series included: PaK 43 (cruciform mount), PaK 43/41 (two-wheel split-trail carriage), PaK 43/1 (Nashorn), and PaK 43/2 (Ferdinand/Elefant), all with monobloc (one-piece) barrels; PaK 43/3 and 43/4 (Jagdpanther) with two-piece barrel, and KwK 43 (Tiger II) with two-piece barrel.

See also

• 8.8 cm Flak 18/36/37/41, the prominent anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapon the 8.8 cm KwK 43 is often confused with

Weapons of comparable role, performance and era

• British Ordnance QF 20 pounder
• Soviet 100 mm D-10T
• United States 90 mm T15E1/T15E2

Notes

References

• Jentz, Thomas L. Kingtiger Heavy Tank: 1942-1945. ISBN 1-85532-282-X. 

External links

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