This type of ammunition used a hard, dense tungsten-carbide core contained within a mild steel body and a light ballistic cap. There was some recognition that the new gun was inadequate, and one means to improve its performance was to use a new generation of high-velocity armor-piercing projectile (HVAP), the Panzergranate 40. The bulk of the Soviet tank force in Finland consisted of the standard designs of the 1930s, notably the T-26 light tank and BT-7 cavalry tank, neither of which represented a problem to the new 50mm gun. The Finnish Winter War seemed to confirm this viewpoint, since there was little evidence of any major advance in Soviet tank armor. In the event, the T-28 was an archaic design that caused little anxiety among the German tank designers. However, it is not clear if the German army was aware of these. Some T-28 in Finland had additional armor appliqués added, which brought protection to 50 or 80mm. The basic version had 30mm frontal hull armor and 20mm frontal turret armor that was vulnerable to the older 37mm gun. The German army had good intelligence about heavier Soviet tanks of the 1930s such as the T-28 medium tank since examples of this tank were captured by the Finnish army during the 1939-40 Winter War. The Germans had examined both the T-26 and BT-5 tanks in Spain in 1937-38 and did not anticipate a major leap forward in Soviet tank armor. Why didn’t the Germans go for a more powerful gun? There was a high level of complacency about the Soviet tank threat in the late 1930s when the 50mm gun was developed. The infantry adopted the 50mm PaK 38 with the longer L/60 barrel there were about 850 in service by the time of invasion of Russia.Īlthough the 50mm gun represented an important step forward in German firepower, it would prove to be inadequate from the first days of the Russian campaign after facing the new generation of Soviet tanks such as the T-34 and KV the 50mm gun could not penetrate these new Soviet types from the front when using the standard ammunition. This gun could penetrate 46mm of armor at 30 degrees at 500 meters, meaning that it was adequate to deal with French types such as the infantry tanks and the Somua S35 but only capable of defeating the Char B1 bis at closer ranges. The panzer force received the 50mm KwK 38 L/42, and there were about 620 PzKpfw III with this gun with the divisions taking part in Barbarossa, or more than half of all PzKpfw III. Efforts to increase both tank and antitank firepower were underway since 1939, but the new 50mm guns did not enter production until March-April 1940 and so did not take part in the French campaign. There had been schemes to up-arm it to a 50mm gun since the mid-1930s, but there was resistance over introducing another ammunition type. The PzKpfw III was woefully weak in its main gun in fighting with contemporary tanks. Even before the start of the Battle of France, it was evident that the German army was falling behind in tank firepower. In terms of technical quality, the panzer force had seen only modest improvements. Obsolete tanks such as the PzKpfw I were far fewer in number, although there were still significant numbers of the light PzKpfw II in service. This was done in part to create more divisions, with nearly double the divisional order of battle between 19. The panzer divisions had been reorganized for a more balanced combined-arms mixture with fewer tanks but more infantry. The German tank force at the outset of Operation Barbarossa was not particularly different from the Battle of France in 1940 in terms of equipment. The Red Army had over 22,000 tanks, more than the rest of the world combined and the largest tank force of any army at any point during the war. The German panzer force in 1941 numbered over 5,000 tanks, although the actual invasion force used around 3,400 tanks. While it is not often recognized, the initial battles of Operation Barbarossa involved more tanks than at any other time of the war. Germany raced to keep up with the Red Army in tank design, and so stayed ahead of contenders in other theaters such as Britain and the United States. Innovative Soviet designs such as the T-34 established the new world standard. The Russian Front also set the pace for worldwide tank design. The human and material cost of this theater was equally staggering. The Russian Front would dominate the European war from 1941 to 1945, encompassing the greatest number of troops and tanks. WHEN THE WEHRMACHT INVADED THE SOVIET UNION on 22 June 1941, it unleashed the largest land campaign of the Second World War. Armored Champion: The Top Tanks of World War II (2015) CHAPTER 4 Barbarossa: 1941
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