German And Allied Tank Guns

Wolfkin · Post by **Wolfkin** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 8:32 pm

Hello!

I am working on a list with the gun calibres of various tanks along with the barrel length, the “L/” designation. One can easily find these lengths with the German tank guns but it is rather difficult with the various Allied tanks. Most sources of mine are very inconsistent and I found myself having to calculate the “L/” designations myself using the overall length divided by the calibre and so on. The 17 Pounder was extremely difficult because of the various different Marks, some of which had different lengths. Was it not the Mark IV that was used on the Firefly? Anyways I made a little list and am asking if anyone can verify and see if I have the right “L/” designations for each of these guns. Thank you in advance!

PzKpfw IV
-75mm L/43
-75mm L/48

PzKpfw V
-75mm L/70

PzKpfw VI
-88mm L/56
-88mm L/71

M4 Sherman Firefly
-17 Pounder/76.2mm L/61

M4 Sherman
-75mm L/40
-76mm L/56

M10 Wolverine
-3 inch/76.2mm L/53

M18 Hellcat
-76mm L/56

M36 Jackson
-90mm L/55

T34/76
-76.2mm L/41

T34/85
-85mm L/53

Cheers,

Wolfkin

lwd · Post by **lwd** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 6:28 am

Looks like you left out quite a few:
M26 - 90mm
M3 Medium - 37mm + 75 MM
M3 light - 37mm
M41 - 75mm
and a bunch of Soviet tanks I don't have data on not to mention French. The title doesn't include Italian and Japanese tanks but you could make a case for at least some of the former operating under German command.

redcoat · Post by **redcoat** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 2:18 pm

Here's the length of the various 17 pdr QF marks used

Mk II, overall length 172.25 inch

Mk IV, overall length 184.03 inch

Mk VI, overall length 183.08 inch

Mk VII, overall length 184.05 inch ( only used on Centurion I)

Wolfkin · Post by **Wolfkin** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 4:58 pm

Hello!

Thanks for the help guys! But lwd, what I am not trying to do is make a list of all the tanks and their main guns, what I am trying to do is to figure out whether or not I have the correct "L/Designation". For example, I have seen the Sherman main gun M3 written as 75mm L/37.5 and 75mm L/40. Likewise, the 17 pounder has been written as 76.2mm L/55 and 76.2mm L/58. Now, it could be that sometimes they go by the "overall length" and sometimes by the "length of tube" but one would think that there would be a standard way of doing this to avoid inconsistencies. This is what I am trying to figure out. As redcoat shows the "overall length" of the 17 pounder varied with each Mark but the "length of tube" was always 165.45 inches. So, which do they go by to make the "L/Designation?

Cheers,

Wolfkin

lwd · Post by **lwd** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 11:49 am

Sorry I misunderstood. At least I seam to have been the only one and you seam to be getting some good answers here and elsewhere. The AFV board may be a good one to ask on as well.

Wolfkin · Post by **Wolfkin** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:12 pm

No worries, lwd! I appreciate your response even if it wasn't the answer I was looking for. Any response is better than none!

Cheers,

Wolfkin

redcoat · Post by **redcoat** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 8:05 am

Wolfkin wrote:Hello!

As redcoat shows the "overall length" of the 17 pounder varied with each Mark but the "length of tube" was always 165.45 inches. So, which do they go by to make the "L/Designation?

Cheers,

Wolfkin

Sorry I wasn't quite sure what you wanted to know, but here's the answer.

The barrel of the 17 pdr is 4420mm long, and the L designation is the effective length of the barrel (from breech to muzzle) divided by the barrel diameter to give a value.

In this case 58 times 76.2, is 4419.6.

So the L designation for the 17 pdr is L58

Wolfkin · Post by **Wolfkin** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:50 pm

Hello redcoat!

Thank you very much for this information! This is what I was after, excellent! Thank you again!

Cheers,

Wolfkin