Antitank Rifles & Machineguns.

World War II German Military
#61

Mauser EW 141 , the mistery gun.

This is definately the most unknow of the german weapon used in armor vehicles.

Some sources named this as a 20 mm weapon, some others as a 13 mm machinegun. Both are wrong.

The EW 141 derivated from the experimental heavy fast firing machinegun MG 141 ,as his predecessor the EW 141 is not a 13mm or 20 weapon but it use a 7,92x95 round from the standar antitank rifles Pzb 38/39.

EW 141 prototipe, receiver cover opened, note the dissasembled bolt, the extremely thick tube, and the single knuckled section.

His EW abreviature goes for EinbauWaffe, emplacement gun, since it was designed to be instaled in a single place turret for light tanks/armored cars. The EW 141 is a semi-automatic, belt feed, quick change heavy barrel rifle. It was no capable to fire in full automatic mode.

The design of the EW 141 was completed in 1940 and 5 of these weapon were manufactured before the end the year.
35 were manufactured in 1941 and the rest 20 in 1942.

Despite it shorts numbers it cannot be considered as a experimental weapon since it enterered in action, was used by light panzer against the allies in the days after the D-day invation.

EW “Ersatzlauf” (replacement barrel") inside the hull of a VK 601/panzer 1 ausf C. This is obviously a production weapon, it had two knuckled sections and a more conical shape in the threaded section.

EW 141 characteristics.

Lenght: 1670mm

Barrel lenght: 1085 mm

Weight: 30,1 kilograms.

Muzzle speed: 1170 m/s ( Patrone 318 S.m.K (H) L`spur)

Armor penetration: 24-25 mm rolled homogeneous plate sloped 30º at 100 meters.

Ciclic rate: semiautomatic only, estimated in 100 rpm.

#62

Turret emplacement Ew 141.

Some pictures of the gun in his turret. The coaxial weapon is a MG 34.

Another view of the Pz I ausf C, note the recessed muzzle and the large diameter of the barrel, probably designed to deal with the amount of heat product of the high gas pressure in the patrone 318.

#63

Thanks very much for posting this. I’m not quite sure from your post whether the EW 141 came before or after the MG 141.

#64

Good thread, thanks.

/Marcus

#65

Thanks very much for posting this. I’m not quite sure from your post whether the EW 141 came before or after the MG 141.

After my dear Tony, it come after the Mauser MG 141.

Good thread, thanks.

You will find several good ones here my Marcus.:wink:

#66

Tankgewehr post moved to a devoted topic in the WW1 section.

#67

The 15 mm Panzerbüchsen.

After the invation of the USSR the german army encountered two things that altered his perception about the antitank rifles.
The fist were the new generation of russian tanks that inmediatly made the 8 mm calibres rifles and machineguns extremely inefective ( actually it wasnt the first time, the pzb 38 & 39 had already troubles battling the british armor)

The second one was the wide spread use of antitank rifles by the soviets those rifles used a high speed 14,5 mm bullet that completely dwarfed the german calibers.

In 1941 there was some development for a 13 mm ( based in a 13 aviation round with larger powder charge) rifle but after Barbarossa the Heeres Waffe Amt dropped the 13 mm and choosed a 15 mm instead. The program was called "Panzerbüchse 243"

Gustloff M1941.

Automatics of AT rifle M.1941 was powered by rifle’s back-blow (length of back-blow was 186mm). Powerful reactive-type single-chamber muzzle brake was fastened on the end of the barrel, reducing the recoil significantly. Safety flag was made on the the left side of pistol fire control handle. The rifle was magazine-feeded, and it should be noted that the receiver of box-shaped magazine was made on top side of the rifle.

#68

Interesting! Any idea which 15mm ammo was used? The MG 151 type or a special round?

#69

Hello Tony.

The Gustloff pzb 243 used the Mauser 15x96 ammmo, but other designs used a large case, for the benefit of the lazy members I will repeat the information of the mauser round that I already posted in the Luftwaffe cannons and Mg topic. :wink:

15x96mm Mauser

Panzergranatpatrone, L-spur.

Armor piercing steel shot, with tracer, projectile weight 72 grams initial speed 850 m/s. The tracer elemente endure at list 1100 meters.

Penetration table for Pzg.Ptr. L-spur. 25 mm at 100 meters and 13 mm at 600 meters, both in vertical (90º) plate and direct mode..

There was also a tugsten carbide core 15 mm round wich penetrate 48 mm or plate at 100 meters for comparison the armor of a Crusader tank was 25-32 mm, T-26:15mm, T-34, between 45-47 mm, M3 stuart max 38,1 mm.

#70

BSW Modell 1 rifle.

The company Berlin-Suhler Waffen- und Fahrzeugwerke Simson & Co, was a multipurpose industrial firm based in town of Suhl.
His production was devoted to the manufacture of two strokes motorbikes, hunting shotguns and pistols.

In 1936 was expropiated by the German Goverment and in 1939 was handed over to Gustloff werek as a subsidiary.

The BSW technicians also compete in the design of a 15 mm antitank weapon for the german infantry, in early 1942 the gun was comleted.

His design had a very obvious relation with Gustloff, It was larger variant of PzB.38, but designed to use 15x95 ‘Mauser’ cartridge made for high-caliber MG.151. Exactly as AT rifle PzB-38, BSW mod. 1 rifle was single-round mechanical weapon with back-blow barrel during shot.

during shot. Anti-back-blow device consisted of spiral spring which was put on the barrel. Barrel was shielded by stamper metal sheet.

Barrel locking was achieved by semi-auto vertical wedge breechblock. Reloading of the breech was triggered by a lever, made as pistol fire control handle. After the shot the barrel recoiled, the chamber was opened and the used cartrigded ejected, at the same time the rifle is cocked and ready to accept a fresh cartrigde.

Safety gear consisted of two devices: first - flag-type - was made on the right side of rifle’s body, and second turned on when rifle’s butt was folded down; folded butt decreased rifle length in stowed position in the same time. While using powerful cartridge, the weapon was compact and light enough, according to HWaA demands.

The heavy recoil was dampened in about 40 % by a large muzzle brake wich deviated a big portion of gasses backwards after the shot, the problem was the large amount of dust elevated by the muzzle blast if the gun was shot in a prone emplacement .

With 15kg mass BSW mod.1 rifle had overall length of 1430mm and barrel length of 838mm.

The muzzle velocity with the steel AP 15 mm ammo was about 840 m/s.

BSW 1 rifle with the stock folded down.

#71

MG 131/8 antiarmor machinegun.

In 1939 the technician of Reinhmetall sought to test a improved armor-breaking machinegun using the aeronautical MG 131 as a base with a improve velocity bullet.

In order to increase the muzzle speed the normal 13 mm projectile was discarded and the case necked down to accept a 7,92mm bullet.

As result of this the overall lenght of the case was increased to 82mm, and the muzzle speed impelled to the lighter projectile was 1150 m/s, roughly less that the Patrone 318 antitank round used by the army.

7,92 x 82 cartrigde with armor piercing bullets.

Just a handful of the MG 131/8 were manufactured and few used in actual combat.

mg131.jpg

#72

I have one of those rounds in my collection, but I didn’t know that any of the guns had been used in combat. Do you have any more details about that?

#73

Sorry but no, actually the sources doesnt not indicates if was used by the Luftwaffe or the Heer, my stimate is that the MG 131 /8 was used by the german Air Force betwen 1939-41, mostly because the headstamps.

#74

Waffe 15.

The czech response to the pzb 42 requeriments. Thsi rifle was larguely based in the prewar ZK-382 sharing his bullpup configuration and manual operated bolt.

The gun was completed in early 1942 and simply named W15/42 ( weapon 15mm modell 1942)
The W15 was designed to use a “propietary” cartrigde wich was not the Mauser 15 x 96 but the large 15 x 145 mm

Its large bottlenecked case gave it a high muzzle speed of 1120 m/s. According to the Brno waffenakademie its panzergranate ammunition could pierce trough 50-60 mm of rolled steel plate at 100 meters.

#75

Granatenbüchse GrB 39

Given the limited efficience of the 8 mm Patrone 318 in the mid war years it was decide to convert many of remaining Pzb 39s in grenade launching rifles. That means the way to defeat armor became the hollow charge grenades instead the kinetic energy, hard core bullets.

Starting 1942, the PzB 39 were rebuilt with a shortened barrel (59cm) and an affixed schiessbecher( grooved rifle grenade launching attachment) as grenade rifles with the designation Granatenbüchse Modell 39 (“grenade rifle model 39”).

The grenade was frontally loading while the chamber was loaded with a special blank cartrigde for projection purposes (treisspatrone). The rifle could also launch the standar explosive, marking or training grenades also used by the K-98K.

According to the grenade weight it muzzle velocity might vary between 100-125 mps, its recoil is noted as “unpleasant”.

#76

Back in June Tony Williams asked why the S18-1000 was given full auto capability.
As far as I can tell the S18-1000 Panzerbuchse was redesigned to the S18-1100 and designated the Universalwaffe.
This allowed the 2cm to be used as FlaK when mounted on a rather substantial wheeled carraige.
The full auto capability was incorporated in the bottom plate that carries the monopod.
With the automatic plate install the gun would fire from open bolt.
It is riveted onto the S18-1000 but removable on the S18-1100 so the gun could also be used in a Semi-auto mode.
S18-1100 are very rare as I have seen only one in the Patton Museum Collection.
The S18-1000 is great fun to fire in semi-auto.
I can only imagine the full body impact of firing the S18-1100 in full-auto, not to mention that it would reguire factory loaded ammunition and at up to $50.00 a shot VERY pricey experiance

#77

Finland did something similar, converting the 20mm L39 Lahti anti-tank rifle to full-auto to create a light AA cannon. This used the same 20x138B ammo as the S18-1000.

#78

A nice cutaway of the Solos S-18-1100 model.

S18U.jpg
S18U.jpg1756×915 310 KB

#79

in a ammu-picture´s on this thread there 13,9mm and 15,2mm calibres. Can anybody say which weapons these were supposed to be fired from?

#80

The 13,9 mm was for the Boys british antitank rifle.

http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3962

The 15,2 I believe is for a experimental Heavy Machinegun designed by Fabrique Nationale of Belgium.