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 Subject: Stielgranate 41  Tue Jul 12, 2011 12:33 am |
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Stielgranate 41
The Stielgranate 41 stick grenade was a German shaped charge, fin-stabilized shell, used with the 3.7 cm Pak 36 anti-tank gun. Already in use during the battle of France in 1940, the 3.7 cm PaK-36, by then the standard anti-tank gun of Wehrmacht,[1] had trouble dealing with thick armour of French and British tanks. In 1941, when Germany invaded the USSR, the gun was next to useless when confronted with Russian T-34 or KV-series tanks. It was successively replaced by larger calibre weapons, like the 5 cm PaK 38, but there were never enough of them, so it was also decided to enhance PaK 36 capabilities by providing it with new ammunition.[1]
Pak 36 with Stielgranate loaded
The design looked like a rifle grenade, only considerably larger. One part of its stem, a stick, was placed inside the gun barrel; the other part, a perforated tube, fitted around it. On the tube there were four stabilizing fins. It was shot with a special blank cartridge at a velocity of 110 m/s, which gave it maximum range of ca. 800 m (gun elevation 25o) and around 180 m point blank range (gun elevation 5o).[2]free text cheap furniture sofas
It was equipped with two fuzes: in the nose, for direct hits, and in the base, to ensure detonation if the target was only grazed. The large calibre of the HEAT warhead and shaped charge of 2.42 kg HE, enabled it to penetrate a 180 mm thickness of armour,[2] enough to defeat any WW II tank. The hit was equally dangerous at any distance, as the shaped-charge effect is not dependent on velocity. However, due to low velocity the grenade was not very accurate, so the effective range against tanks was around 300 m.[3]
Another disadvantage of using Stielgranate was the necessity of leaving cover by the gun loader, to go in front of the gun and place another grenade on the barrel.[2][3]
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