75mm L 70 / 42 KwK - What does it mean??

Probus

Probus

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I've always wondered what the rhyme or reason was behind the naming of the guns. I thought I would take a stab at it:
Example: 75mm L 70 / 42 KwK:
75mm - 75mm Inner Diamater of the Gun
L - Long?
70 - Length of the gun. Can't be cm, maybe inches or some other form or measurement? Maybe the length of part of the shell in mm?
42 - Year the gun was developed?
KwK - Prolly abbreviated German work. I think Kwick (Quick) or for PAK (Pack)

How much did I get right?
 
Rico said:
70 -- is length of barrel in multiples of the calibre: 70 x 75mm = 5,250 metres
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Okay Im a little confused. So is the barrel 7 meters?? That seems incredibly long and a 5,250 meter barrel is not feasible.

Edit: Apologies I assumed the American numerical syntax where "," denotes a thousand and "." denotes a decimal.
 
Vartuoosi said:
Kwick isn't even a word in german as far as I know. Schnell is quick. And Pak is short for Panzerabwehrkanone.
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Since I get all of my German language skills from Hogan's Heroes, I am not in the least bit surprised.
May I ask what Panzerabwehrkanone means exactly?
 
PAK = Anti tank gun
75mm L70 is a 75mm cannon with a barrel length of 5250mm
 
@Rico : "L" don´t stand for "lang" but for "Kaliberlänge". In short "Länge". That´s why the "L" is written as capital letter. Notice that even the "7,5-cm / L 24" (the so called "Stummelkanone") has the "L" in its name.

@Explorer : "Kaliberlänge" (Length of the gun barrel) is the factor how often You have to multiply the calibre to get the gun barrel length. For Your example: 75 mm / L 70 is a calibre of 75 mm and the calibre length is 70 times multiplied with it. 75 mm x 70 = 5250 mm. So You were right with the 5250 mm. It works as well if You use cm or m. You have only to take in mind the changing decimal place of the calibre.

@mTk : Calibre for guns isn´t measured in metres but mm. That has to do with the accuracy/tolerances in production. And further if You make engineering detail drawings You stay with one dimension unit to avoid confusion. So if calibre is measured in mm then the calibre length has to get measured in mm as well.
Metal working expecially in the weapon production has always to be very accurate. Otherwise it could be the weapon doesn´t do what is expected of it or, in the worst case, explodes in Your hands.
The "cm" is more a military or colloquial thing. The order there follows other ways as the production system.

Greetings
 
Stafford said:
KwK guns were mounted on tanks.

Pak guns were towed anti-tank guns.
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Panzerabwehrkanone

Panzerabwehrkanone, usually referred to with the acronym PaK, is the German language term for anti-tank gun. Before and during World War II, the German Army produced a series of 13 anti-tank guns which they designated Panzerabwehrkanone, i.e. PaK.
 
The reason why the "L-number" is important is because it determines muzzle velocity. There can be many guns with 75mm diametre, but the longer ones are faster, and therefore more accuracte and better against armour.

KwK : Kampfwagenkanone (tank gun)
 
Bulletpoint said:
The reason why the "L-number" is important is because it determines muzzle velocity. There can be many guns with 75mm diametre, but the longer ones are faster, and therefore more accuracte and better against armour.

KwK : Kampfwagenkanone (tank gun)
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OK. That's weird. Panzerabwehrkanone (PaK) is towed and Kampfwagenkanone (KwK) is tank mounted? I would have guessed it was the other way around since Panzer is in the PaK acronym. So roughly it kinda reads:
PaK: Tank (anti) Cannon & KwK: Armored (wagon) Cannon?
 
Its German lol
Most cannons include the length of the weapon in terms of the caliber of the weapon
A tank mounted german 75mm or 7.5cm cannon could be the short barreled model on the Mark IV D or the long barreled model on the Mark IV F and later
Same diameter of projectile in each gun but vastly different muzzle velocity.
 
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@ Probus : In German there are compound nouns/words. They part in determinative element (always the first part of the word) and the primary word (always the "last" word). "Panzer" (Tank) is only the determinative element. The primary word is "Abwehrkanone" (interception gun or defense gun). So the function is defense and interception or ambushing. The "Panzer" only says what gets intercepted or ambushed or whatever. It works even if "Panzerabwehr" (defense against tanks) is the determinative element and "Kanone" (gun) the primary word. It is then a canon to defense against tanks - an ATG (Anti-Tank-Gun).
The "KwK" (actually "PzKwK" for "Panzerkampfwagenkanone") parts in "Kampfwagen" (as the determinative element) and "Kanone" (as the primary word). So it says only what gun (Kanone) it is - a gun mounted on a fighting vehicle. I hope I could make me understandable and it clears the names and sense for the different guntypes a bit.

Greetings
 
Abbasid111 said:
Same diameter of projectile in each gun but vastly different muzzle velocity.
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And more importantly different amount of propellant and different case lengths. All three main variants of the German 75mm tank guns used ammunition with different case lengths, 75×243mm for the L/24, 75×495mm for the L/43 and L/48, 75×640mm for the L/70. And to make things even more confusing the Pak 40 used 75×714mm ammunition, none those are interchangeable, though it makes sense to use shorter ammunition for tanks due to size constraints.
 
Probus said:
OK. That's weird. Panzerabwehrkanone (PaK) is towed and Kampfwagenkanone (KwK) is tank mounted? I would have guessed it was the other way around since Panzer is in the PaK acronym. So roughly it kinda reads:
PaK: Tank (anti) Cannon & KwK: Armored (wagon) Cannon?
Click to expand...

You already got a good reply from a real German, but I'd like to add the following:

"Panzer" actually just means "armour". So when talking about "Panzer" units, they can be everything that's armoured - from tanks to halftracks and armoured cars. The proper German word for a tank is "Panzerkampfwagen" - iterally an armoured battle wagon (vehicle). But since there's not enough time to speak proper German during battle, this is then abbreviated to "Panzer".

So, a "Panzerabwehrkanone" is a cannon designed to kill all armoured vehicles, not only tanks. Whereas a "Kampfwagenkanone" is a cannon specifically for mounting on a tank. Not on just any armoured vehicle.

However, the Germans did mount them on halftracks too, late in the war, when the situation became so desperate that even German language logic began to break down.
 
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