Cool were those Waffentrraegers.
There was a project around, intended the use of the Pz-III/IV chassis to mount the 12,8cm:
What's that from?Cool were those Waffentrraegers.
There was a project around, intended the use of the Pz-III/IV chassis to mount the 12,8cm:
View attachment 308767
The design was actually scrapped, because in early 1944, the developers started considering putting the guns on even lighter chassis (in this case modified 38t or even 38d) – and Panzer IV didn’t fit it. Another role was possibly played by the fact that by 1944, Panzer IV was already scheduled out of production (by the end of the war, only three unified platforms were scheduled to be manufactured: 38t, Panther and Tiger II). Regardless, WTP4 never made it past the drawing boards. In case you are wondering what the hell is K81: it’s a 128mm variant with different lafette (either from Soviet ML-20 howitzer or French GPF) and different recoil mechanism. The muzzle brake was also different from PaK 44, or it wasn’t used at all.
From this start Krupp went ahead with draft W1734, using a SFH43 heavy howitzer with -8 gun depression and the estimated weight rose to 34 tons, provided the apparatus for separating the gun from the carrier was not included in the chassis.
The 128mm K43 (analogous to the Pak 44 L/55) woud add approximately 5 tons to the SFH 43 proposal, bringing the weight to 39 tons, still leaving plenty of room for a more powerful cannon as the series tank ended up 45 tons heavy.
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