The 7.5 cm KwK 37 L/24 ''(7.5 cm

Kampfwagenkanone (KwK) (German, 'fighting vehicle cannon') was the designation to any type of tank gun mounted in an armoured fighting vehicle or infantry fighting vehicle of the German-Wehrmacht until 1945. The wording was derived from the German nouns ''Kampf ...

37 L/24)'' was a short-barreled,

howitzer A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...

-like German 75 mm tank gun used during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, primarily as the main armament of the early

Panzer IV The ''Panzerkampfwagen'' IV (Pz.Kpfw. IV), commonly known as the ''Panzer'' IV, was a German medium tank developed in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 161. The Panze ...

tank. Slightly modified as StuK 37, it was also mounted in early StuG III assault guns. It was designed as a close-support infantry gun firing a high-explosive shell (hence the relatively short barrel) but was also effective against the tanks it faced early in the war. From March 1942, new variants of the Panzer IV and StuG III had a derivative of the

7.5 cm PaK 40 The 7.5 cm Pak 40 (''7,5 cm Panzerabwehrkanone 40 -'' "7.5cm armour defence cannon 90") was a German 75 millimetre anti-tank gun of the Second World War. The gun was developed in 1939–1941 and entered service in 1942. With 23,303 ex ...

anti-tank gun, the longer-barreled

7.5 cm KwK 40 The 7.5 cm KwK 40 ''(7.5 cm Kampfwagenkanone 40)'' was a German 75 mm Second World War era vehicle-mounted gun, used as the primary armament of the German Panzer IV (F2 model onwards) medium tank and the Sturmgeschütz III (F model ...

. When older Panzer IVs were up-gunned, their former KwK 37 guns were reused to arm later Panzer III tanks and other infantry support vehicles. In 1943, depleted stocks and demand for the Panzer III Ausf. N required restarting production of a slightly revised 7.5 cm K 51 L/24 ''(7.5 cm Kanone 51 L/24)''.

Ammunition

KwK 37 used shell 75×243 mm. R * ''K.Gr.rot.Pz.'' - Armour Piercing Capped * ''Kt. Kw. K.'' - Canister * ''Nbgr. Kw. K.'' - Smoke * ''Gr.38 Hl'' - High Explosive Anti-Tank * ''Gr.38 Hl/A'' - High Explosive Anti-Tank * ''Gr.38 Hl/B'' - High Explosive Anti-Tank * ''Gr.38 Hl/C'' - High Explosive Anti-Tank

7.5 cm Sprgr.34 - High Explosive

* Projectile weight: * Explosive weight: (1900 Kilojoules)

PzGr. 39/43 Armour-piercing

* Projectile weight: * Muzzle velocity:

Penetration comparison

Applications

Neubaufahrzeug The German Panzerkampfwagen Neubaufahrzeug ("new construction vehicle"—a cover name), abbreviated as PzKpfw Nb.Fz, series of tank prototypes were a first attempt to create a medium tank for the Wehrmacht after Adolf Hitler had come to power. M ...

Panzer III The ''Panzerkampfwagen III'', commonly known as the Panzer III, was a medium tank developed in the 1930s by Germany, and was used extensively in World War II. The official German ordnance designation was Sd.Kfz. 141. It was intended to fight oth ...

Ausf. N *

Ausf. A to F1 * StuG III Ausf. A to E *

Sd.Kfz. 233 ''Sonderkraftfahrzeug'' (abbreviated ''Sd.Kfz.'', German language, German for "special purpose vehicle") was the Military logistics, ordnance inventory designation used by Nazi Germany during World War II for military vehicles; for example ''Sd.Kfz ...

''Schwerer Panzerspähwagen'' * Sd.Kfz. 234/3 ''Schwerer Panzerspähwagen'' * Sd.Kfz. 250/8 ''Schützenpanzerwagen (7.5 cm KwK 37)'' * Sd.Kfz. 251/9 ''Schützenpanzerwagen (7.5 cm KwK 37)''

Notes

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:7.5 cm Kwk 37 Tank guns of Germany World War II artillery of Germany 75 mm artillery World War II tank guns Military equipment introduced in the 1930s