The AC 37 was a French

anti-tank gun An anti-tank gun is a form of artillery designed to destroy tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, normally from a static defensive position. The development of specialized anti-tank munitions and anti-tank guns was prompted by the appearance ...

of 37mm

caliber In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...

, developed by the

Ateliers de Puteaux An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. ...

. It was principally used in the ''ouvrages'' and

casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which artillery, guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to Ancient history, antiquity, th ...

s of the

Maginot Line The Maginot Line (french: Ligne Maginot, ), named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Germany and force the ...

in the late 1930s. It was frequently paired with a ''Jumelage de Mitrailleuses'' (JM) cupola with twin machine guns. The AC 37 was superseded by the AC 47 anti-tank gun.

Characteristics

* Length of tube : 1.97 m (6.46 ft) * Rifling: 16, right-handed * Penetration at 1000m : 30 to 40 mm

References

World War II weapons of France World War II anti-tank guns 37 mm artillery Military equipment introduced in the 1930s {{artillery-stub