The 7.5 cm ''Leichtgeschütz 40'' was a recoilless gun used by the German Army during World War II.

Background

Development of recoilless weapons by Rheinmetall began in 1937 in an effort to provide airborne troops with heavy support weapons that could be dropped by parachute. Both Krupp and Rheinmetall competed for production contracts in a contest that was won by the latter. Initially produced under the designation of LG 1, this was soon changed to LG 40 to match the then current "year of origin" naming system.

Design issues

One characteristic common to all the German recoilless guns, was that they used ordinary shells, albeit with a different cartridge to cater to the unique issues involved in the recoilless principles. This gun used HE shells from the 7.5 cm ''Gebirgsgeschütz'' (Mountain Gun) ''36'' and the anti-tank shell of the 7.5 cm ''Feldkanone 16, neuer Art'' (Field Cannon, New Model). This meant that its ammunition could not be optimized to benefit from the peculiar ballistic characteristics of recoilless weapons. On the other hand, it saved significant research time and effort and meant that existing production lines and stocks of shells could be used at a considerable saving. Two problems became evident after the ''Leichtgeschütz'' (light gun) was fielded. The gas expelled through the venturi of the firing mechanism could cause fouling in the mechanism itself, but fixing this required a redesign of the entire breech and was deemed not worth disrupting the production line or rebuilding the existing guns. The second problem was more serious in that the mounting began to shake itself apart after about 300 rounds were fired. This was principally caused by the torque imparted to the mount when the shell engaged the rifling as well as by the erosion of the nozzles by the combustion gases. These could be countered by welding vanes inside the nozzles that were curved in a direction opposite to the rifling which would then counteract the torque exerted by the shell and minimizing the stress on the gun mount.

Operational use

The LG 40 first saw use during the

Battle of Crete The Battle of Crete (, ), codenamed Operation Mercury (), was a major Axis Powers, Axis Airborne forces, airborne and amphibious assault, amphibious operation during World War II to capture the island of Crete. It began on the morning of 20 May ...

where it apparently equipped ''2. Batterie/Fallschirmjäger-Artillerie-Abteilung'' (2nd Battery/Parachute Artillery Battalion). It saw widespread use by German parachute units, both

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

and ''

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'' for the rest of the war. The 500th ''SS-Fallschirmjäger'' Battalion used four examples during its airdrop on

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito ( ; , ), was a Yugoslavia, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who served in various positions of national leadership from 1943 unti ...

's headquarters at Drvar. The gun was also used by the German '' Gebirgsjäger'' (mountain infantry) in the Caucasus, as well as by Luftwaffe and Waffen-SS units elsewhere. One source states that a second version was developed for the mountain troops which had an increased weight (270 kg) and was used in Italy and the Carpathian Mountains. https://web.archive.org/web/20111205144716/http://www.fjr2.be/Pagina%2017%20-%20Heavy%20Infantry%20Weapons.htm

References

Bibliography

*Engelmann, Joachim and Scheibert, Horst. ''Deutsche Artillerie 1934-1945: Eine Dokumentation in Text, Skizzen und Bildern: Ausrüstung, Gliederung, Ausbildung, Führung, Einsatz''. Limburg/Lahn, Germany: C. A. Starke, 1974 *Hogg, Ian V. ''German Artillery of World War Two''. 2nd corrected edition. Mechanicsville, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997

External links

"Nazi 75mm Paracannon Has No Kick", April 1944
first report by US news media of 7.5 cm LG40

scroll down to bottom of article for details and excellent photos of LG40

short technical article

World War II artillery of Germany Recoilless rifles Rheinmetall 75 mm artillery Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1941