German Artillery of World War Two

Ian V. Hogg

• Publisher: Frontline Books
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781473896932
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia militar y marítima

"The best reference there is to this day about the guns and ammunition used by the German armed forces in WW2." —Military Modelling The complete story of German artillery during World War Two, this illustrated volume is divided into sections according to the weapon classes: Infantry, Mountain and Field Artillery, Heavy Field Artillery, Heavy Artillery, Railway Artillery, Anti-Aircraft Artillery, Anti-Tank Artillery, Coastal Artillery and Recoilless Artillery. German Artillery of World War Two also contains details of the general organization of the German artillery arm, together with development histories of the weapons and their ammunition. In addition, the book contains a series of comprehensive data tables, and appendices including a glossary of technical terms. The first edition of this book, published over twenty years ago, is highly sought after by collectors and enthusiasts today. This new edition brings an enduring classic to a new generation of readers. "A classic on modern artillery by Ian V. Hogg, this volume is well-established and must be regarded as a standard reference work on the subject." —Gun Mart "This is both a valuable reference book and an absorbing read." —British Army Review

APPENDICES

ONE: AMMUNITION

Cartridges

Artillery cartridges are generally classified by the gun’s method of obturation—the method of sealing the breech against the unwanted escape of propellant gas—into two groups, cased or bagged-charge rounds. Cased charges have the propellant contained in a metallic cartridge case, the expansion of which gives the necessary seal. Bagged charges are contained in cloth bags and the sealing of the breech is done by a resilient pad contained in the breech mechanism. Cased charges can be further divided into three groups.

The fixed round. In this the projectile is firmly attached to the mouth of the cartridge case and the whole round is manipulated and loaded as a single item.

The separate-loading round. In this, as the term implies, the shell is loaded into the breech and rammed home; the cartridge is then loaded separately.

The semi-fixed round. This is a compromise between the other two in which the shell and case are fitted together for loading but can be separated for packaging or in order to have the propelling charge adjusted by the gunner before firing.

That, then, is the general classification—but in considering German artillery cartridges some modifications are necessary. The semi-fixed round can be forgotten, since it was never used in Germany, and the bagged charge can be all but forgotten since only one standard German weapon (21cm K 39) used it (although, had the war continued, the system would have been introduced more widely in order to conserve cartridge-case metal). With this exception the standard ammunition of the German artillery was the cased cartridge, either fixed or separate loading, the latter being generally used above a calibre of 10.5cm.

A typical cased cartridge, with the igniter above the primer and a sheet propellant cover at the mouth.

In the development of substitute cartridge cases Germany had no peer. The standard material throughout the world has always been cartridge brass, an alloy of 70% copper and 30% zinc, but during World War 1 the shortage of copper began to be felt and some experiments with substitute materials were made. These were revived in the 1930s and many designs of steel case were developed, which are dealt with in full detail in Appendix 2. One of the hardest tasks lies in mating the various cases with the original weapon and, to assist in this, Appendix 2 also gives full identification data for all known German cartridge cases.

Cartridge cases for the 10.5cm le FH 18: Left, drawn brass; centre, wrapped steel; right, built-up steel.

The cartridge case performs several functions besides sealing the breech; it contains the propelling charge (protecting it from rain, sun, dust and other ill effects), it carries the ignition system, and by forming a rigid strut between the breechblock and the projectile it can assist in ramming and locating the shell correctly in the breech chamber. The most important of these is, of course, the function of carrying the propelling charge which, of a material commonly spoken of as ‘smokeless powder’, was in the German service usually in the form of sticks (rather like macaroni) or in small grains (resembling the same macaroni chopped into short lengths). For guns with fixed-weight propelling charges, such as anti-aircraft or anti-tank guns, this propellant was weighed out, bundled (if in sticks) or bagged (if granular) and then placed in the case. A cap, also of propellant material but formed into a sheet and moulded, covered the ends of the bundle of sticks in order to prevent them shifting during transit and loading. To ensure ready and thorough ignition of the charge, small igniters—bags of gunpowder—were placed at the base of the charge where they would be ignited by the primer in the base of the case.

Separate-loading charges were much the same, but with a cover over the end of millboard, thin sheet tin or formed-sheet propellant. An igniter was again fitted; in some designs this was at the front end of the charge, the central portion of the charge being of large diameter tubular propellant so that the primer’s flash could pass up and fire the front igniter.

With howitzers it was desirable to be able to adjust the charge in order to vary the trajectory; in these cases a basic charge was secured in the case and additional sections or increments were placed in the case alongside the base portion. In the very large guns the base portion of the charge often completely filled the case, and the incremental sections were bagged and loaded ahead of the cased section to replace some of the Teilkarten in a large charge. Thus, a howitzer might have seven charges: charges 1 to 6 being combinations of Teilkarten, but charge 7 would be a separate one-piece charge replacing all the Teilkarten (and would be known as Sonderkartusche 7).

Guns were often provided with adjustable charges and these were generally referred to as Kleine (small), Mittlere (medium) or Grosse (large) charges, which were built up from various combinations. Thus the 15cm Kanone 18 had the following charges:

Kleine Ladung, made up of Sonderkartusche 1 which (in this case) was a special ‘small charge’ and not a combination of all the various Vorkarten or Teilkarten.

Mittlere Ladung made up of Hauptkartusche and Vorkartusche 2.

Grosse Ladung made up of Hauptkartusche and Vorkarten 2 and 3.

The object was to provide the gunners with various charges which enabled them—within limits—to select a trajectory suited to the task in hand and also to fire only sufficient propellant to get the shell to the target, thus economising in propellant and saving wear on the gun barrel.

The propellant itself was one of four types: Diglycolpulver (Digl). A double-base propellant (ie a combination of two main constituents, diethyleneglycol dinitrate [DEGN] and nitrocellulose) with the addition of methyl centralite to stabilise it and potassium sulphate to reduce flash.

Gudolpulver (Gu). This was Diglycolpulver with the admixture of about 30% of gudol (nitroguanidine) to reduce flash.

Nitroglyzerinpulver (Nigl). A double-base propellant of nitroglycerine and nitrocellulose stabilised with methyl centralite, akardite or diphenylamine. Nitrocellulosepulver (Nz). A single-base (nitrocellulose only) powder, stabilised with diphenylamine, with sodium oxalate and potassium sulphate added to reduce flash.

Another common design of cased cartridge which has the igniter at the front beneath a thin tinplate cover.

Of these four propellants Nitroglyzerinpulver was the most powerful, bulk for bulk, but at the same time it developed the highest flame temperature and thus caused most erosion of the gun barrel. The others, owing to the absence of nitroglycerine in their structure, were less powerful but burned at lower temperatures and were thus less erosive. The various additions to reduce flash were usually expected to increase the volume of smoke produced on firing; Gudolpulver was expected to be the coolest-burning powder but, though practically flashless, it produced most smoke.

Primers

The primer is a separate component screwed into the base of the cartridge case; and German primers were quite different from those found, for example, in British or American cartridges, the principal difference having been the apparent absence of any visible form of sensitive cap. The body of a German percussion primer was plain steel, thinned at the centre. The sensitive cap was inside, under the thin section, which thus simplified the sealing of the primer against damp. When the firing pin in the breechblock of the gun struck the primer, it was sufficiently powerful to indent the thin base and crush the sensitive material within—causing it to ignite. This in turn ignited the gunpowder in the primer magazine, and this burst open the cover and allowed the flash to enter the cartridge, igniting the main charge.

Some German primers did appear to have a cap, but these were electrically-fired types; what appeared to be a cap was simply a contact stud which, on close examination, could be seen to be insulated from the rest of the primer by a thin ebonite sleeve. When loaded into a gun, a contact pin pressed against the stud and the electrical circuit was completed through the body of the case to the gun chamber. When the firing trigger was operated, current flowed through the contact into the primer and passed through a wire into a ‘fuze-head’, a fine-wire filament surrounded by a sensitive compound. The flow of current rapidly brought the filament to white heat, igniting the compound which then fired the gunpowder igniter and the main charge.

The filament wires, though small and supported as well as could be designed, tended to break, particularly in weapons using power ramming (when the cartridge is accelerated and decelerated rapidly), and a notable German innovation was the conducting composition primer in which the filament was replaced by a sensitive compound mixer with graphite, a conductor of electricity. When the firing current entered the primer it passed through the mixture, owing to the graphite’s conductivity: graphite, however, also possesses high electrical resistivity. This meant that the resistance afforded to the applied voltage led to a large current passing through the graphite, which also had the effect of rapidly raising the material’s temperature. Hence the sensitive compound quickly reached the critical temperature at which it ignited.

Another possible source of failure with electric firing circuits was the liability of faulty contacts between the contact pin of the firing mechanism and the central contact stud of the primer, owing to wear and dirt. Another unique German development, intended to obviate this trouble, was the induction-fired primer. This was basically a standard C/22 or C/23 electric primer with the filament connected to an induction coil let into the primer base. The gun’s breechblock had a similar coil let into its face. The breechblock coil acted as a primary transformer coil, being fed from a suitable electricity supply through the firing-trigger switch. When the cartridge was in place and the breech closed, the two coils were aligned, so that putting a current into the primary coil induced a current flow in the secondary coil (in the primer) and fired the charge. This system operated successfully with a gap of as much as lmm(0.04in) between the breech face and the cartridge case and primer.

Another interesting development in cartridge design was the self-ramming cartridge. In cases of high-velocity guns using fixed ammunition erosive wear at the leed, the commencement of the rifling, soon began: the shell when loaded no longer fitted snugly. It instead sat in the eroded area, and when the charge exploded the shell was blown out of the case and ‘ran up’ through the eroded space until it struck the rifling. There it was violently checked until sufficient pressure built up to engrave the driving band and move the shell once more. This sudden acceleration, sudden check, and reacceleration placed great strain on the shell and fuze; it also caused the chamber pressure of the gun to fluctuate wildly and dangerously. The self-ramming charge, which was developed for the 8.8cm anti-aircraft gun, consisted of a normal charge with a cardboard tube located centrally in the propellant bundle. At the bottom of the tube was a small bag igniter and at the top of the tube, beneath the shell, was a much larger bag igniter. The firing flash from the small igniter passed up the tube to light the large ejector-igniter. The explosion of this was sufficient to eject the shell from the cartridge case, across the eroded section of the chamber and into the rifling at a relatively low velocity before the flash from the igniters had time to ignite the main propelling charge. This delay was about 0.004–0.005sec (4 or 5 milliseconds), by the end of which time the shell was seated in the rifling to await the development of full pressure from the propelling charge.

Recoilless Gun Cartridges

All of the cartridges for the German recoilless guns used frangible (ie disintegrating or fragile) blowout bases of plastic material, and the filling of the case with propellant followed normal practice. Early designs had the centre of the plastic base drilled and threaded to take a small primer, and the firing mechanism was contained in a streamlined housing in the centre of the venturi tube. The firing pin struck the primer and this in turn fired the charge in the usual way. As the pressure built up so the base blew out and shattered, allowing a stream of gas to pass through the bottom of the case and through the venturi. It was then vented behind the gun, counteracting the recoil thrust owing to the projectile being fired out of the barrel —action and reaction, according to Newton’s Laws, being equal but opposite.

The lumps of plastic and the primer were also shot out at the rear, making unpleasant missiles, but (owing to the flame-blast and the dirt kicked up at the rear of the gun) there was a large danger area behind all recoilless guns and it is unlikely that anyone was ever seriously hurt by a flying primer. The rate of erosion of the firing mechanism and its housing was more serious, but this was eventually overcome by designing guns with the firing mechanism on top of the chamber and cartridges with the primer in the side instead of the base. A special ‘bandolier’ igniter was wrapped around the lower end of the charge to promote eve...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Notes on presentation of data
• Introduction
• Organisation
• Infantry Artillery
• Mountain Artillery
• Field Artillery
• Heavy Field Artillery
• Heavy Artillery
• Railway Artillery
• Anti-Aircraft Artillery
• Anti-Tank Artillery
• Coastal Artillery
• Recoilless Artillery
• Appendix 1: Ammunition
• Appendix 2: Ammunition Markings
• Appendix 3: Identification Of German Artillery Cartridge Cases
• Appendix 4: Fremdengerat
• Appendix 5: Wehrkreis Organisation
• Appendix 6: Glossary