Although the French army did not perform well in the French Campaign in World War II, this pot should not be carried by the first, mainly because of strategic judgment, operational command and other issues, on the contrary, many of the best equipment in the hands of the French army has good performance, at least from this level, it is fully capable of fighting the German army, of which SA-37 is a very good anti-tank gun, and some people even think that it is one of the best anti-tank guns in the early days of World War II.
The development of the SA-37 began in the mid-30s of the last century, when France was in full swing to build the Maginot Line, so the understanding of anti-tank guns was different, the French military top brass intended to rely on the defense line to resist military threats, and at the same time believed that anti-tank trenches and cliffs were enough to become the biggest obstacle to tanks, and anti-tank guns were only one of the artillery configurations on the entire defense line, and concealment was a key factor in combat.
At that time, the French army had two types of artillery, one was the professional Hatch Kaith 25 mm anti-tank gun, which had a small caliber and low power, and the other was the famous M1897 75 mm series of field guns, although this gun also has anti-armor capabilities, but more bulky, the size is too large, used for anti-armor combat is obviously not in line with the French army's mind, SA-37 artillery to replace M1897, play the value of infantry guns, but also to have stronger anti-armor capabilities than 25 mm guns, research and development work in the mid-to-late 30s, in 1939 began mass production service, it was designed by Puteaux company.
The SA-37 was a low-profile anti-tank gun with a combat weight of 1070 kg and a total length of 41 meter, 1 meter wide6 meters, height 11 meter, with open leg frame, the wheels are solid rubber wheels. The gun was chosen with a 47 mm caliber with a barrel of 53 times diameter, the breech was locked with a vertical sliding bolt, and the barrel pitch angle was -13 ° 165 °, the direction of the firing range 68 °.
The SA-37 is armed with 2 types of ammunition, one is heavy 3A 27-kilogram armor-piercing projectile, with a muzzle velocity of 855 m sec, can penetrate 60 mm of homogeneous steel armor at a distance of 550 meters and 80 mm of homogeneous steel armor at a distance of 180 metersAnother type of ammunition is a high-explosive shell, which has a muzzle velocity reduced to 590 meters per second and an effective range of about 2,000 meters.
On the whole, the SA-37 is very good in other aspects except for being a little heavier, especially the armor-piercing projectile is enough to deal with most of the tanks at that time, and the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 tanks used by the German army at that time are obviously difficult to resist, and the main anti-tank guns of European countries in the early stage of World War II are mostly 37 mm, 40 mm, 45 mm, and 47 mm Caliber, and the anti-tank performance of SA-37 is in a leading position among these artillery.
In 1939, Puteaux developed a new tripod mount that could rotate 360° horizontally when deployed, but this improved version was not mass-produced. In 1940, the designers put the SA-37 on the Laffly W15 artillery tractor and created the W15 TCC wheeled self-propelled tank destroyer.
Don't look at the SA-37 performance is good, but at the outbreak of the French Campaign, there were less than 1300 in the hands of the French army, and the ammunition ** was quite chaotic, it stands to reason that more than 1,000 professional anti-tank guns are not less, if they can be used reasonably, they can also play a big role, unfortunately the French combat command is also chaotic, most of the officers and soldiers lack the will to fight, on the contrary, there are only dozens of W15 Because of the proper use of tactics, the TCC fought several good ambush battles in the rout, which indirectly proved the anti-armor capabilities of the SA-37 gun.
After the end of the French Campaign, the German army sorted out the captured materials, obtained 823 SA-37s, and renamed them PAK181 (F), many artillery pieces were put into the next Eastern Front battlefield, some were placed on the Atlantic ramparts as defense**, some were installed on the tank chassis to make tank destroyers, with the upgrading of tank armor, all front-line PAK181 (F) was transferred to the second-line troops in 1942, and the Allies also captured when they landed in France**.