47 mm APX anti-tank gun

Infobox Weapon|is_artillery=yes


caption=47 SA 37 preserved at Worthington Tank Museum at CFB Borden (Ontario, Canada)
name= canon de 47 mm SA mle 1937
type= Anti-tank gun
origin= France
era=WW2
target= armoured vehicles
date=1937
prod_date= 1937 - 1940
number=
service=
used_by= France, Germany
wars=WW2
caliber=47 x 380 R mm
part_length= 50
carriage=
weight= 1,070 kg (2,359 lbs)
cartridge=APCBC
ammo_wt= 1.7 kg (3.74 lbs)
velocity= 855 m/s (2,805 ft/s)
range= 2,000 m (2,187 yds)
rate= 15 to 20 rounds/min
crew=|The 47 mm APX anti-tank gun was a French anti-tank gun that saw service in the first years of the Second World War.

Development

In the 1930s the French artillery sought a replacement for the derivatives of the 75 mm mle 1897 field gun it used in the anti-tank role. Despite having a decent anti-armour capability, the venerable "soixante-quinze" was heavy and was much harder to conceal than the smaller high-velocity, small calibre anti-tank weapons of modern design. The chosen weapon was a design of the state-owned arsenal "Atelier de Puteaux" ("Puteaux workshop", abbreviated to APX), and was designated as "canon de 47 mm semi-automatique mle 1937". It was a very efficient weapon, especially given the (then) thin armour of German tanks of the time, unfortunately the 47 SA 37 still was relatively rare at the time of the Battle of France.

Foreign use

Examples captured by the German forces were operationally used under the designation 4.7cm Pak 181(f).

Variants

* 47 mm SA 39 TAZ - a variant on a tripod, capable of 360° traverse, which did not enter production.

References

* Ferrard, Stéphane. "France 1940 l'armement terrestre", ETAI, 1998, ISBN 2-7268-8380-X