Difference between revisions of "Gun/Germany"

A tank's gun, which can be a cannon, autoloader, or howitzer, is the tank's main weapon.To decide which gun to mount, you must look at the penetration, average damage, and rate of fire as very important considerations for choosing a gun.

Not all guns that are available for a tank can be mounted on any turret. If there is a turret module preceding a gun on a tank tech tree, you will need to research and install it before mounting the gun.

A destroyed gun will lock, preventing the tank from firing until it is repaired, and a damaged gun will fire with drastically reduced accuracy.

Gun Characteristics

Damage - The amount of hit points the shell takes from the enemy tank with a hit. Measured in HP (Hit Points), The gun damage statistics are usually written in a format such as #/#/#: referring to the shell types available for the gun, usually AP/APCR/HE ammo types.

Penetration - The penetration of the weapon refers to the amount of flat metal armor the gun can penetrate in millimeters (mm). Penetration is calculated as if firing at flat armor at a range of 100m, and is usually written in the #/#/# format. Again, this refers to the different shell types available for the gun.

Shells - The available shell types for the guns are determined by the color of the damage and penetration attributes: AP, APCR, HE, HEAT. For more info, see Ammo.

Rate of Fire - The rate of fire of a gun is the number of shells that can be fired in a minute, also known as RoF. For guns equipped with a magazine, the given rate of fire is the sustained rate of fire, or the average firing rate including the magazine reload time, not the burst firing rate of a single magazine.

Accuracy - The accuracy of the gun is the maximum shell dispersion when the sights are fully closed/contracted. The accuracy of a gun is measured in meters, indicating the amount of dispersion when fired at a target at a distance of 100m. The shell dispersion is also affected by Gaussian distribution.

Aim Time - The time it takes in seconds for the aiming reticle to shrink to minimum.

See the sections on Autoloaders, Semi-Autos, or Autocannons for more details about those variants of the main gun available in-game.

Historical German Gun Marks

The German Wehrmacht practiced a standard convention in naming their gun designs and models. For example, the Tier-1 stock gun for the PzKpfw 35(t) was designated the 3,7 cm KwK 34 (t) L/40. This designation means that the gun is of a design adopted in 1934 and intended for use as a KampfwagenKanone (tank mounted main gun). It has a caliber of 3.7cm and a barrel Length equivalent to 40 times its caliber, or 40 x 3.7 = 148cm.

The (t) stands for " Tschechisch", and indicates that this gun is not of German origin, but instead refers to a gun designed and built in Czechoslavakia, which has been captured, renamed, and redeployed in German service. Similarly, an (r) in a German gun designation stands for "Russisch" and would refer to a captured, renamed, and re-used gun of Russian origin.

Other German acronyms and abbreviations used in gun names found in the following table of gun characteristics include:

• Ausf. = Ausführung, which means model or mark.
• Breda = refers to a gun made in Germany's Axis ally Italy, by Società Italiana Ernesto Breda of Brescia.
• E.W. = Einbau Waffe, which means a gun designed for fixed emplacement.
• F.H. = Feldhaubitze, which means a field howitzer.
• le.F.H. = Leichte Feldhaubitze, which means a light caliber field howitzer.
• s.F.H. = Schwere Feldhaubitze, which means a heavy caliber field howitzer.
• Flak = Flugabwehrkanone, which means an anti-aircraft gun.
• KwK = Kampfwagenkanone, which means a gun designed to be mounted as a tank's main gun.
• M.K. = Machinenkanone, which means an autocannon.
• Mörser = siege mortar.
• PaK = Panzerabwehrkanone, which means a gun intended for anti-tank use regardless of its mount.
• StuH = Sturmhaubitze, which means an assault howitzer.
• StuK = Sturmkanone, which means an assault gun.