Victory
Points

Armour

Start

Start

End

End

Front

Side

Rear

Month

Year

Month

Year

3

0

0

0

1

41

5

45

Pak 38 50mm Anti-Tank Gun

RANGE

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

HARD

14

12

10

8

6

3

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

SOFT

5

5

4

4

3

3

2

2

2

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Shell

Weight

Muzzle Velocity

Penetration

Anti-tank

2.18 kg

823 meters/sec

75mm at 500 meters

Hard-core

0.98 kg

1180 meters/sec

115mm at 500 meters

High Explosive

1.96 kg

550 meters/sec

only against infantry

The weight of the new Pak was 1062 kg.Its advantages over the earlier 37mm Pak were based on a new spreading mount with double shield , a semi-automatic flat-wedge vertical breech mechanism , a push-button trigger and an auxiliary Pak aiming telescope.The barrel length was not as the official L/60 designation would suggest-60 caliber , but exactly 63.5 caliber.The total barrel length remained at two meters.The field of aim encompassed -8 to +27 degrees in elevation and 65 degrees to each side.
The gun fired three shell types as did its predecessor : Anti-tank shells 39 and 40 , high explosive shells and hard-core sheels.The maximum range of the anti-tank shell was 9.4 km.The high explosive shell carried a load of 680 grams , which caused a splintering effect to 13 meters on each side and 8 meters forward.
As the war continued a stick grenade was also introduced for this gun : it could penetrate 180mm of armour but was rarely used because of it short range.The Army High Command issued an order on November 19 1940 according to which the 1-ton towing tractor (Sonder-Kfz. 10) was to be used to tow the 50mm Pak.Every Panzerjäger unit received 45 such vehicles.Since the available capacity was not sufficient a further order followed on January 16 1941 , according to which the Panzerjäger units of the infantry divisions were to be equipped with 1.5-ton Type A (all-wheel drive) trucks.The Panzerjäger units equipped with the 50mm Pak which was used at focal points against enemy tank attacks , lost a total of 269 guns in the winter fighting between December 1 1941 and February 2 1942.Replacements of 37mm and 50mm Pak for the whole army from June 22 1941 to March 28 1942 numbered 2715 guns.The 50mm Pak remained in use until the war's end.