I have a question which might seem bone but I have not been able to find an answer to. How does the firing mechanism on the Pz Mk II work? Did it work like the modern Rarden cannon on a Warrior AFV and fire several round bursts. Was it fully auto or was it manually loaded? I know it was 20mm calibre and I've read that it could fire up to 240 rds a minute which if true, it would surely have to be fully or at least semi-automatic would it not? I know that even at the outbreak of WWII, 20mm would be fairly puny compared with some of the weapons available at that time but if it spurted out 240 of the little buggers, that would certainly be enough to ruin your day, would it not? Obviously the invasion of France and several other countries pointed out several weaknesses but I'd be interested if anyone had any thoughts. Cheers, Tilly
I've found another report that states the weapon was taken from a 20mm flak 30 anti-aircraft weapon design and could fire 280 rds a minute but its armour penetration was 40mm at its absolute best. This begs the question, was the weapon magazine fed like the original weapon or what? I really don't know why this bugs me. :evil:
This sounded ridiculous to me but, apparently the KwK 30/38 were derived from the FLAK 30/38 AA guns, and were equipped with 10 round clips for loading, giving a high rate of fire. The Panzer IIs carried between 180 and 330 ("L" model) rounds for the 20mm gun. The practical rate of fire for German FLAK 30/38 20mm AA guns is listed as bewteen 120 - 220 rpm, so even for an AA gun the 240 rpm seems high, it may have been obtainable for a short period of time, or under ideal conditions.
240 rpm is probably the cyclic rate for the weapon itself rather than the practical rate of fire in reality. For example the cyclic rate of the SA-80 is around 650 rpm, however to actually achieve that you'd need a magazine capable of holding nearly 700 rounds, so the practical rate of fire is limited by the need to reload.
A 10 round clip eh? Happy with that and as for the cycle rate, I see what you mean what with reloading and the like. As it happens, I know this isn't to do with tanks but isn't the L85 A2 (SA 80) a vast improvement on the first. It looks very similar but much more reliable. Mines called Rita
The Pz.Kpfw.II carried 180 rounds of 2 cm ammunition, as well as 1,425 rounds of machine gun ammunition. I have the exact rate of fire somewhere, but I can't remember where.
The practical rate of fire was also limited by barrel heating. For example, the cyclic rate of the .50 Browning M2HB is around 450 rpm, but the maximum sustained RoF is only 40 rpm - any more and the barrel gets steadily hotter and will eventually fail. Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum
Is Rita named for anyone or just a name you like the sound of? (Don't worry, you don't have to say really!) Haven't fired the A2 myself, but I was a STAB for a short period a few years ago and used the A1. To be honest, I personally never a huge problem with the A1. For me it seemed reliable (A single stoppage in 9 months ain't bad!), accurate and almost idiot proof. That said, I had the opportunity to see and hold an A2 recently and it does look to be a bit of an improvement, the blokes concerned all praised it very highly and of the four I was speaking to all had done tours in either Afghanistan or Iraq. Where in BFG are you BTW? My dad was NAAFI (Yeah I know, scum :roll: ) 1980-96 and we lived in Osnabruck, Soest (Closed a long time ago), and lastly MG.
