Need Details on US M1 57mm ATG

I'm going to run a one-shot D-Day WWII RPG game this weekend and the player characters (PCs) are going to be supplied with a 57mm ATG. I've done a little searching and couldn't really find some of the details I needed.

I know only AP rounds were standard issue to US forces. How many rounds were standard issue? how many could the PCs haul in a jeep/kubel or APC?

How far and how fast can the PCs man-handle the gun? How long would it take to entrench the gun?

What kind of hitch was used to haul the gun? Could it easily be adapted to other vehicles?

 

pmglasser:

I believe that if you look at British 6 pounder AT Gun you will the weapon you wnt learn about.The 191st had three batterie of 12 guns each that came in on gliders on 6 June early AM.They were most welcome.

As Ever,

Walter L. Marlowe
( Airborne all thr Way)

 

Correct. The 57mm antitank gun M1 was a copy of the British 6-pdr although a wheel traverse was fitted on American carriages (conventional split type, 90 degrees traverse).
Later the British shoulder pad replaced the wheel and the new version was the M1A2 (faster traverse, still one person, harder on the muscles).
Armour penetration is a little under 70mm at a thousand yards (90 degrees). The British began withdrawing it from front line service after Tigers appeared, against which it required close shots into the side or rear plates, ie. was basically a suicidal proposition.
Any 1-ton tractor could hitch it.
It looks to me like a crew of three was used and it was easily manhandled.
I'll blindly guess a pack sized box would hold 10 rds.

I've only limited info on it, so I encourage a more authoritive source.

 

Actually the 6pdr was still in use by the British Army long after the war. Advances in shot made it an extremely useful and portable front line ATG. In fact, the first knocked out Tiger in Tunisia was to a 6pdr and it was the main British ATG for the duration.

 

This is wrong. Shortly after D-Day the US began supplying a British designed US manufactured HE round too. In fact, most infantry regiments by late 1944 were using their 57mm guns as close support infantry guns in urban fighting more than as AT guns in many cases. The standard tow vehicle was a 1 1/2 ton 6x6 weapons carrier not a jeep. Typically, a crew would have about 100 rounds with the gun total.

The crew was 8 men and they could easily move the gun around at a walk on hard flat ground. Generally, anything except unlimbering and moving it short distances was done with the tow vehicle. Entrenching depends on how much you are talking about. A common quick trick was to dig in the wheels only up to the axle to lower the gun's height and the crew would use slit trenches and the gun's shield for cover if anything.
Also note that the crew would generally dismount the .50 cal machinegun and set it up on a ground mount with a 2 or 3 man security section for the gun as well. This crew might also have a bazooka.

It was a standard eye and pintle hitch common to every vehicle so it could be towed by anything with one but the normal vehicle is a 1 1/2 ton 6x6 dodge weapons carrier with the .50 AA MG ring provided.

 

Oh, in armored infantry units the 57mm was towed by an M2 halftrack instead. Otherwise all the same information applies. Do note, that many armored infantry battalions got rid of their 57mm guns as redundant given the ready availability of tanks and converted the crew to infantry replacements.

 

It should be noted that in the case of the US Airborne, they didn't use the 57mm M1.
They used the British 6 pdr Mk4, on a Mk 3(Airborne) carriage. This was a cut down carriage designed to fit inside a Horsa glider. The towing vehicle was a Jeep which was landed in the same glider as the gun. A total of 42 rounds of ammo were carried in the Jeep.