Re: Anyone considered Tin?

[Steve Edwards <sedwards-at-awger.net>]

William and Melissa Johns wrote:

>   The armor piercing rounds the Germans used were the k-type (tungsten 
> carbide core), 7.92mm fired from regular rifles and machine guns 
> before 1917.  The Mk IV had increased armor to deal with this round, 
> so the Germans switched to a 13mm round fired from a special Mauser 
> antitank rifle.  By the time the tank battle at Villers-Brettoneaux 
> (sure, YOU spell it!) took place, the 13mm round would have been in 
> use.  I don't know if they ever made machine guns that could fire this 
> round, so perhaps it wasn't the A7V that delivered the "broadside", 
> but the infantry lurking nearby. 


The 7.92x57 (Gewehr Patrone 98, aka"8mm Mauser") was the standard 
infantry round for both rifle (G98) and machine gun (Maxim) in WWI; it 
is equivalent to the US .30-06. It was still around in WWII when the 
Germans shortened their G98s (calling them Karabiner 98s) and traded in 
their Maxims for MG34s and MG42s.

The T-Gewehr M1918 was a bolt-action 13mm anti-tank rifle that weighed 
over 35 lbs and was about 5.5 feet long (IIRC I've seen one up at 
Aberdeen). The Germans did have a machine gun that fired the same round 
(an overgrown Maxim called the MG TuF) but they only made about 25 of 
them and they're not supposed to have seen action. Maybe they did?

    - Steve "try spelling antidisestablishmentarianism" Edwards