Panzergranate 39
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Panzergranate 39 or Pzgr. 39 a.k.a Panzersprenggeschoß 39 was a German armor-piercing shell used during World War II. It was manufactured in various different calibers and was the most common anti-tank shell used in German tank and antitank guns of 75 to 88 mm calibers.
The shell was of APCBC-HE-T construction meaning that it consisted of the shell body fitted with penetrating and ballistic caps, an explosive filler and a tracer unit that was incorporated into the base fuze]. PETN or RDX were commonplace as the explosive filling. Pzgr. 39 was only used in guns firing fixed ammunition. Exactly the same Pzgr. 39 shells of a certain caliber could be fitted to different cartridge cases. For instance the 7.5 cm Pak 40 L/46 antitank gun and the 7.5 cm KwK 40 L/48 tank gun fired the same projectile, eventhough they had completely different cartridge cases.
Different versions of the shell were made, but the changes were usually minor. For instance, in the 88 mm Pzgr. 39-1 version the quality of steel was improved. The 75 mm Pzgr. 39/42 of KwK 42 and Pak 42 guns had two driving bands instead of one. In the Pzgr. 39/43 of KwK and Pak 43 guns, the driving bands were made wider than those of Pzgr. 39-1. The widening took place because the high gas pressure in these long-barreled guns presented certain problems when firing the older Pzgr. 39–1 shells with narrower driving bands. The abbreviation 'FES', found on many Pzgr. 39 rounds indicates the presence of sintered iron driving bands.
Technical data of 75 mm Pzgr. 39 FES of 7.5 cm Pak 40 and 7.5 cm KwK 40 (data varies for different calibers):
- Weight, complete with fuze: 6,8 kg
- Explosive filler: 18 g of RDX and wax (95/5)
- Number of driving bands: 1
- Material of driving band: sintered iron
- Shell diameter at driving band: 77,4 mm
- Shell diameter above driving band: 74,5 mm
- Fuze: Bd.Z. 5103
- Type: base fuze
- Weight with tracer unit: 107 g
- Tracer burning time: 2 s
