Steyr-Solothurn Antitank Rifles

Robert,

Mr. Hogg's famous work is a still a good source of information, but I found different data contrary to what he states about the Type 97. According to Peter Chamberlain and Terry Gander ("Anti-tank weapons", Arco Publishing Company, N.York, 1974), the Japanese ATR performance was similar to that of other 20mm guns in the same class (the Finnish L39 was probably the best of all - please take a look at this link for a very comprehensive story on its development, performance and service use, including early anti-material missions: http://ankkurinvarsi.com/jaeger/AT_RIFLES1.htm) - the Type 97 could penetrate 30mm of armor from a distance of 300m, at a 30º angle, using its standard AP projectile with a weight of 162gr. The muzzle velocity of the bullet was reasonable for a 20mm gun: 793m/s.

I found also some divergences concerning the Boys rifle. While Ian Hogg (in his book "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Firearms", Chartwell Books, New Jersey, 1991) states a armor piercing capability of 21mm at 300m, a Portuguese report from 1943 mentions a much inferior performance: only 15mm of hardened steel for industrial uses at 0º, at only 100m. Although such important detail is not mentioned in the report, the Portuguese must have used the tungsten-cored bullet originally developed in 1940, since it was the standard AP .55 Boys round.

Ruy

This post has been edited by Ruy Aballe on October 09, 2004 06:36 pm