KwK42 (75 mm)

Description

The 75 mm KwK 42 is the main cannon of the Panther tanks. This weapon is the tank armament variant of the similarly named PaK 42 mounted on Jagdpanzer IV tank destroyers.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

KwK 42 from a panther with the letterbox mantlet and recoil system included.

• VK 3002 (M)
• Panther A
• Panther D
• Panther G
• Ersatz M10
• ▂T-V
• Panther "Dauphiné"

General info

The KwK 42 gun has shells with high muzzle velocity, but relatively low projectile mass, which along with a long reload makes it more suited for long range engagements.

Available ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
PzGr 39/42	APCBC	191	188	173	156	140	126
PzGr 40/42	APCR	227	224	204	182	162	145
Sprgr. 42	HE	11	11	11	11	11	11

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Normalisation at 30° from horizontal	Ricochet
								0%	50%	100%
PzGr 39/42	APCBC	935	6.8	1.2	14.0	28.9	+4.0°	48°	63°	71°
PzGr 40/42	APCR	1,120	4.75	N/A	N/A	N/A	+1.5°	66°	70°	72°
Sprgr. 42	HE	700	5.74	0.1	0.5	725	0.0°	79°	80°	81°

Comparison with analogues

• M1 (76 mm)
• D-5S (85 mm)
• Ordnance QF 17-pounder (76 mm)

Usage in battles

With a much higher muzzle velocity compared to the preceding 75 mm cannon, the KwK 42 can penetrate much more armour and fly in a flatter arc to allow for vehicle knock-outs from hundreds of meters away with greater degrees of range-estimating error.

The stock APCBC shell has enough power to frontally penetrate a M4A3E2 Jumbo. Although, this can be somewhat unpredictable: if the Jumbo is angling, the shell will bounce or shatter.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• High muzzle velocity
• High accuracy

Cons:

• Low explosive filler in AP rounds
• Long reload time

History

With the development of the new Panther tanks, a new gun (the KwK 42) also had to be designed, as the KwK 40 was seen as insufficient to deal with the new generation of Soviet tanks. Shells between these guns were near-identical allowing for easier manufacturing with the only difference being the larger driving band. Of note should be that the PaK 42 is also a tank gun rather than a towed gun as the name would designate it which may or may not have been manufactured.

Media

An excellent addition to the article would be a video guide, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.