StuH42 (105 mm)

Description

Write an introduction to the article in 2-3 small paragraphs. Briefly tell us about the history of the development and combat using the weaponry and also about its features. Compile a list of air, ground, or naval vehicles that feature this weapon system in the game.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• StuH 42 G

General info

The StuH 42 is a very capable cannon, and is able to take out most tanks at its rank with the Gr.39 rot HI/C HEAT round, which offers 115 mm of penetration at all distances. Post-penetration damage is effective, however, the shells travel at a low velocity. This makes shooting at moving targets and from long distances harder.

Available ammunition

• PzGr - APHE - This is the main ammo type, use it whenever it has enough power to penetrate the target, as the explosive filler can make short work of a tank interior.
• FHGr - HE - Another very useful kind of ammo, can obliterate any unarmoured SPAA vehicles or lightly armoured tanks.
• Gr.39 rot HI/B - HEAT - This one should be just skipped, it has no advantages over the better Gr.39 rot HI/C.
• Gr.39 rot HI/C - HEAT - This shell has the highest penetration, but it is prone to detonate prematurely on spaced armour, or some debris in the flight trajectory. Also, the shell travels at a low velocity, making aiming harder. The advantage is that it bounces less from sloped armour, and the high amount of explosive mass in the round will usually one-shot an enemy tank. Lastly, they don't lose any penetration over distance - carry only few of them in case they are needed.

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	APHE	72	70	63	55	48	42
F.H.Gr.	HE	22	22	22	22	22	22
Gr.39 rot Hl/B	HEAT	105	105	105	105	105	105
Gr.39 rot Hl/C	HEAT	115	115	115	115	115	115

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
PzGr	APHE	480	14	1.2	19	304.64	47°	60°	65°
F.H.Gr.	HE	472	14.81	0.2	0.1	1,750	79°	80°	81°
Gr.39 rot Hl/B	HEAT	495	12.35	0.05	0.1	2,530	62°	69°	73°
Gr.39 rot Hl/C	HEAT	495	12.35	0.05	0.1	2,550	62°	69°	73°

Smoke shell characteristics
Ammunition	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Screen radius (m)	Screen deploy time (s)	Screen hold time (s)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)
F.H.Gr.Nb.	480	14	16	5	25	50

Comparison with analogues

• USA - M4 (105 mm)

Usage in battles

The StuH42 (105 mm) is best used at medium range combat. The long reload of 13 seconds makes it unviable for close combat, as most enemies at this rank can reload and fire off another shot whilst you are reloading. The Gr.39 rot HI/C shell, which is a HEAT round, doesn't lose penetration over long distances, making it suitable for ranged combat.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• HEAT shells have excellent penetration - 115 mm at all ranges
• HEAT shell doesn't lose penetration over long distances
• Has a variety of ammunition to use
• APHE has good post-penetration damage

Cons:

• Very long reload time - 13 seconds
• Very low velocity of about 500 m/s, makes shooting at moving targets harder
• Shells are inaccurate due to the low shell velocity and the high shell drop

History

Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />.

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;
• encyclopedia page on the weapon;
• other literature.