47 mm APX anti-tank gun

canon de 47 mm SA mle 1937
300px 47 SA 37 preserved at Worthington Tank Museum at CFB Borden (Ontario, Canada)
Type	Anti-tank gun
Place of origin	France
Service history
Used by	France Nazi Germany
Wars	World War II
Specifications
Weight	1,070 kg (2,359 lbs)
Barrel length	50
Shell	47x380 mm. R APCBC
Caliber	47 millimetres (1.9 in)
Rate of fire	15 to 20 rounds/min
Muzzle velocity	855 m/s (2,805 ft/s)
Effective firing range	2,000 m (2,187 yds)

The 47 mm APX anti-tank gun was a French anti-tank gun that saw service in the first years of the Second World War.

Development

In the 1930s the French artillery sought a replacement for the derivatives of the 75 mm mle 1897 field gun it used in the anti-tank role. Despite having a decent anti-armour capability, the venerable soixante-quinze was heavy and was much harder to conceal than the smaller high-velocity, small calibre anti-tank weapons of modern design. The chosen weapon was a design of the state-owned arsenal Atelier de Puteaux ("Puteaux workshop", abbreviated to APX), and was designated as canon de 47 mm semi-automatique mle 1937. It was a very efficient weapon, especially given the thin armour of the German tanks of the time. Unfortunately for France, the 47mm SA 37 was still a rare weapon at the time of the Battle of France.

Foreign use

Examples captured by the German forces were operationally used under the designation 4.7 cm Pak 181(f).

Variants

• 47mm SA 39 TAZ - a variant on a tripod, capable of 360° traverse, which did not enter production.
• 47mm SA 35 - an earlier variant, mounted on tanks such as the Somua S35 and the Char B1

See also

• 25 mm Hotchkiss anti-tank gun
• 47 mm Model 1931 anti-tank gun - a comparable Belgian gun of the same period

References

• Ferrard, Stéphane. France 1940 l'armement terrestre, ETAI, 1998, ISBN 2-7268-8380-X