35 as being the first use of a sub-calibre tungsten penetrator (the jacket being the carrier) - the father of the WWII APCR rounds. 35 projectile used a tungsten core penetrator. Ian Hogg in his works states that the Wz. Just as an aside, not relevant to my original question Lead is going to absorb all the energy and flatten out leaving very little mass/shear force to cause plugging. It would be closer to 2 in this case, and even higher in the case of the 33mm penetration 100m data credited to this weapon. Increasing armour thickness, it`s slope and/or adding external screen would probably counter this kind of projectiles.īut to transfer energy you need a hard projectile - lead would absorb way too much of that energy.Īlso I don't believe you can cause armor to fail by plugging if the T/D ratio is much greater than 1. No idea if harder steel would have more chance against Maroszek`s AT rifle, the bullet was never supposed to survive a hit but to transfer it`s energy to force armour to failure. 35 (aka kb Ur) was not actually penetrating the armour but punching a plug. Is the lead core penetrator actually a reasonable supposition? Edited Maby supertsar It seems to me that a penetrator of lead generally hitting with a T/D ratio of approx 15mm/7.92mm, good quality face hardened plate just is not going to work no matter what the velocity.īut as I've never seen any data on lead core penetrators - I'm not so sure. German armor thickness would be generally in the 15mm range.ĭoes it seem reasonable that adding 1600fps to your normal infantry rifle fired bullet could cause plate failure in early war German armor? I believe a normal 7.92 rifle bullet is around 2600 fps. Jentz Panzertruppen books certainly would back the higher end figures up as in several places it quotes German reports complaining that Polish AT rifles were making swiss cheese out of their PZ I, IIs and IVs.

In any case, all sources give penetration figures varying from 20-35mm at ranges under 300m, 0-30 deg. The latter seems to me beyond reason, yet it seems to be the predominant thought on the subject (just check wikipedia, which has changed back and forth recently).

Some claim it was a jacketed tungsten core penetrator, while others claim it was a normal lead core infantry rifle jacketed bullet. There seems to be 2 trains of thought on the internet. I am trying to determine what type of penetrator the Polish Wz 35 anti-tank rifle used (7.92mm).

Wz 35 anti tank rifle