25 mm Hotchkiss anti-tank gun

canon de 25 mm SA mle 1934
300px SA 37 preserved at Musée des Blindés
Type	Anti-tank gun
Place of origin	France
Service history
Used by	France Nazi Germany United Kingdom Kingdom of Italy Finland Romania
Wars	Winter War World War II
Specifications
Weight	480 kg (1,058 lbs)(modèle 1934)
Barrel length	72 caliber
Shell	25 × 193.5 mm R, AP
Caliber	25 mm
Rate of fire	15–20 rounds/min
Muzzle velocity	918 m/s (3,012 ft/s)
Effective firing range	1,000 m (1,093 yds)

The 25 mm Hotchkiss anti-tank gun was a French anti-tank gun that saw service in the first years of the Second World War.

Development

By the early 1920s the French Army had come to the realization that the armour-piercing capability of the 37 mm TRP infantry gun would be insufficient against modern tanks. In 1926 Hotchkiss proposed a 25 mm in-house design that was eventually accepted for service in 1934, under the designation canon de 25 mm semi-automatique modèle 1934 (generally shortened to canon de 25) . At the outbreak of World War II, it was the main anti-tank weapon of the French infantry. By May 1940, there were reported to be 6,000 in service with the French Army, although some formations were still waiting for their full allocation.

In action in the Battle of France in 1940, it was found that the projectile was too small to be very effective against German tanks, especially at longer ranges. It remained a useful weapon against armoured cars and other light armoured vehicles.

Foreign use

In 1935 the Hotchkiss 25 mm anti-tank gun was purchased for evaluation by the US Army.

File:The British Army in France 1940 F4120.jpg

Men of the British Expeditionary Force load a Hotchkiss 25mm anti-tank gun onto the back of a Bedford truck, in the Pas-de-Calais region, April 1940

When the British Expeditionary Force landed in France in 1939 it had insufficient numbers of anti-tank weapons such as the Ordnance QF 2 pounder. They were issued canons de 25 which became known as Anti-Tank Gun, 25 mm. Hotchkiss, Mark I on 25 mm. Carriage, Mark I in British service. The BEF was fully mechanised and attempted to tow the weapon behind their vehicles, but quickly found that it was not robust enough, having been designed to be towed by horses. The solution was to use the gun as a portee, that is, carried in the back of a truck. It was the first artillery piece to be used in this way.

Examples captured by the German forces were operationally used under the designation 2,5 cm Pak 113(f). Some captured guns also made it into Italian service in North Africa as alternatives to the Solothurn S-18/1000, under the designation cannone da 25/72.

Finland purchased 50 French 25 mm M/37 antitank guns during Winter War, but only 40 of them were delivered in February 1940 through Norway. The remaining ten guns were captured by the Germans when they invaded Norway in spring of 1940. About half of the guns, which had arrived during Winter War, saw front line service during it and three of them were lost in battle. During the Interim Peace the Germans sold 200 captured guns to Finland. 133 of them were model M/34s and 67 were model M/37s, and they were designated 25 PstK/34 and 25 PstK/37, respectively. They were withdrawn from front line use by 1943.

Variants

File:25 mm SA mle 1937 Saumur.jpg

Mle 37.

• 25 SA 35: a shortened variant used in tanks and armoured cars such as the Panhard 178.
• 25 SA 37: a derivative designed by the APX with a much lighter carriage(300 kg).

See also

• 47 mm APX anti-tank gun
• Type 96 25 mm AT/AA Gun
• 5 cm Pak 38

References

• jaegerplatoon.net
• Zaloga, Steven J., Brian Delf (2005). US Anti-tank Artillery 1941–45. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-690-9.

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons