PaK 97/38 Anti-Tank Gun in Russia, WWII (XX0039)

The PaK 97/38: A French Gun in German Service

The 7.5 cm PaK 97/38 was an improvisation. When the German army found in 1941 that its standard 3.7 cm anti-tank gun could not penetrate the Soviet T-34 and KV-1, it needed a heavier weapon quickly and in quantity. The solution was to take the barrel of the French Canon de 75 modèle 1897 — thousands of which had been captured in 1940 — fit it with a muzzle brake, and mount it on the carriage of the existing 5 cm PaK 38.

What It Could and Could Not Do

The result was a weapon with real limitations. The original 1897 gun had been designed for indirect fire against troops, not for anti-armour work; its low muzzle velocity meant that conventional armour-piercing rounds were ineffective against sloped armour at range. The gun was therefore issued primarily with hollow-charge ammunition, which does not depend on velocity, and was effective at shorter ranges. The carriage was also not designed for the barrel’s recoil characteristics, which limited traverse.

Where It Was Used

Around 3,700 were produced between 1942 and 1943. They were issued to infantry divisions and to units on secondary fronts rather than to the armoured formations, which received the purpose-built 7.5 cm PaK 40. A number were also passed to Romanian and Finnish forces. By 1944 the weapon was largely obsolete against current Soviet armour and was increasingly used against fortifications and in an indirect-fire role.

Giuseppe Rava’s Original Work

Giuseppe Rava reconstructs the gun and its crew from technical drawings and photographs: the distinctive muzzle brake, the PaK 38 split-trail carriage with its perforated wheels, the gun shield and the crew positions in a camouflaged emplacement.

This is a limited edition fine art print, hand-signed by the artist, produced in SRA3 format on fine art paper. Ships worldwide.