Engineering:K bullet
The K bullet is a 7.92×57mm Mauser armor-piercing bullet with a tool steel core designed to be fired from a standard Mauser rifle.
History
The German troops first experimented the "reversed bullet" as an early anti-tank method against the British heavy tanks of World War I. This technique was crude, but proved effective against Mark I tank models, although it was not safe to use for the infantry and soon became obsolete.[1][2][3]
As a replacement, the Germans conceived the "K bullet", which was purposely developed as an armor-piercing ammunition. The K bullet was in use by the battle of Messines Ridge in June 1917 and had one out of three chance to penetrate 12–13 mm thick armor at a range of up to 100 meters.[4]
With the British deployment of the Mark IV tank, which had more armor thickness, the K bullet soon proved ineffective, leading the Germans to design highly specialized anti-tank solutions, with the creation of the powerful 13.2mm TuF cartridge and the first anti-tank rifle, the Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr.[5]
Variants
The Germans made several versions of the K bullet during World War I and World War II, including:
Designation | Full Name | Description |
---|---|---|
S.m.K. | Spitzgeschoss mit Kern | Standard steel core armour piercing bullet. It had a red rim around the primer, on case base.[6] |
S.m.K.H.[7] | Spitzgeschoss mit Kern, Hart | Replaced the tool steel core with a tungsten carbide core. It had a red case base including primer, from 1939: red primer only.[6] |
S.m.K. L'spur [7] | Spitzgeschoss mit Kern, Leuchtspur | Has a shorter steel core, and includes a tracer composition. May include color designation such as gelb, German for "yellow". It had a red rim around primer and black bullet tip.[6] |
S.m.K. Ub.m.Zerl.[7] | Spitzgeschoss mit Kern Übungsmunition mit Zerleger | A very rare practice bullet which self-destructs after a certain distance. |
During the interwar period, Poland produced a copy of S.m.K. bullet designated as P bullet (przeciwpancerny) and own armour piercing bullet with a tracer, designated PS (przeciwpancerny smugowy).[6]
References
- ↑
Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1922). "Armour Plate". Encyclopædia Britannica. 30 (12th ed.). London & New York. pp. 204–205.
- ↑ "A New Dumdum Charge". New York Times. 1915. https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E0CE5DA1538E633A2575BC2A9679C946496D6CF&scp=1&sq=a+new+dumdum+charge&st=p.
- ↑ Paschall, Rod (1994). Defeat of Imperial Germany, 1917-1918. Da Capo Press. p. 113.
- ↑ Fletcher, D.. British Mark IV tank. Osprey Publishing. p. 14.
- ↑ "Your Tank Is Dead: Meet the World's First Anti-Tank Rifle". June 15, 2020. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/your-tank-dead-meet-world%E2%80%99s-first-anti-tank-rifle-162816. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Dąbrowski, Jarosław. Amunicja małokalibrowa kampanii wrześniowej in: "Strzał" 10/2010, pp. 18-24 (in Polish)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "K98k Mauser Page". http://www.mausershooters.org/k98k/8_ident.html.