- Yes
- No
caid’s suggestion #49
I would like to suggest an early Swiss SPAA, the Opel Blitz mit 20mm Fliegerabwehr Kanone 38
The Opel Blitz mit 20mm Fliegerabwehr Kanone 38 was a Swiss SPAA that was used during WW2. little details are known about his services or origin. it is only known to have been spotted in Bern in 1940 (because the gun was not in service before 1940). the vehicle could be a simple field modification of the truck to turn it into a mobile AA. The truck carried a 2cm FLiegarabwehr Kanone 38 which was a Swiss field auto-cannon who was having the dual purpose of destroying tanks and aircraft. the truck is a German Opel Blitz 1938 which was a common utility truck during WW2 but mostly used by Germany and their allies.
from all appearances the truck was used in the defence of the airspace around Bern, the Swiss Capital city. it’s not known how many were built or how long they were in service, but they existed.
Firepower
the armament was identified as the 2 cm Fliegarabwehr Kanone 38 which is a rather powerful auto-cannon for WW2. This gun has a penetration that is easily 10mm (25%) better than most WW2 20mm auto-cannon such as the Oerlikon or Flak 38. it also features a much better velocity with a 1000 m/sec instant of 800-850 m/sec. the fire rate is not lower, with 400 rpm it’s close enough to the 440-480 rpm of the other 20mm. but where this auto-cannon is better than the usual auto-cannon is the feed. the Fliegarabwehr Kanone 38 is fed by a belt carried in a box like the M2HB. those boxes contain 50 rounds which is offering a pretty long substain fire. so not only this gun can penetrate more armored targets, but it can more easily hit the air target (due to the high velocity) and have a great ammo count per load. the gun is portee and can be assumed to simply be a field gun screwed on the deck. the elevation should remain the same with -10 to +80 which is pretty capable for a SPAA. the rotation speed should be similar to the other portee 20mm such as the AS 42, Flakpanzer 1, and Type 94 which all have 35°/sec. this SPAA should have the same. the ammo load is not known but we can easily put a bunch of ammo boxes on the deck and it would easily carry over 10 of them.
Mobility
the weight of this SPAA is not known, but we do know the weight of the truck alone to be around 2.3 tonnes which is already pretty light. the gun is 410 kg which led the weight to 2.7 tonnes. adding the extra ammunition and some crew, we might reach around 3,1 tonnes which is very light. the truck is powered by an Opel, 2.5-liter, 53-hp, six-cylinder, liquid-cooled, gasoline engine. this allows a speed of 80 km//h. the transmission allows 4 forward speeds and 1 backward which should only allow a low reverse speed. the power weight of 17.09 hp/tonnes makes the truck a pretty fast vehicle, particularly on the road but would remain faster than tracked vehicles off the road.
Protection
if you expect this truck to have armor, it has about nothing. the truck have an open cabin. the wooden wall on the deck and exposed crew. it has about nothing that can help to survive a volley of LMG flying in his direction. however, the crew reaches 6 men which is rather large for the need of this vehicle. a crew of 4 men (commander + driver sitting in the cabin & the gunner + loader on the gun) would be quite enough to make the vehicles survive a bit. the additional crew would only add obstructions. The truck is still fairly small and is possible to hide around the terrain.
source
Spoiler
truck
- Opel Blitz - Wikipedia
- Opel Blitz, standard German mil. truck - Kfz.305 (1937)
- Opel Blitz Military Utility Truck
gun
Spoiler
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