8 Cm PAW 600 - Background

Background

By 1943 the German army was faced with various problems with regards their existing anti-tank gun designs. They had started the war with the 3.7 cm Pak 36 which had the advantage of being very light at 328 kg. so that it could be moved a reasonable distance by hand using only its own crew. By 1941 this gun was inadequate to deal with the heaviest armoured of Soviet and British tanks. Its replacement, the 5 cm Pak 38 offered better performance (though still only marginal against the new threat) but at 1,000 kg. was at the absolute limit of what the gun's own crew could move into and out of a firing position effectively by hand. The next gun, the 7.5 cm Pak 40 was a very effective tank-killer but at 1,425 kg. was no longer suitable for use by the infantry. A much larger crew and a vehicle was required to move this gun any distance at all and often just to displace it out of its firing position. Many were lost intact simply because they were overrun before their crews could move them. As the guns got bigger to deal with the latest tank technology and became too heavy for tactical employment they also became more expensive. The PAK 36 cost RM 5,730 and 900 work-hours while a PAK 40 cost RM 12,000 and took 2,000 work-hours to build. The situation was so bad that by May 1944 the 14th (Panzerjager) Kompanie of infantry regiments were having their heavy anti-tank guns removed and replaced by the Panzerschreck rocket launcher. But with an effective range of only 150 meters this weapon did not provide the depth of fire required for anti-tank defense of the regiment. The only other alternative for a light anti-tank gun had been recoilless weapons, but the German Army was less than enthusiastic because this type of weapons has many shortcomings, particularly a high demand for propellant.