Belgian Anti-Tank Weapons
Shell Types and Armour Penetration Capabilities
Char Léger T.15 mounting the 13.2 mm Hotchkiss heavy machine gun. The vehicle is from the collection of Patrick Storto.
The table lists armour penetration values for Belgian guns at 0 to 100 meters range and 0 degrees inclination of armour. Dates indicate the year when a particular shell type entered production, not necessarily the year of availability to combat units. New shell types would take several months to reach the troops at the front, some favoured units receiving the new shells more quickly than others. Andrew Mark Reid is the author of Panzergranate, a set of miniature wargame rules using carefully researched gunnery data to simulate armour penetration results.
| Weapon | Projectile | Penetration |
|---|---|---|
| 13.2 mm Hotchkiss H.M.G. | A.P. | 29 mm |
| Main armament of the Belgian Char Léger T.15 export version of the Vickers light tank. The vehicle was fitted with the Hotchkiss H.M.G. after delivery from England. | ||
| 20 mm L.60 Madsen (Danish) | A.P. | 34 mm |
| Main armament of Swedish Landsverk 180 and 182 armoured cars and Landsverk L.60.A light tanks. | ||
| 37 mm L.21 Puteaux M.1916 T.R. Infantry Gun | A.P. (Rupture M.1916) | 27 mm |
| 37 mm L.21 Puteaux M.1916 T.R. Infantry Gun | A.P. (Rupture M.1927) | 31 mm |
| 47 mm L.33 S.A. F.R.C. Anti-Tank & Tank Gun | A.P. | 60 mm |
| Apparently, there was a Belgian T.14 tank destroyer mounting this weapon. | ||
| 75 mm L.36.3 Puteaux M.1897 Field Gun | A.P. | 90 mm |
| The famous French “75” of World War One. | ||
| 75 mm L.36.6 Schneider M.1914 Field Gun | A.P. | 93 mm |
The Wehrmacht converted captured British Vickers light tanks to 10.5 cm self-propelled guns, ammunition carriers, and armoured artillery observation posts. It is possible that any captured Belgian T.15 variants of the Vickers light tank were used in the same way.
Andy Reid