47 mm APX Anti-Tank

In the early years of World War II, this was an effective anti-tank gun, given the thin armour of contemporary German tanks. Unfortunately for France, it was still rare in May 1940; French industry only produced 1,268 units. The gun was a response to a French Army request to replace derivatives of the 75 mm mle 1897 field gun used in the anti-tank role. The venerable soixante-quinze was a decent anti-tank gun (with barrel length of L/50), but by the late 1930s was heavier and much harder to conceal than the newer, small, high-velocity, small-calibre anti-tank weapons. The chosen weapon was a design of the state-owned arsenal Atelier de Construction de Puteaux (abbreviated APX). It required a crew of six. It fired anti-tank and anti-personnel rounds. After the capitulation of France in June 1940, the Germans used captured examples in fixed positions and also in a number of self-propelled vehicles built onto converted French, British, and German tracked chassis.