1/35 German Anti-Tank Gun Pak38 Model Kit

German Anti-Tank Gun Pak38

At the start of WWII, German forces used 3.7cm Pak36 as their main anti-tank gun. The 5cm anti-tank gun Pak38 was developed as the Pak36’s successor and the actual deployment started in July 1940. The Pak38 featured a gun barrel with muzzle brake, a gun mount with torsion bar suspension and aluminum-alloy trail legs, and its gun shield was composed of two 4mm thick armor plates at a 25mm interval. This anti-tank gun had the power to pierce 60-degree, 61 mm-thick armor from 500 meters using Panzergranate 39 shells. Pak38 saw its first action in the Balkan Theater and Operation Barbarossa in 1941. Although the Pak38 could not easily beat the Soviet T34 and KV-1, it helped the army through crisis several times and was essential at the North African Front. About 9,600 units were produced until 1943 and were employed in Infantry Regiments until the end of war.