PaK 97/38

[cbo]

Originally Posted by Cross

If 3,700 guns were made, and they lost about 1,150 before 1944, leaving 2,550. In 1944 they fired at least 4,697,000 rounds (592,000 HEAT plus 4,105,000 HE; not including AP)

Even if we don't consider the guns lost during 1944 (800) that's at least 1,842 rounds fired per gun in the year 1944.

Is that what these stats are saying?

That stats are saying what the stats are saying - what we make of them is a different matter

You can average the figures like you do, but there are obvious problems involved in doing so. The 800 guns lost probably also fired some ammunition and some guns might have been deployed in places where they didn't get much of chance to fire while others got pleny of chances to do so.
Ammunition expenditure probably includes rounds fired in training and may also include ammunition lost when captured by the enemy.

So who knows how many shots the guns really fired...?

Originally Posted by Cross

I guess that's only about half a dozen rounds a day, and the barrel life may be over 10,000 rounds right?

No idea about barrel life of this gun. The 7,5cm KwK 37 L/24 used in the Panzer IV was rated at 12.000-14.000 rounds and the 7,5cm le FK 18 L/26 at 8.000-10.000 rounds. The 7,5cm PaK 40 L/46 was rated at 6.000 rounds. I suppose you could say that the French gun fell somewhere in between the former two and the latter in terms of barrel length and muzzle velocity and perhaps also barrel wear.

cbo