Best 'Gun' of WW2

**Spino** · 03-09-2007, 22:02

I bring you yet another wacky 'uber-gizmo of WW2' thread. There are endless discussions regarding the best rifle/plane/tank of WW2 so I'll touch on the subject of guns...

What I mean by gun is something large, made of metal and goes boom when it fires a round at the enemy. We're talking about artillery of all flavors, anti-tank guns, mortars, etc. Yes, tank guns can be included in the discussion but you need to argue the benefits of mounting that particular gun to a specific platform, not the other way around.

So how do we classify 'best'? Potential kills/round, decisive impact upon a given engagement or total kills or any other criteria you can think of.

Speaking in terms of potential kills/round you have to consider the Gustav, that German monstrosity that took weeks to set up and could only be moved into firing position (fully assembled) on dual rail tracks. However for all its potential the Gustav took too long to assemble, was a terrible waste of manpower and resources (it required 500 men to operate!) and was really only designed to take out bunkers and emplacements, not inflict damage over a large area (although it could). So I'm going to have to go for the large caliber naval guns of the time which served effectively in both the fire support and anti-ship roles; either the Yamato class' 18" guns or the Iowa class' excellent 16" guns (which had the luxury of being coupled with state of the art fire control radar) get my vote.

In terms of decisive impact upon a given engagement the famous German '88' certainly has to be considered as one of the deadliest guns of the war. The 88 was remarkably effective against aircraft, vehicles, ships, infantry and hard cover. The fact that the 88 could be towed by a halftrack or truck made it extremely cost effective and its early war adoption as an anti-tank/direct fire support weapon made a huge impression on those unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of its rounds.

As far as total kills (overall effectiveness?) are concerned I'm sure there are a number of towed artillery pieces or mortars which chalked up some impressive kill rates and totals during the war. However because of the nature of indirect fire it is difficult to determine how effective a given piece was. Variables to consider would be accuracy, time to deploy, reliability, weight, available arsenal, etc. I'm guessing the winner would be either an ~80mm mortar or ~105mm howitzer.

**The Spartan (Returns)** · 03-09-2007, 22:13

M114 155 mm howitzer and 88 Flak.

**Veho Nex** · 03-10-2007, 00:06

Panzerfaust 150 and 250

A Panzerfaust 150 was deployed in limited numbers near the end of the war, and was a greatly modified design. It had the same amount of propellant as the Panzerfaust 100 but a redesigned warhead and two stage propellant ignition gave it a higher velocity of 85 meters per second and increased the armor penetration. It was intended to be reused for up to ten shots, and production started in March 1945, two months before the end of the war.

A Panzerfaust 250 was planned to enter production in September 1945 but the war ended before development had been completed.

A related weapon is the Bazooka-like Panzerschreck, which could be reloaded.

During the Cold War, the West German army was issued with a completely new rocket propelled grenade launcher which was named a Panzerfaust 3.

**Del Arroyo** · 03-10-2007, 06:05

German 88mm dual-purpose gun, for obvious reasons

Also the American 37mm, because it was light enough to be used in the jungle, and it used canister rounds against human wave attacks.

**Tran** · 03-10-2007, 06:31

Atomic bomb...?

**naut** · 03-10-2007, 07:15

Personally the Sturmgewehr 44/45 does it for me.

Good accuracy, muzzle velocity and rate of fire for such a compact and mobile weapon. An effective range of 300m (rifles generally had a range of 800m and submachine-guns 100m). Could fire full-automatic without significant recoil, and retain surprisingly good accuracy.

Germany eventually produced some 425,977 StG 44s.

Not to mention the fact that it's concept has evolved most modern assault rifles.

**Randarkmaan** · 03-10-2007, 09:51

this is about 'guns' not guns... by 'guns' it is meant something like this

and not this

Anyway, I'll second the German flak 88, it could be used for anything, anti-air, artillery, anti-tank, you name it!

**Blodrast** · 03-10-2007, 23:55

Originally Posted by Randarkmaan

...

Your first link is not working (site is down), but you prolly meant this

:

(Errr, are we allowed to hotlink ?)

As for my vote, it would go to the 88 as well (had waaay too much fun in the Panzer games with them

), closely followed by the Katyusha's. From what I read, they had a significant psychological impact on Germans, and their characteristic whoosh was dreaded more than anything else...

**Marius Dynamite** · 03-11-2007, 02:15

M1 Garand has been consistantly killing Nazi's in WW2 First person shooters for years now. (Medal of honour Frontline to COD3 and beyond I'm sure..)

**Alexanderofmacedon** · 03-11-2007, 06:02

I'd have to agree FLAK 88.

Originally Posted by Marius Dynamite

M1 Garand has been consistantly killing Nazi's in WW2 First person shooters for years now. (Medal of honour Frontline to COD3 and beyond I'm sure..)

...

**PanzerJaeger** · 03-12-2007, 05:14

'88 of course.

**Seamus Fermanagh** · 03-12-2007, 05:30

Since your using Guns with a capital G, I'll limit myself to the >30mm weapons.

At sea:

USN 16"/50 w/ Mk 8 rounds. As good or better at range than the 18.1/45 used by the IJN and fired 4 salvoes to their 3 (though in a knife fight, the IJN's 3400lb shell would have been harder-hitting).

On land:

German 80mm mortar -- ridiculous combo of hitting power, concealabilty/survivability and mobility. EVERYBODY has since made mortars a centerpiece of their battalion level (and lower) artillery.

Close Runner Ups =

German 88mm DP (as noted, but the only thing going against this gun was its bulk; it made excellent light artillery, a good flak gun and a deadly AT weapon).

Swedish Bofors AA (amazing ROF for its era made it surprisingly versatile)

In the Air:

German 37mm AT mounted by late war Stuka Tank Busters. A slightly better cannon than that fielded by their Sturmovik driving counterparts.

**Decker** · 03-12-2007, 06:26

These are the top guns in my mind:
M-1 Garand
MG40 series mainly '42&'43
The pineapple grenade(the American grenade, I forgot its technical term)
88mm
24pdr&150mm artillery guns
Thompson Sub-Machine Gun
Panzerfaust (bazooka version)
.50 cal heavy machine gun

These are off the top of my head

**TinCow** · 03-12-2007, 12:15

Another vote for the 88.

**The Wizard** · 03-12-2007, 12:21

I suppose we can't choose rocket artillery?

If that's the case, I'll take the FlaK 88 instead of ye olde Katyusha. That beauty was just a total tank killer. Even better was the PaK 43, though it didn't share the 88's illustrious history, IIRC.