"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...

"Eunometic" wrote in message
om...

The Mk103 had 140mm of penetration when firing tungsten cored
amunition from a FW190. From the faster jet it would have been
more.



Of course not having any tungsten to spare this was
rather academic


Tungsten shortage was a serious problem for the Germans as was nickel
(for jet engines and used only for hardening the superior armor of the
Tiger other tanks like Panther didn't get this metal)

Nevertheless the Germans had small amounts of tungsten cored
ammunition available for the 75mm, 88mm for the Tiger and Panther and
AT guns. These rounds were only rarely available but were useful
for dealing with the heaviest soviet tanks. Early in the war, when
tungsten was a little more common, it was the only way they could
penetrate the T34 with their undersized for the task 50mm canon. (It
was called arrow head ammunition)

Tungsten was reserved for use in Anti Tank rounds for the 37mm and
30mm airborne use. The 30mm round having the same penetration as the
37mm round.
This was 110mm but more like 140 with the forward motion of the
aircraft.

The primary and most important use of tungsten was for hardening
machine tools.

In one of your posts you noted that the Germans used uranium as a
substitute for tungsten in hardening machine tools. I wonder if they
might have used it to harden ammunition? It may even have led to the
use of Uranium cores by serendipity. The Germans had their own
indigenous uranium mines.