Danish Anti-Tank Weapons
Shell Types and Armour Penetration Capabilities
The table lists armour penetration values for Danish guns at 0 to 100 meters range and 0 degrees inclination of armour. Dates indicate the year when a particular shell type entered production, not necessarily the year of availability to combat units. New shell types would take several months to reach the troops at the front, some favoured units receiving the new shells more quickly than others. Andrew Mark Reid is the author of Panzergranate, a set of miniature wargame rules using carefully researched gunnery data to simulate armour penetration results.
| Weapon | Projectile | Penetration |
|---|---|---|
| 8 mm Madsen MG (Danish) | “K” Bullet | 13 mm |
| 20 mm L.60 Madsen (Danish) | A.P. | 34 mm |
| Main armament of Swedish Landsverk 180 and 182 armoured cars and Landsverk L.60.A light tanks. | ||
| 20 mm L.110 Oerlikon Anti-Tank Gun | A.P. & A.P./T. | 62 mm |
| The Danish army had 20 mm Oerlikon anti-tank guns mounted on the sidecar of Nimbus motorcycle combination tank destroyers. One of these units destroyed the only German tank which fell to Danish forces in the war. | ||
| 37 mm L.37 Bofors Anti-Tank Gun | A.P. (Manganese Steel) | 54 mm |
| The Bofors 37 mm L.37 anti-tank gun was produced under license, and it remained in production until 1943, under German occupation. | ||
| 75 mm L.36.6 Schneider M.1914 Field Gun | A.P. | 93 mm |
The small Danish army was compelled to surrender after resisting the Wehrmacht for 28 hours. Nimbus tank destroyers were readily adopted by German "Head Hunter" units for use in Russia, and they enjoyed success against the poorly armoured Soviet tanks encountered during the 1941 invasion.
Andy Reid