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Description

January 8, 2022.

This is the (hopefully) definitive, updated version of Resita 75mm AT gun shell comparison chart V4.

This is the culmination of a journey I started back in 2018 in trying to understand the ammunition of the DT-UDR 26, cal. 75 mm, Md. 1943 "Reșița" Romanian AT gun from WW2 for a modelling project.

Back then I didn't think it would be this difficult or that it would take this long, or that, at the end of it, I'd end up with a 200+ item collection of artillery rounds, casings, fuzes and other assorted paraphernalia, but here we are.

I am not going to recap here the full story of the Reșita Model 1943 or my involvement with it is since you can read that, along with my various edits, in my other deviation whose link is at the top of this comment, but I'll give you the TL : DR version:

Back in 2018 I wanted to model this gun in 1/16th and I ran into a lack of any hard data. Everything in books and online seemed to be rehashing the same few pieces of information, some of which, I now know, were very, very wrong.

What most sources agreed upon, however, is that the Reșita used the locally produced "Costinescu" AP Shell which was a copy of the German PzGr. 39, so, after a few false starts trying to understand exactly how big the cartridge case of the gun was, I drew a first version which shoved a PzGr. 39 and painted it blue-gray, based on this picture of what I assumed was a communist era 76mm shell. Please keep this picture in mind, it becomes important later.

A short while later, my friend Răzvan Bolba came onto the scene and rightly pointed out that my choice of painting and markings were post-WW2, and provided me with examples of the proper wartime paint and markings from period manuals. Some other people chimed in, and, bit by bit, revision by revision, I thought I was nearing the end.

The biggest upset was in 2019 with the discovery in the archives by another friend, Mihnea Şerbanescu of this manual , which proved, without a shadow of a doubt that the "Costinescu" and the Pzgr.39 were different projectiles, but also confirmed the use of both with the Vickers/Reșita cartridge during the homologation trials for the Reșita Model 1943.

About the same time I acquired an actual partial shell casing from the Reșita which has been demilled with extreme prejudice (cut to a third of it's length, holes drilled in the bottom and the side of the case punched), but which nonetheless retained it's bottom markings as well as some as it side markings, so I revised my drawing accordingly.

There were still some niggling doubts about the seeming discrepancy in weight between the Reșita shell as given in the manual (6.6kg) and the Pz.Gr.39 (6.8kg), but, at that point I thought that was pretty much it.

However, in 2020, as the pandemic was gearing up but hadn't hit yet, the bombshell - Razvan found this listing on an online marketplace, of an unknown AT projectile. On a hunch, he contacted the seller and the markings on the side confirmed his suspicions - this was a practice version of the "Nr.4" projectile for the "T.a.c. Nr.26", none other than the Reșita Model 1943! And, surprise surprise, do you remember that picture I told you to keep in mind?

Well, if you zoom in enough you can read that this is the "Nr.4M" ("Modernizat" - "Modernised"), and it's obvious by it's shape it's the same shell as in the listing, but fitted with a different fuze and in it's communist era colouring, since the Reșita was only retired in 1998.

It had been right under our noses this whole time!

And, to top it off, it also had the weight stencilled on it as 6.6kg, so we knew this was the projectile the manual was talking about.

After a bit of back and forth, Razvan managed to acquire the projectile, we measured it and I drew it in for an updated drawing, but then I stopped and thought about it. We knew what the Reșita Nr.4 shell looked like, but what about the "Costinescu", were they the same thing? Should I post this only to have to make another revision further down the line? I decided to sit on the information and wait for confirmation.

Fast forward to the end of 2021, in the respite between the various pandemic waves (we're up to five as I'm writing this) when the arhives were open Razvan managed to ferret the final information for the "Costinescu" shell in the form of the folder containing the original builder's drawings. I won't post them here, but I will make another chart which compares it to the Reșita shortly.

With that, the only doubt that remains is wherever the shell was fully black with white markings or wherever it was unpainted with black markings and a black nosecone, like other Romanian AP shells from the WW2 era, for example the 47mm Schneider-Concordia Md.1936 or that of the 47mm Böhler md.1935.

Since that is a rather minor detail and an easy fix, I'm going to call it a day for now and submit this, hopefully final, version of this chart...

Description

January 8, 2022.

This is the (hopefully) definitive, updated version of Resita 75mm AT gun shell comparison chart V4.

This is the culmination of a journey I started back in 2018 in trying to understand the ammunition of the DT-UDR 26, cal. 75 mm, Md. 1943 "Reșița" Romanian AT gun from WW2 for a modelling project.

Back then I didn't think it would be this difficult or that it would take this long, or that, at the end of it, I'd end up with a 200+ item collection of artillery rounds, casings, fuzes and other assorted paraphernalia, but here we are.

I am not going to recap here the full story of the Reșita Model 1943 or my involvement with it is since you can read that, along with my various edits, in my other deviation whose link is at the top of this comment, but I'll give you the TL : DR version:

Back in 2018 I wanted to model this gun in 1/16th and I ran into a lack of any hard data. Everything in books and online seemed to be rehashing the same few pieces of information, some of which, I now know, were very, very wrong.

What most sources agreed upon, however, is that the Reșita used the locally produced "Costinescu" AP Shell which was a copy of the German PzGr. 39, so, after a few false starts trying to understand exactly how big the cartridge case of the gun was, I drew a first version which shoved a PzGr. 39 and painted it blue-gray, based on this picture of what I assumed was a communist era 76mm shell. Please keep this picture in mind, it becomes important later.

A short while later, my friend Răzvan Bolba came onto the scene and rightly pointed out that my choice of painting and markings were post-WW2, and provided me with examples of the proper wartime paint and markings from period manuals. Some other people chimed in, and, bit by bit, revision by revision, I thought I was nearing the end.

The biggest upset was in 2019 with the discovery in the archives by another friend, Mihnea Şerbanescu of this manual , which proved, without a shadow of a doubt that the "Costinescu" and the Pzgr.39 were different projectiles, but also confirmed the use of both with the Vickers/Reșita cartridge during the homologation trials for the Reșita Model 1943.

About the same time I acquired an actual partial shell casing from the Reșita which has been demilled with extreme prejudice (cut to a third of it's length, holes drilled in the bottom and the side of the case punched), but which nonetheless retained it's bottom markings as well as some as it side markings, so I revised my drawing accordingly.

There were still some niggling doubts about the seeming discrepancy in weight between the Reșita shell as given in the manual (6.6kg) and the Pz.Gr.39 (6.8kg), but, at that point I thought that was pretty much it.

However, in 2020, as the pandemic was gearing up but hadn't hit yet, the bombshell - Razvan found this listing on an online marketplace, of an unknown AT projectile. On a hunch, he contacted the seller and the markings on the side confirmed his suspicions - this was a practice version of the "Nr.4" projectile for the "T.a.c. Nr.26", none other than the Reșita Model 1943! And, surprise surprise, do you remember that picture I told you to keep in mind?

Well, if you zoom in enough you can read that this is the "Nr.4M" ("Modernizat" - "Modernised"), and it's obvious by it's shape it's the same shell as in the listing, but fitted with a different fuze and in it's communist era colouring, since the Reșita was only retired in 1998.

It had been right under our noses this whole time!

And, to top it off, it also had the weight stencilled on it as 6.6kg, so we knew this was the projectile the manual was talking about.

After a bit of back and forth, Razvan managed to acquire the projectile, we measured it and I drew it in for an updated drawing, but then I stopped and thought about it. We knew what the Reșita Nr.4 shell looked like, but what about the "Costinescu", were they the same thing? Should I post this only to have to make another revision further down the line? I decided to sit on the information and wait for confirmation.

Fast forward to the end of 2021, in the respite between the various pandemic waves (we're up to five as I'm writing this) when the arhives were open Razvan managed to ferret the final information for the "Costinescu" shell in the form of the folder containing the original builder's drawings. I won't post them here, but I will make another chart which compares it to the Reșita shortly.

With that, the only doubt that remains is wherever the shell was fully black with white markings or wherever it was unpainted with black markings and a black nosecone, like other Romanian AP shells from the WW2 era, for example the 47mm Schneider-Concordia Md.1936 or that of the 47mm Böhler md.1935.

Since that is a rather minor detail and an easy fix, I'm going to call it a day for now and submit this, hopefully final, version of this chart...