7 . 5 cm Pak 97 / 38 The Pak 97 / 38 ( 7 . 5 cm " Panzerabwehrkanone " 97 / 38 ) was a German anti - tank gun used by the " Wehrmacht " in World War II . The gun was a combination of the barrel from the French " Canon de 75 modèle 1897 " fitted with a Swiss Solothurn muzzle brake and mounted on the carriage of the German 5 cm Pak 38 . Development history . During the invasion of Poland and invasion of France the " Wehrmacht " captured thousands of 75 mm Model 1897 guns , built by the French arms manufacturer Schneider . These guns were adopted by the Germans as the " 7 . 5 cm FK 97 ( p ) " and the " 7 . 5 cm FK 231 ( f ) " and used in their original field artillery role . Soon after the German invasion of the USSR in 1941 , " Wehrmacht " units encountered new Soviet tanks , the medium T - 34 and the heavy KV . The thick sloped armor of these vehicles gave them invulnerability against German towed 3 . 7 cm Pak 36 anti - tank guns . The situation led to requests for more powerful weapons that would be able to destroy them at normal combat ranges . Since Germany already had a suitable design , the 7 . 5 cm Pak 40 ; this weapon entered production and the first pieces were delivered in November 1941 . But until enough of these were manufactured , some expedient solution was required . It was tempting to adopt the readily available French gun to the anti - tank role . In the original configuration , those guns were ill - suited for fighting tanks because of their relatively low muzzle velocity , limited traverse ( only 6° ) , and lack of a suitable suspension ( which resulted in a transport speed of just 10 – 12 km / h ) . It was decided to solve the traverse and mobility problems by mounting the 75 mm barrel on the modern split trail carriage of the 5 cm Pak 38 anti - tank gun . To soften the recoil , the barrel was fitted with a large muzzle brake . The gun was primarily intended to use HEAT shells as the armor penetration of this type of ammunition does not depend on velocity . Interestingly , another major user of the French gun , the US Army , created and briefly adopted a similar suitable design , known as the " 75mm Anti - tank gun on Carriage M2A3 " . Production . 2 , 854 pieces were deliviered in 1942 ; 858 more followed in 1943 . In addition , 160 guns mounted on the 7 . 5 cm Pak 40 carriage ( " Pak 97 / 40 " ) were built in 1943 . The manufacturing cost of one piece was 9 , 000 reichsmarks , compared to 12 , 000 for the Pak 40 . Production was stopped because more powerful anti - tank guns were in service in adequate numbers . Employment . The Pak 97 / 38 reached the battlefield in the summer of 1942 . Despite moderate effectiveness and a violent recoil , it remained in service until the end of the war . The scale of use can be illustrated by the ammunition used : 37 , 800 HEAT shells in 1942 and 371 , 600 in 1943 . On 1 March 1945 the " Wehrmacht " possessed 145 Pak 97 / 38 and FK 231 ( f ) guns , although only 14 were employed by frontline units . Ten barrels with shields were experimentally mounted on the Soviet T - 26 light tank chassis , resulting in vehicles designated the " 7 . 5 сm Pak 97 / 38 ( f ) auf Pz . 740 ( r ) " . These self - propelled guns served with the 3rd Company of the 563rd Anti - Tank Battalion before being replaced by the Marder III on 1 March 1944 . The gun was also employed by the Finnish Army during the Continuation War . The Finns purchased 75 mm field guns from France in 1940 , but were disappointed with their performance and in 1943 , they reached an agreement with Germany about upgrading them to Pak 97 / 38 standards . 46 pieces were converted in March – June 1943 . Seven of the guns were lost in combat , the rest remained in service after the war and were only retired in 1986 . Five or six guns were supplied to the infantry divisions of the Romanian Third and Fourth Armies in October 1942 . Nine divisions of the Italian 8th Army had an anti - tank battery of six guns assigned to its artillery regiment in 1942 . The Italian designation was " Cannone da 75 / 39 " . By November 1942 , the Hungarian 2nd Army fielded 43 Pak 97 / 38s . Ammunition . It is not clear if German AP shells for the Pak 97 / 38 were produced . Polish AP ammunition was also used in limited numbers . The Finnish Army used locally produced shells designated " 75 psa - Vj4 " and possibly old French ones designated " 75 pspkrv 59 / 66 - ps " . The " 75 psa - Vj4 " penetrated 92 mm at 300 m , with an impact angle of 90° . The HEAT projectiles penetrated about 90 mm at an impact angle of 90° or about 75 mm at 60° . Summary . The Pak 97 / 38 was produced using captured barrels and could fire captured French and Polish ammunition . Together with light weight , good mobility and sufficient anti - armor performance with a HEAT shell ( enough to penetrate T - 34 in most situations ; the side armor of the KV could also be pierced ) , it made the gun a decent anti - tank weapon . It had shortcomings , particularly its low muzzle velocity . Although this did not affect the armor - piercing characteristics of its HEAT ammunition , it meant insufficient performance when firing regular AP shells and - because of difficulties in hitting small mobile targets - its low effective range of about 500 m even with HEAT . The gun also had a quite violent recoil , especially with AP shells . It must be also noted that in World War II , the technology of the manufacture of HEAT shells was crude , so many shells had poor armor penetration characteristics .