New gunshow find,and now quite rare. A "new" 37mm M13 armor piercing anti-tank drill round still in it's container. It's identical to the M51B1 APC-BCT round except instead of a primer it has a threaded plug. These were used for gun drills...
The M51B1 APC-BCT (Armor Piercing Capped-Ballistic Cap Tracer) was a 1.9 lb hardened tungsten projectile with a pointed aluminum or soft steel ballistic cap added that had a muzzle velocity of 2,900 fps and the ability to penetrate 53mm of armor at 1000 yards.
The 37mm AP was what we entered WW2 with for anti-tank use. It was used in the gun of the M3/5 Stuart light tank,M8 Greyhound light armored recon car and the M3 anti-tank gun. The 37mm was pretty much obsolete as soon as it was used against German armor... the superiority of German armor made it largely ineffective against tanks. The Marines however, loved the M3 anti-tank gun. It was light enough that it was able to be manhandled into positions other large bore weapons couldn't hope to be taken. Marine crews manhandled these over the 5' seawall under fire at Tarawa. It had a good HE round as well as the AP round pictured to take out pillboxes etc... was very accurate. Gunners could shoot HE right through the slits of Japanese pillboxes. Japanese armor was not well developed and was vulnerable to the round throughout the War. The biggest plus the Marines loved was that there was a canister round available...122 1/2" steel balls... that worked great for breaking up Japanese Infantry "Banzai Charges".
The M51B1 APC-BCT (Armor Piercing Capped-Ballistic Cap Tracer) was a 1.9 lb hardened tungsten projectile with a pointed aluminum or soft steel ballistic cap added that had a muzzle velocity of 2,900 fps and the ability to penetrate 53mm of armor at 1000 yards.
The 37mm AP was what we entered WW2 with for anti-tank use. It was used in the gun of the M3/5 Stuart light tank,M8 Greyhound light armored recon car and the M3 anti-tank gun. The 37mm was pretty much obsolete as soon as it was used against German armor... the superiority of German armor made it largely ineffective against tanks. The Marines however, loved the M3 anti-tank gun. It was light enough that it was able to be manhandled into positions other large bore weapons couldn't hope to be taken. Marine crews manhandled these over the 5' seawall under fire at Tarawa. It had a good HE round as well as the AP round pictured to take out pillboxes etc... was very accurate. Gunners could shoot HE right through the slits of Japanese pillboxes. Japanese armor was not well developed and was vulnerable to the round throughout the War. The biggest plus the Marines loved was that there was a canister round available...122 1/2" steel balls... that worked great for breaking up Japanese Infantry "Banzai Charges".
