Round for 8,8 KWK 43. King Tiger ??

[zbv500]

Hello to all,

This Round just came in today. My question is, could this be ammo for the King Tiger ?

Its is 116,5 cm high. At the bottom i can read the following : on top "agw 12". left "aue". bottom "63888 L 8,8 KWK 43" + little WaA birdy. right "43".

The round was found in Germany/Brandenburg/Oderbruch. I believe they used some KT´s in the Poket of Halbe against the red army ?

Is this ammo for the 8,8 cm KWK 43 / L71 of the King Tiger or is there another KWK 43 ?

I hope somebody can help me out.

Thanks for reading Jens

[zbv500]

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[zbv500]

3

[Matt L]

Hi Jens,

That is a REALLY nice 8,8cm Kw.K. 43 Sprgr. Patr.- I'd LOVE to have one like that !

The answer to your question is yes, it could have been used by a Königstiger. However the Jagdpanther, Hornisse/Nashorn, and Ferdinand/Elefant all mounted the same gun as the Königstiger. So, the only way to be confident it was likely to have been carried by a Königstiger, or the supply of a schwere Panzer Abteilung, would be if you can find out exactly where it was found and determine if ONLY a Königstiger-equipped unit was ever in that area.

Matt

[Matt L]

Oh and just FYI, the marking is actually '6388 St'- '6388' being the code for this type of case, and 'St' indicating that it is made of steel (brass-plated). The large white smear on the right is actually a 'III' which was the shell's Gewichtklasse, and the other white marking is 'Sprgr. AZ' (Sprenggranate mit Aufschlagzünder)- so the loader could tell the type of round when it's in the storage rack.

Matt

[Zünder]

Matt is right, this is the kind of round that was used by the Königstiger.

Fuze is incorrect, looks like a Zt.Z S/30, but in this case, it should have been a AZ23/28.

Great round !

[zbv500]

Matt and Zünder many thanks for your answers and explanations. This helped me alot. Nice to know that this belonged probably to a King Tiger.

If i remember correct there was only the s.SS Pz. Abt. 502 in this Area. They had King Tigers.

About the Fuze i would like to know how a correct one should look like. I got the round without the Grenade and replaced them with one of my 88 Grenades.

Can somebody show me a Pic from an AZ 23/28

Thanks Jens

[Matt L]

Hi Jens,

Here's an image of the AZ23/28 fuze:



There was also an aluminum type that looks pretty-much the same as this one.

Now if you simply put a Flak 18 Sprgr. L/4,5 in the Kw.K. 43 case, that's not a proper match- there was a specific Sprgr. 43 that was different than the Flak shell. Here's an image to show you:



The top one is the 8,8cm Sprgr. 43 (Kw.K. 43) and the bottom is a standard 8,8cm Sprgr. L/4,5 (Flak 18).

But the interesting thing is that if you only got an empty case, that could mean this round was actually fired in combat.

Matt