Two Tank/Tank Destroyers during WW2 (That I know of) used the American 3-inch M1918 and British 17 Pounder. These Vehicles were the M4 Medium Tank (Sherman to the British) which mounted both 3 Inch or 76mm Gun and the Firefly M4 Tank Variant mounting the 17 Pounder. The M10 Tank Destroyer mounted the 76mm and Achillies mounting the 17 Pounder. The reason I chose practically the same vehicles is cause I wanted you opinions on the guns rather than the Tanks/Tank Destroyers.
the US 3-inch. We taught the british about our tanker guns ;)
in ww2 the only tank was the Germans try watching the Movie Battle of the Bulge their guns were Blowing the turrets clean off and on D day Monty's Tanks were almost wiped out By the Panzer's but he did stop them from reaching Omaha beach so i would say as a tank buster Neither and in 1945 Paton came upon some New german tanks and use One for target practice fired guns from several british and American tanks and hardly scratched the Paint
Hold on there. The Lee Enfield Rifle was of the First World War and not the second. In any case, the Lee Enfield Rifle had nine rounds in the magazine and one up the spout making a total of ten rounds ready. This is of WW-One. The German army then were still in c1914, using single shot rifles while the Brits had the Lee Enfield. By WW2 both armies pretty much had infantry weapons of similar quality and capability. The best light machine-gun of WW2 was the Bren Gun light and easy to carry with a two man crew. The lightest handheld machine guns of both the German and British army were for the Germans the Mauser sub-machine gun and for the British the very cheap [less than fifty pence to make] sub-machine gun called the Sten Gun. It was dirt cheap and subject to occasional jamming. Have used one of these and can testify to the fact that it was a pretty crap weapon but better than nothing. Used mainly for house to house street fighting where it was very effective. Do you have anyone in your family with a military history? No WW2 veterans? You really must get to meet some veterans of WW2, they will put you in the picture.
The U.S. had 2 tank/tank destroyer guns that fired the same ammunition: The 3-inch M7 gun from the M10 tank destroyer (and various prototypes) and the 76mm (actually 76.2mm) M1 and M1A1. The guns had the same ballistic performance but the M1 series were much lighter and more compact, being designed specifically for use in armored vehicle turrets and not adapted from other applications. Both of those American guns and the British 17-pounder (also 76.2mm but operating at higher pressures) were high velocity guns designed specifically for tank-killing. The 17-pounder was certainly the better tank killer firing standard ammunition (APC, APCBC, etc). The American's started shipping HVAP around the same time the British started using APDS so the 17-pounder kept its edge. HE performance for all of these guns was notably inferior to the 75mm M3 or British 75mm QF, which is why they were fitted primarily to tank destroyers instead of tanks. Somewhere in my files I have the production figures for 17-pounder ammo (but I'm not at home right now). Until August 1944 the 17-pounder essentially did not have an HE round. The original projectile was a poor performer and produced in very small quantity. The reason only 1 or 2 tanks per troop were Firefly's was due in part to availability but also due to the fact these tanks were only issued with AP ammunition until late summer/fall of 1944. The summer of 1944 is when the 2nd generation of 17-pdr HE ammo came out with reduced propellant charge. This was an OK round, but no 75. After this I don't think there is much to chose from on the HE front between the respective British and American guns. For a Tank Destroyer whose main job is firing AP (rather than a tank that fires mostly HE) the 17-pounder is clearly the better weapon
