The German 37mm Flak43 anti-aircraft gun was based on the previous Flak37 design. The Flak 43 had a high practical rate of fire and was highly reliable. A heavy variant of the Flak43 was the double-coupled Flakzwilling 43 gun of the same caliber. The Flak43 was mounted on the chassis of a Panzer IV tank and the resulting structures were called Mobelwagen and Ostwind. The Flak43 was also mounted on the SD.Kfz 7 transporter, creating a vehicle called the SWS (Schwere Wehrmacht Schlepper). The Kriegsmarine also used this weapon on U-boats under the designation 3.7cm Flak43 M43U. The first Flak43 entered service in 1942, but was not mass-produced until 1944. The main producer was the Rheinmetall concern. About 20,000 of these weapons of all versions were produced. Technical data: range: vertical - 4800 m, horizontal - 6500 m, caliber: 20 mm, combat weight: 2000 kg, rate of fire: 250 rounds / min, projectile initial speed: 770-820 m / s (depending on the missile).
Sd.Kfz. 7 (nim. Sonderkraftfahrzeug 7) was a German half-track transporter from the Second World War. The first prototypes were built in 1933, and serial production continued in the years 1934-1945, ending with the production of about 12,000 copies of this vehicle. The drive was provided by a single motor Maybach HL 62TUK or a Maybach HL 64TR with 140 hp. Sd.Kfz. 7 did not have fixed armament as a standard.
The first models of the future Sd.Kfz. 7 were built in 1928 at the Krauss-Maffei company in Munich, but the vehicle did not enter serial production then because it violated the provisions of the Versailles Treaty. Only after the Nazis came to power in Germany, the technical solutions of earlier models were refined and the car was put into mass production relatively quickly. The Sd.Kfz vehicle. 7 was capable of transporting up to 12 soldiers and had a minimum armor not exceeding 8 mm. Despite the weight of up to 10 tons, the car had good off-road characteristics and high mobility. It was also mechanically refined and not unreliable. In the German armed forces, it served as an artillery tractor for cannons with a caliber from 37 to 88 mm. These vehicles were also used to tow 150 mm sFH18 howitzers. Based on the Sd.Kfz. 7, several specialized versions were created, including: Sd.Kfz. 7/1 (20mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun), Sd.Kfz. 7/2 (also a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, but with a caliber of 37 mm) or the Sd.Kfz. 7/5 (version being a self-propelled anti-tank gun cal. 75 mm). Cars of this type were used on all fronts of World War II in the period 1939-1945, both by the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe. Small amounts of Sd.Kfz. 7 served in Brazil, Bulgaria and Italy.
