By 1945 just under 2000 had been made by VKT in Finland, yet as soon as peace fell across Europe, many of these guns were sold as surplus. The ever dwindling supply of surplus WWII era ammunition goes for about $50ish. Also, explore tools to convert caliber or millimeter to other length units or learn more about length conversions. Finally, while it is true that there are plates that a .50 will not penetrate that a 20mm will, very multiple .50 hits will penetrate that same plate. 50 cal. That $99 investment in 1960 would have returned a nice dividend now as these guns currently sell for $8000-10,000 a pop as NFA regulated (since 1968) Destructive Devices on a Form 3 or 4 with tax stamps. Throughout the interwar period, the Navy’s Bureau of Ordnance worked on the development of anti-aircraft guns and automatic weapons of various types designed to counter the threat of aerial assault. Besides tank busting, these guns proved brutal in engaging Soviet sniper locations and soft targets out past 2-kilometers. German 20mm were useless against a Sherman -- so what's your point? Most ground targets had less than 6mm of armor. Official blog of the Naval History and Heritage Command, The Oerlikon 20 mm: The Right Tool for the Job, “From Dam Neck to Okinawa: A Memoir of Anti-Aircraft Training in World War II,”, Uncommon Valor and Courage Can Come From Anyone: Sgt Cole’s Heroic Story, Families of USS Indianapolis Crewmembers: We Are Their Legacy, Finding the Needle in the Haystack, aka Processing 101. Luckily, Charles Stark Draper’s instrumentation laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology had just the solution.

This goes to show, if you ever run into a good deal on a gently used pre-owned anti-tank rifle…you had better take it.

Lahti’s rifle used a gas-piston action that fired the round through a 51.2-inch long barrel. Using the Swiss 20×138mmB Solothurn Long cartridge, the gun was readily capable of piercing 20mm of armor at 100-meters and 16mm out to 500m with enough pop to put most of the Soviet tanks of the era on the menu. In 1965, Canadian criminal Joel Singer, a 22-year old member of the Montreal-based West End Gang syndicate, stole two Lahti L39s and 200 rounds of ammunition from a Plattsburg, New York gun dealer. Another advantage was that Sailors could change out an overheated barrel in about 30 seconds. 20mm Lahti ammo compared to 20mm Vulcan and .50 caliber BMG in front.

To ensure that the super heavy gun could be carried and set up rapidly, it was mounted on a pair of short stubby skis. One compensated for movements in train—the other for elevation. JavaScript is disabled. wow that's great info, it's amazing to see how, at 0 degrees the difference between 20mm and .50cal is 7mm armour penitration, but by the time you get to a 40 degree angle the difference in armour penitration is 11mm!!! Dubbed the Norsupyssy (Finnish for elephant gun), the Russians lost more than 3000 tanks in that short conflict, many to the Lahti. Specifically, the 20mm Hispano II and the .50 BMG.