Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "Solothurn S18-1000: The Pinnacle of Anti-Tank Rifles" video.

  1. Given the dimension of what this gun is destined to hit, few centimetres to the side makes no difference. The same with LMGs like the Bren. They are not precision rifles, and, to a man-sized target, the effect of the offset is negligible.
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  2. The problem with all those design was that their bullets were ball, so, even obtaining a penetration, it was only a lucky chance to succeed to stop the tank.
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  3. It depended on the spalling effect. Problem is that the spalling effect works, and not always (it depends on the quality of the armor) only for impacts very close to 90° and, even when it worked, you had only a piece of steel of the dimensions of a small coin flying into the armor, not an explosion. To make an example, The Brits had problems with their QF two-pounder AT guns, because, not having explosive bullets for them, often even multiple penetrations were not enough to stop an enemy tank, and those were 40mm projectiles weighting 1kg! Obviously, being the Wz. 35 relatively cheap, you can manufacture more of them, and more projectiles, so there were more occasions to shoot, and so more chances to obtain a decisive hit, but more danger for the shooters too, since they were more targets for the tank's reaction.
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  4. The rifle used the same round of the Italian and German 20mm AA guns, so there was a wide range of SAP, HE and incendiary ammos available for it.
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  5. The Swiss never adopted it. It had been mainly used by the Italians in N. Africa.
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  6. Yeah. All the Italian and German 20mm AA ammos could be used in this gun. The S18-1100, that was full auto capable, was used as a flak gun too.
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  7. And, more than for this gun, that, altough impressive, saw relatively little use during the war, the town is known in for its 20X138b "Long Solothurn" ammo, that was the standard 20mm Italian and German AA and AT automatic cannons round, so million of samples had been made of it.
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  8. Yes. The subsequent S18-1100 was full auto capable.
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  9. The rifle used the same rounds of the Italian and German 20mm AA guns, so there was a wide range of SAP, HE and incendiary ammos available for it.
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  10. The Swiss never adopted them, but the Italians used it pretty intensively in N.Africa.
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  11. The problem was not to penetrate the armor, but to penetrate the armor AND do some damage. Even the British QF Two Pounder (40mm AT gun) was blamed cause, even in case of multiple penetrations, it often didn't stop the targeted tank, cause the AP projectiles had no explosive content. The Solothurn 20X138b projectiles were explosive.
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  12. Other than in the Finnish Lahti L-39 and the German 20mm Flak guns the 20x138B cartridge was used in the Italian 20mm AA/AT guns, Breda 20/65 M35 and Scotti 20/70.
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  13. Italians used a wheeled mount. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solothurn_S-18/1000#/media/File:Solo_41.jpg
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