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20×138mmB

Type of ammunition

Field	Value
name	20×138mmB
image	File:20x138mm.jpg	image_size = 320 px
caption	20×138B cartridge and a tape measure in centimeters
origin	Switzerland
type	Anti-armor/anti-air
used_by	Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Finland, Poland
wars	World War II
design_date	1930
manufacturer	Swiss Solothurn
variants	Long Solothurn
is_SI_specs	yes
case_type	Bottleneck, belted
bullet	20 mm
neck	20.9
shoulder	25.5
base	26.86
rim_dia	28.48
rim_thick	26.86
case_length	138
length	202.7
bw1	4.1 oz
vel1	2950 ft/s
en1	34655 ftlb-f
balsrc	Rifles and Machine Guns

The 20×138mmB or Long Solothurn cartridge is a type of ammunition used mainly for anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons during World War II. The designation means the caliber is 20 mm, the length of the cartridge case is 138 mm and B indicates it is a belted case. The loaded cartridge weighs 10.7 oz.

History

Three Finnish and Italian 20×138B cartridges next to a 37mm anti-tank shell

The 20×138mmB cartridge was developed by the Waffenfabrik Solothurn, a Swiss front company of Rheinmetall in the early 1930s from a less powerful cartridge 20×105mmB cartridge.

Weapon platforms

The 20×138mmB cartridge is used in the following weapons:

Switzerland

Solothurn anti-tank rifles: S-18/1000 and S-18/1100
Solothurn ST-5 20mm AA Gun

Germany

FlaK 30 and FlaK 38 single-barrel, and Flakvierling quadruple-barrel anti-aircraft guns
KwK 30 and KwK 38 vehicle-mounted weapons
MG C/30L aircraft gun

Italy

Cannone-Mitragliera da 20/65 modello 35 (Breda)
Cannone-Mitragliera da 20/77 (Scotti)

Finland

Lahti L-39 anti-tank rifle
Lahti L-40 anti-aircraft gun

Poland

Nkm wz.38 FK anti-tank vehicle-mounted gun

References

Johnson, Melvin M. Jr.. (1944). "Rifles and Machine Guns". William Morrow and Company.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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