Singleplayer and realism

[Crni vuk]

hmm ? Of course they where ...

HEAT was pretty rare at any time with any vehicle. Usualy the Panzer IV e would not carry more then eventualy 4 or 5. Same for the Stug with a short gun. The Sherman 75 received a few as well and probably many other tanks if they have been available.

Most guns used at least till 1940/41 simple AP penetrators which have been usualy steel. A few guns like the 2pf or was it 6pf ? used APDS or APCR.
~ It seems the 6 pounder received a few special shells:
Initially the anti-tank ammunition was represented by a basic Armour-Piercing (AP) shot, but by January 1943 an Armour-Piercing, Capped (APC) shot and an Armour-Piercing, Capped, Ballistically Capped (APCBC) shots were supplied. A HE shell was produced so that the gun could be used against unarmoured targets as well.
Thats what I could get from wikipeda. I had better pages but cant find them anymore. Anyway but I think the APCR really started to apear with the germans on the Panzer III in relation with the upguned Panzer III F or G eventualy which used the 5 cm gun now. But I am not sure. I would have to look deeper in it. But its definetly fact that HEAT shells have been always quite rare and many tanks didnt even got them ~ like the Panther. Particularly in the begining the understanding of HEAT and Shaped charges was not complet. So making them was quite difficult compared to usual AP shells. many times the HEAT shells have been used later to give guns of smaller caliber a increase in penetration that was in no relation to the used caliber as you could achieve that way much more penetration then with a usual AP shell of that size. THere have been also for example attempts to develop some kind of "rifle grenade" for weapons like the 3,7-cm Pak 35/36 to increase their power without developing a completely new weapon as with the start of the war the 37mm guns proved to be pretty useless ~ many times those weapons would have been give for example to troops of other nations which served either in the Wehrmacht or as support to the German Army like the Romanian divisions for example. But even this improvements proved to be of lidle value and served as nothing more then desperate attempts as they could not replace a larger gun like the Pak40/41,43 or even a tank.