Use of 5cm Kwk guns on KM small craft

[PT Dockyard]

In Randolf Kugler's "Das Landungswesen in Deutschland seit 1900" I found two photos ( one Pionierlandungsboote and one Pionierlandungsfarhe) with ex-pannzer 5cm Kwk L/60 guns.  These guns were mounted on a pintle with a small shield.  Both craft appeared to be in the Aegean or Adria.

From other sources, I read that this mount was used as a coastal gun. Some of these  guns were from PzIII L and M that were converted to PzIII N with the 75mm Kwk L/24.

Was this weapon common on KM small craft? How effective was it?

Dave G.
The PT Dockyard
http://ptdockyard.tripod.com

[Peter K.]

Hello DAVE!

Unfortunately I can´t add too much ...
I my opinion this gun wasn´t very common on German vessels, especially the L/60.

About the L/42 I know, that in the summer of 1942 2.480 guns were available from former PzIII-tanks. Codenamed "Franz III", 1.800 of these guns were used as coastal defence guns by the army, using a pivot mount from the French 7,5 cm field gun of 1897! With a HE shell of 1,86 kg - the Sprenggranate 38 - a range of nearly 8.000 m could be reached with a muzzle velocity of 550 m/s.

Of course some of the remaining guns could find their way to the navy ... for example, the 7,5 cm Pak 40 was used by the navy on a special navy mount, the Marinelafette 39/43 - why not also the 5 cm Kwk?

BTW, there were also some complete PzIII-turrets with the 5 cm KwK used for coastal defence duties!