Why did the German in WWII armed their light tanks with 20mm

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>>34197402
I love little light tanks. Especially stuarts. Paraguay still has M3's

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>>34197402
The 20mm was not really meant to engage other tanks but instead be an infantry support weapon. It did have pretty good penetration against the weak armor of some of early war tanks but it was definitely not meant to 1 one 1 them.

>>34197402
>Why did the German in WWII armed their light tanks with 20mm autocanon instead of 37mm gun like other nations?

Those particular tanks were originally armed with machineguns. The 20mm cannon fit into the same size turret - the 37mm did not.

They didn't redesign the turret because they had already designed a new tank with a bigger turret, armed with a larger gun.

Panzer 1 and 2 were originally designed as vehicles to train armoured maneuvers in, they just were used in combat because they happened to have them

>>34197402
>And how did it perform against other light tanks
Well they lost the war....

>>34197402
>Why did the German in WWII armed their light tanks with 20mm autocanon instead of 37mm gun like other nations? And how did it perform against other light tanks?
In the first stage of the war, 1939, both 20mm & 37mm ware more than enough.
Us poles used 37mm Bofors, and they performed very good, we scored some vood kills. But 20mm was better in a way, where you could pack more shots in less time, meaning if you missed once, you could adjust & shoot again faster than the enemy.

Wouldn't part of the reason for the 20mm be because it was a placeholer? The Pz I and II were not really made for combat and were more for training. Germany was going to focus on the Pz III (37mm, and later 50mm, for anti-armor) and Pz IV (Short 75mm for infantry support).
They also supplemented their forces with Czechoslovakian made 35(t) and 38(t) which used 37mm guns.

>>34197402
Technically speaking, against most tanks of the interwar era, when Pz IIs are from, the 20mm autocannons was enough. A number of nations used 20mm autocannons on their tanks or tankettes.

let's not forget that until may 1940 all the light tanks america had in service were armed with goddamn machine guns

>>34198573

And they did miracles on all those World War 1 vets wanting their benefits.

Goddamn Freeloaders. Thank you based Patton, Eisenhower and MacArthur. Taste freedom!

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>you'll never roam the russian countryside in your 234/1 destroying enemy vehicles, light tanks and fixed positions with a 20mm autocannon
>you'll never wheel into a soviet village and open up on bolsheviks with the mg34

>>34198422
I believe the 35(t) and 38(t) carried 47mm guns.

>>34197459

i enjoy how the recoiless mounted ontop of the turret delivers moar firepowah than the gun the turret is built around

>>34197402
Because Hitler as always was an impatient fool. Same story with his Navy. Had he waited until he had more U-boats, Britain would have starved.

>>34197402
No Tank in WW2 was designed with a 20mm as it's main armament.

They were hangers on from the pre war period.

>>34200589
you'd be wrong it was a 3.7cm (37mm) KwK 38(t) cannon

>>34202607
3.7cm Kwk 38(t) for the Panzer 38(t). The Panzer 35(t) was armed with the 3.7cm KwK 34(t) cannon.

>>34197402
Or 45 mm like real nations did.

>>34197402
Well the main Soviet tanks at the time had 5-15mm of armor and were absolutely shredded by 20mm AP rounds at reasonable engagement ranges.
It wasn't really until the KVs and T-34s were fielded in large numbers that they needed anything heavier, and for those 37mm was just about as useless anyway.
Also the Panzer 2 wasn't really built for tank to tank combat, the Pz 3 was meant to handle that.
20mm auto cannons were also very effective against light vehicles and for infantry support.

>>34197734
It was very successful during the time they used it. By the end of the war it was obselete.

>>34197402
Even though they are so easy to knock out i just love rolling around with a Luchs shredding infantry in Men of War 2: Assult Squad

>>34205411
It was obsolete before 1941.

Most of this has been covered but I'll summarize

>Pz I and II were mostly designed as training tanks, the Pz III was to be for tank combat and the Pz IV was designed as an infantry support vehicle
>Pz II's 20mm gun could still fuck up most tanks on the field during the invasions of Poland and France, like the Polish 7TP or the British Cruisers
>Pz III eventually fell victim to it's smaller turret ring so the Pz IV was uparmored, uparmed and pressed into the role of a do-it-all medium tank
>Pz II chassis was used throughout the war for vehicles like self propelled artillery because it was cheap, light and reliable