Tag Archives: Lahti L39 anti-tank gun

Going for a stroll…

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80 years ago today: 20 June 1943. Finnish army training grounds outside of Hyrynsalmi, in the country’s rural and heavily forested Kainuu region of North Karelia.

On the move is a domestically-made 109-pound Lahti L39 20mm “anti-tank” (really just “anti-material” by this period of WWII) rifle and what looks to be a French-made Hotchkiss (canon de 25 mm SA mle 1934) 25mm anti-tank gun, dubbed the PstK/37 “Marianne,” of which the Finnish army had received 40 during the Winter War. 

The “enemy” has detached itself from the hill and pst. the riflemen hastened to secure its possession. Hyrynsalmi 1943.06.20 (“”Vihollinen”” on irroittautunut kukkulalta ja pst. kiväärimiehet kiirehtivät varmistamaan sen omistuksen. Hyrynsalmi 1943.06.20) SA-Kuva 132062

“On the way to the combat training ground. Hyrynsalmi 1943.06.20. (Matkalla taisteluharjoituspaikalle. Hyrynsalmi 1943.06.20). SA-Kuva 132058

Note the rider and the shell carriers along with all the slung Mosins. SA-Kuva 132059

 

Note the tiny shell to the right.”The anti-tank gun fires. The fire was marked with pile stakes. Hyrynsalmi 1943.06.20″ (Panssaritorjuntatykki tulittaa. Tulta markkeerattiin kasapanoksilla. Hyrynsalmi 1943.06.20) SA-Kuva 132065

Besides the 40 Mariannes that the French sent to the Finns directly in 1939, the Germans gave (some accounts said sold) them another 200 that they had captured. They remained in inventory for quite a while despite their liliputian caliber.  

As detailed by Jaeger Platoon: 

Report concerning antitank guns used by the Finnish Army dated February 1942 notes from the 25 mm French guns that: “Their armor-penetration capability is such, that they have no meaning as actual antitank-weapons…”

The last 25-mm antitank guns were withdrawn from frontline use in the year 1943.

After the war, they were mothballed for possible further use until being declared obsolete in 1959. The remaining 225 guns were sold to Interarmco that year and exported in 1960. The guns sold to Interamco included 125 M/34 and 100 M/37.

Rare transferable anti-tank gun likely headed to the scrappers

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This beautiful Lahti was listed for sale on social media for $10,000 with a matching toolkit, four magazines and 10 rounds of 20mm ammunition. The thing is, it was improperly transferred and now the feds have it. (Photo: The Rifleman)

The L39 was designed by Aimo Lahti, the Thomas Edison of Finnish gun engineers, and is a109-pound semi-automatic rifle built around the largest 20mm shell the in existence in 1939. Using the Swiss 20x138mmB Solothurn Long cartridge, the gun was readily capable of piercing 20mm of armor at 100-meters and 16mm out to 500 meters with enough energy to put most of the Soviet tanks of the era on the menu. While Russian tanks became more heavily armored as the war progressed, the L39 was still valuable as an anti-material gun and used much as the Barrett .50 cal is employed today.

Just 1,850 production version L39s were built in Jyaskyla at Valtion Kivaaritehdas, the state rifle factory, and about 1,000 were surplus in the 1960s, many arriving in the U.S.

And last week a  Federal Firearms Licensee who wrote some hot checks to get tranferrable one from a collector in Michigan, then tried to resell it without the proper NFA paperwork, was found guilty of illegal possession of a destructive device, meaning the gun, now confiscated, will likely get hacked up.

More in my column at Guns.com

The Lahti 20mm Anti-tank Gun: The ‘Finnish Boombeast

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You’ve all seen the pictures of the bearded gun guy spooning a gigantic seven-foot long rifle deep in the woods (well, you have now). While we can’t give you an answer as to who the lucky lovebird is, we can identify the object of his affection as the Lahti L39 anti-tank gun. Some just call it the Finnish Boombeast and it’s real.

In the late 1930s, it was thought that any future war would involve the use of armored vehicles. But about that. The tanks and armored cars of say, 1938, were far from the M1 Abrams and M2 Bradleys of today. These early tanks, such as the German PzKpfw I and the Soviet T-26 were small slow tanks (under 20 mph top speeds) with thin armor that ran 6-15mm thick. It was thought that a group of tank hunters—a couple soldiers on foot armed with a very large rifle—could move around the battlefield and pick off these vehicles like big game hunters on safari.  This led to such guns as the British Boys Anti-tank rifle, the German/Swiss Solothurn S-18, and others.

Finland in 1939 was on shaky ice with the Soviet Union, who at the time, shared a border with the small country. As the Soviets had no less than 18,000 tanks, the Finns felt the need to get their own locally made anti-tank rifle ricky tick.
Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com

The Finnish boombeast being spooned in the woods....location undisclosed...

The Finnish boombeast being spooned in the woods….location undisclosed…