Hello and welcome back to another Forgotten Hope 2 update.
Today we are showing off a new anti-tank gun that will be coming to some of our existing maps, the Pak 97/38. Before we get to that though, we have a recent video from Ts4EVER that covers some of the other balance changes coming to existing maps in the next update.
The German encounter with the heavy Soviet tanks during Operation Barbarossa had shown the necessity of getting more powerful anti-tank guns to the front. The 5.0 cm PaK 38 was struggling, and the new 7.5 cm PaK 40 would not be able to be supplied in the numbers need quickly enough. Thoughts turned towards the hundreds of French and Polish modèle 1897 field guns that had been captured previously. Using the German HEAT shells they would have the power needed, but the original field gun carriage was unsuitable.
The solution was to mount the gun barrels onto the modern PaK 38 split trail carriage and then fit the gun with a distinctive Solothurn muzzle brake to lessen the recoil force. 2854 guns were converted in 1942, with a further 858 the next year - production stopping as the PaK 40 became available in sufficient numbers. The PaK 97/38 was cheap to make and reasonably effective, but was hardly ideal.
The Finns had purchased 48 modèle 1897 field guns from France in 1940, and by 1942 had pulled them away from the front due to excessively worn barrels affecting accuracy. In 1943 they were shipped to German and 46 were converted to the PaK 97/38 standard. 7 of these guns would be lost in the battles in the summer of 1944.
The Italian 8th Army received enough of these guns to outfit all but one of their 10 divisions with a 6 gun battery in 1942. Our PaK 97/38 was made by Seth Soldier, using the carriage from our PaK 38 by Malsa and Rad.
That's all for this week, but be sure to come back next time for another update. Until then, feel free to visit our Discord, our public forums, our Twitter, our subreddit, and/or Facebook pages to discuss this update and other news.
