3.7 cm SK C/30
The 3.7 cm SK C/30 was the German Kriegsmarine's primary anti-aircraft gun during the Second World War. It was superseded by the fully automatic 3.7 cm FlaK 43 late in the war.
Description
The C/30 was a semi-automatic anti-aircraft gun, and it was hand-loaded one round at a time. This mechanism gave the weapon an effective, sustained, firing rate of 30 rounds per minute. Whilst not uncompetitive with contemporary and earlier designs of semi-automatic light gun, it was far inferior to the 120 rpm cyclic firing rate of its wartime contemporary, the fully automatic Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft gun. The C/30's muzzle velocity was, on the other hand, about 12-15% higher than the Bofors; this slightly eased the aiming. The SK C/30U gun was modified for use by submarines. All mountings were suitable for use against both air and soft surface targets.Ship classes that carried the 3.7 cm SK C/30 include:
- Admiral Hipper-class cruisers
- Bismarck-class battleships
- Chamois-class minesweeping sloops
- Deutschland-class battleships
- Deutschland-class cruisers
- Elbing-class torpedo boats
- F-class escort ships
- German Type IXA submarines
- German Type XIV submarines
- Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers
- Königsberg-class cruisers
- Leipzig-class cruisers
- M-class minesweepers
- PA-class patrol ships
- R boatsSperrbrecher
- Scharnhorst-class battleships
- Type 1934A-class destroyers
- Type 1936-class destroyers
- Type 1936A-class destroyers
- Type 1936B destroyers
- Type 35 torpedo boats
- Type 37 torpedo boats
Mountings
The Doppellafette C/30 was a twin mount with each gun in a separate cradle. It had a six-man crew on the mount itself plus additional ammunition handlers. The mounting was manually traversed and elevated and was gyro-stabilized up to a limit of 19.5° degrees to counteract the roll and pitch of the ship. Most German ships, fleet torpedo boat or larger, carried at least one Dopp L C/30 mounting. The Einheitslafette C/34 was a single gun mounted on a pedestal with a two-man crew. Some mounts were fitted with a gun shield. It was used on the smaller Kriegsmarine ships like the Schnellboot. A number were used on land to supplement the anti-aircraft defenses of ports. The Ubts L C/39 submarine mount used the SK C/30U gun. It was a simple pedestal mount with a two-man crew, one of whom trained the gun with the shoulder stirrup; the other used gears to elevate the gun.| Mounting | weight | elevation |
| Dopp L C/30 | -9° to +85° | |
| Einh L C/34 | -10° to +80° | |
| Ubts L C/39 | -10° to +90° |