Any collectors have H62 LP HEAT grenade for Kampfpistole/Leuchtpistole

[JWilly]

This ordnance was the first German supercaliber muzzle-loaded HEAT round for their flare-gun/combat-pistol weapon family. It followed the 358 NL and 361 NL HE pistol grenades, which were the first supercaliber muzzle-loaded rounds for the combat pistols of any kind.

One source says that the H62 LP was an unsuccessful prototype only, because its high mass gave it too short a range for battlefield use, and the 42 LP was developed with a higher-oomph cartridge (and unavoidably more kick, which created the need to develop the Sturmpistole with shoulder stock) to fix this range issue.

Does anyone have an H62 in their collection? Is any information available on its possible battlefield use, and/or chronology?

[JWilly]

This is the only photo that I know of, of an H62:



The construction appears to be a warhead similar to those of the throwable wurfmines, grafted to a sheet metal tail structure. Presumably there also was a muzzle-inserted shaft much like those of the 358 and 361 HE rounds, with some provision for a cartridge at the hammer end of the shaft.

I don't think it's authoritatively known whether this shaft had provisions to engage the rifling of the Kampfpistole / Leuchtpistole Z, or was intended for the smoothbore Leuchtpistole. The use of the ring tail rather than fins might be taken to imply that rotation was intended, as would be provided by rifling.

[BrunoH]

Hi,
Nothing from my side

[Zünder]

I've seen that picture before, in a german 1943 interview with Ing. Helmut Heinrich and Prof Dr. Ing Georg Madelung, who both worked at Forschungsanstalt Graf Zeppelin.

They describe work on a 61 mm HEAT grenade for the LP, called "H 316 LP", which gave a lot of problem due to instability during flight.
This was only solved after fitting it with a 2 piece rod that could be placed inside the barrel.
The 2 piece rod broke apart after firing, preventing rotation to be trasnfered to the grenade (which was the reason of the instability oddly enough).
The SS took over the design but fitted the grenada with an umbrella type stabilisation, probably a predecessor of the PWM 1.

I think the report did not mention anything about these HEAT grenades actually reaching productionstage.
I never heard about H62 being in collection either, if there are, then they are extremely rare.


Zünder,


www.wk2ammo.com

[San]

H62LP documents found

Dear Willy,

the H 62LP was never seen in any collection up to now. It seems that it has been a prototype that was never officially produced in large numbers and also never officially intruduced into the military service.
Recently on the research to the new book "German Flare Pistols and Signal Ammunition" by Lorenz Scheit, which will be available in May this year, there were found some very interesting and very rare pictures of this HEAT - Wurfkoerper inclusive the stick construction.
The stick was a separate stick that became apart from the detonator after firing. Wind channel experiments were done to improve the flight stability. This black/white pictures are published by the Brad Simpson Ltd. in the above described book.
many greetings
San

[JWilly]

Thank you all for the provided information.

In the past, I have seen it stated on a Polish or Russian website that a few units were fielded on the Eastern Front, but I have not found any corroboration of that statement.

Is there any knowledge here of URLs for Russian ordnance collector discussion sites akin to this one?