SD:PaK 43 88mm

 is a German Anti-tank unit.

Overview
Derived from the Flak 88 this barrel has a length of 6.35 m (88 mm × 71 calibers) and is mounted on a split-trail (german: Spreizlafette). The entire length is about 9.20 m and the height is just below 2m! The weapon weighs about 3650 kg!


 * Tiger I could not carry this barrel, it instead uses the shorter L/56
 * Tiger II, Jagdpanther, Elefant (65t) and Nashorn (24t) mounted the L/71

Production of the anti-tank gun started in 1943 and around 2000 towed anti-tank guns were delivered to the Wehrmacht in total.

21. Panzer had thee companies of PaK 43 in the Panzerjäger-Abteilung 200.

716. Infanterie had a mixture of PaK 40 75mm and PaK 43 in Panzerjäger-Abteilung 716

Mode d'employ
In the game, the anti-tank gun boasts the biggest penetration value of all units: a staggering 22 AP making it the only weapon capable of destroying the M4A3E2 Jumbo at a distance.

The accuracy value of 7 is identical to that of the 75mm L/70 mounted on the Panther.

When fielding the weapon
While the high AP and the high accuracy values are impressive, the PaK 43 88mm is by no means a wonder weapon and one should not expect wonders from fielding it! It needs to be employed in concert with everything else in the armory.


 * 1) can quickly be pinned by artillery and airpower; and even by massed tanks firing at its position.
 * 2) the time between shots is 11 seconds, giving it a rather low rate of fire
 * 3) any weapon that does not have a target assigned by the player, will auto-assign targets and prioritize ones that are not pinned/retreating; so in case you don't want to repell the enemy, but destroy his units, you should manually assign targets.
 * 4) the weapon moves so slowly, that it is tough to get it into safaty from artillery fire
 * 5) for its cost of 130, a tank could achieve so much more

Stationing a Pak 43 in a given area will make that area a no-go zone for Allied vehicles.

It can also engage soft targets, but this is less effective and also serves to expose the Pak 43's location, making it a high-value target for artillery units and air strikes.

When enemy fields the weapon

 * get your artillery in range
 * consider using smoke instead of explosive, to render it useless immediately
 * consider using fighter planes for strafing runs