Ammunition[edit]
17-pounder gun, three loaders standing by with AP ammunition during Operation Epsom, 27 June 1944.
complete 17pdr Armour-Piercing Discarding-Sabot (APDS) shot and tungsten carbide core side by side
The 17-pounder used three types of anti-tank ammunition along with a high explosive shell:
Armour Piercing Capped (APC)Armour Piercing Capped was a basic AP shell used with field guns, but was not used when the 17pdr was mounted in the Sherman Firefly tank.[6]Armour Piercing, Capped, Ballistic Capped (APCBC)Armour Piercing, Capped, Ballistic Capped ammunition could penetrate 163 mm of armour at 500 metres and 150 mm at 1000 m.Armour-piercing discarding sabot (APDS)Armour-piercing discarding sabot could penetrate 256 mm of armour at 500 m and 233 mm at 1000 m,[7][note 3] and allowing it in theory to penetrate the armour of even the German Tiger II heavy tank. Most sources are in agreement that APDS was not available on D-Day itself, but reached Normandy in increasing amounts by the end of June or early July 1944. It was available for the breakout battle from Normandy and the advance to the Netherlands and Germany. The weight of the enclosed shot, excluding the enclosing sabot, was 7.7 lb (3.5 kg).High Explosive (HE)The HE shell initially developed for the 17-pounder lacked power. Due to the high-powered cartridge, the shell walls had to be thicker to stand the stresses of firing, leaving less room for explosive. Reducing the size of the propelling charge for the HE shell allowed the use of a thinner-walled and more powerful shell. Two HE shells were developed, one with 1.08 lb (0.490 kg) of explosive, producing 2050 Kilojoules, and one with 1.28 lb (0.580 kg) of explosive, producing 2400 Kilojoules.
APCBC ammunition was the standard ammunition for the gun, while APDS shot was used for about 6% of the average load of a 17-pounder-equipped British tank.
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