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So, maybe this is common knowledge and I'm the last to get the word, but did the various permutations of the German 88mm with side-closing breeches have a reputation for being balky to close?

I ask because of the four I've examined close up (IWM, Patton Museum, Romanian Military Museum, and one other one...I forget where) they ALL, without exception, had numerous impact marks indicating hammer blows exactly where you'd expect to find them if the breech was not closing completely. I've never seen a reference to this in print, but maybe y'all know about this. I can't be the only one to have noticed this. I brought this up to Dontos at the Patton Museum when I visited and predicted they would be there....and they were.

For those with access to other examples, I'd like to hear of any that don't have these impact marks.

A pic of the one in Romania is below to illustrate the point.

- Doug_Kibbey

So, maybe this is common knowledge and I'm the last to get the word, but did the various permutations of the German 88mm with side-closing breeches have a reputation for being balky to close?

Years ago (70s) we used to get lectures from ex-wehrmacht types on fighting the russians.. one of things I can remember is that they sometimes had problems with the cartridge cases which forced the crews to 'persuade' the breech to close properly before they could fire it. Whether this was due to bad quality control or fouling I cannot remember.