![]() ![]() The barrel has a wooden jacket to allow for transportation after firing has caused the barrel to heat up.ĭuring the Winter War (1939–1940) Finland lacked anti-tank weaponry. To reduce recoil, the rifle is equipped with a five-hole muzzle brake and a padded leather recoil pad. The rifle is a semi-automatic, gas operated weapon with the piston located beneath the barrel and ammunition feed from a detachable top-mounted magazine with bottom ejection for the spent cartridges. After test firing both weapons in 1939, they found that the 20 mm rifle achieved better penetration. As a result, Lahti designed two competing anti-tank weapons: a 13.2 mm machine gun and a 20 mm rifle. Officers who wanted smaller caliber anti-tank weapons believed that the muzzle velocities of 20 mm shells were insufficient to penetrate armor, and a weapon with a higher rate of fire and in a smaller caliber would prove useful. It was nicknamed "Norsupyssy" (" Elephant Gun"), and as tanks developed armor too thick for the Lahti to penetrate, its uses switched to long range sniping, tank harassment and with the L-39/44 fully automatic variant, employment as an improvised anti-aircraft weapon.Īimo Lahti had doubts about the original idea of a 13 mm anti-tank machine gun and started working on a 20 mm design. It had excellent accuracy, penetration and range, but its size made transportation difficult. The Lahti L-39 is a Finnish 20 mm anti-tank rifle used during the Second World War. Semi-automatic anti-tank rifle anti-materiel rifle ![]()
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