15mm BESA and other autocannons

[Kiwikkiwik]

Hello I found some relevant information about the 15mm BESA autocannon, wpn 101, UK OOB.
Looking at
https://sites.google.com/site/britmilammo/15mm-besa
We can see that the 15mm BESA has no HE shell.
So probably the 5 vehicles that carry this weapon should have their HE ammunition removed.

The Humber carries 150 shells, see stowage diagrams at
http://www.warwheels.net/images/Humb...eDraw1-100.pdf
David Fletcher British light tanks 1927-45 gives the 15mm BESA mounted in the Mk VIc tank 175 rounds.
David also says this.
"in practice the the whiplash action of the 15mm limited it to firing single shots.".
Also from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besa_machine_gun
For the 15mm BESA

"It could be fired in semi-automatic mode as well as fully automatic. It was introduced in British service in June 1940 and was used on the Light Tank Mk VIC and on armoured cars such as the Humber Armoured Car Marks I–III. ... the weapon was usually used for single shots as it was difficult to fire accurately in automatic."

Notice this site gives a service introduction date of June 1940 game has March 39. March 39 is very close to the date production of the MkIVc began.

The armoured cars get 40 bursts. So using the 150 shell loadout they are firing 3.75 bullets per burst.
For the light tank with 67 bursts it is firing 2.6 bullets per burst.

For comparison the Russian T-60s (wpn 008) autocannon and the German 20mm autocannon (wpn 008) both fire 5 shells per burst.

From the excellent site
https://www.tankarchives.ca/2019/05/...netration.html
we get in reference to the autocannon mounted in the T-60,
"The precision of the ShVAK gun at ranges of up to 1000 m in bursts of 2-3 shots is satisfactory" ie any more then 3 shots/burst is a waste same would apply to the German 20mm autocannon.

The T-60 gets 156 five shell bursts, if it was firing 3 round bursts it would have 260 bursts. Applying the same burst rate of 3 to the PzKw II A/B/C changes its ammo loadout from 16 HE, 20 AP to 24 HE, 36 AP. But same as the 15mm BESA it is very likely this vehicle fired single shots which would give it 90 HE and 90 AP. Or possibly 30 HE bursts and 90 AP. In game it runs out of ammunition very quickly because of the 5 round bursts. As I mentioned earlier there is only footage of PzKw II firing single shots, not bursts.
Here is the relevant quote I supplied earlier from Terry Ganders book Military vehicles in detail 8x8 armoured cars, talking about the change from kwk 30 and kwk 38; 'The increased rate of fire made a considerable difference to the effectiveness of the anti-aircraft weapons but made no practical difference to the Gunners on the sPzSpWg SdKfz 231 (8-rad)... as they usually fired the cannon on single shot only, to improve accuracy'

T60 carries 780 shells in 58-60 shell magazines.