QF 17-pounder (76 mm)

Description

Write an introduction to the article in 2-3 small paragraphs. Briefly tell us about the history of the development and combat using the weaponry and also about its features. Compile a list of air, ground, or naval vehicles that feature this weapon system in the game.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

General info

The British Quickfire 17-pounder (76mm) is the British army's salvation from the woefully weak QF 2-pounder (40 mm) guns found on most early British tanks. The QF 17pdr is one of the most powerful rifled tank cannons in the entire game, and its presence as the main gun across 4 full battle ratings of vehicles (from Tank Destroyers to Medium Tanks) demonstrates how formidable it is, remaining viable and competitive even at battle ratings where HEAT-FS rounds begin to become prevalent.

At the lower BRs where it first appears, the gun's AP and APCBC shots can cause so much spalling on penetration that the destructive effects can often feel similar to APHE rounds, completely obliterating vehicle hulls and turrets. However, as battle ratings rise and armour becomes thicker, the gun's limitation to only firing solid AP rounds (minus the one HE shell used mostly against SPAAs) becomes more apparent: effective performance requires much more precision than other guns. As such, when using vehicles with this gun, and ''especially'' when using the SV Mk.1 APDS round, scoring kills on enemy vehicles often requires either multiple shots (disabling first the Gunner or Gun Breech, and then other crew members), or requires a precisely aimed shot on the enemy's ammunition rack. Studying the internal layout of enemy vehicles is highly recommended.

The Shot SV Mk.1 APDS deserves special attention among the gun's available ammo types. 269mm penetration at point-blank is one of the highest penetration values of any rifled gun using non-fin-stabilized or non-chemical ammunition. And unlike lower-tier APCR shot, which struggles to inflict damage even after a penetration, SV Mk.1 APDS rounds can, with extreme consistency, destroy any single component they hit. And with the shot's high ricochet angle of 75-80°, while many heavy tanks ''frontal'' armour can still be too thick to penetrate, their ''side'' armour can be punched through even from a fairly steep angle. 

Available ammunition

• Shot Mk.6: AP - Standard penetrating round, use until better rounds are unlocked.
• Shell Mk.1: HE - High-explosive shell ideal for destroying SPAA and lightly armoured or open-turret tanks, but useless against any armour.
• Shot Mk.4: APC - Cap for better grip against sloped armour.
• Shot Mk.8: APCBC - Like Shot Mk.4 but with a ballistic cap for improved flight path, as well as better penetration.
• Shot SV Mk.1 APDS - Sacrifices some of the Shot Mk.8's post-penetration damage in exchange for higher velocity and extremely high armour  penetration. Not available on vehicles lower than BR 6.0/Tier 4.
• 17pdr Shell SS Mk.1 Smoke - Smokescreen shell, for line of sight denial

Comparison with analogues

Give a comparative description of cannons/machine guns that have firepower equal to this weapon.

Usage in battles

This gun is ''the'' defining gun of the British tech tree from BR 3.7 up to 6.7, outside of the high-calibre HE rounds found on the BR 6.3 tank destroyers. As such this advice applies both to this gun and to playing mid-tier British tanks in general.

On a general principle, this gun has 4 primary usage situations to be aware of:

• At lower tiers when it's first available, you'll be using the very hard-hitting AP and APCBC rounds. These rounds have high penetration and cause massive spalling, but cannot go straight through the front of a heavy tank's turret. (A medium tank though? Very likely.) All of the vehicles that have this gun have at least reasonably good mobility though; use this to line up shots on the sides of enemies, and blast their entire turret crew in a single hit.
• At middle tiers you'll start to encounter tanks with 5-shot First-Stage Ammo Racks. This means that you can engage one or more enemies but you only get about 5 shots; after those your reload time roughly doubles. Keep this limitation in mind and know that you'll need to take advantage of that aforementioned mobility to take cover and reposition in between engagements, allowing your first-stage rack to refill.
• At higher tiers where APDS is available and necessary, this gun changes from a hammer to a scalpel. You can pen enemy tanks even at angles, but you must pen the right spot. As noted above, the relative lack of spalling caused by the thin Sabot round means that a single shot will likely only disable 1-3 internal components at best. Learn where ammo racks are, or failing that, learn critical crew positions. On most vehicles, the gunner is on the right side of the turret (relative to your view head-on). If you can't line up an ammo rack shot, at least be sure to knock out the enemy's gunner, ensuring you have the chance to fire a second shot. If you don't kill the enemy with the 2nd shot, move. Crewmate repositioning time to replace a knocked-out gunner is only slightly longer than the time fired to reload and take that second shot; meaning that the enemy's gun will come back online before you can fire a 3rd shot. Don't be in their crosshairs when that happens.
• Against completely unarmored vehicles like the 8.8 Flak truck or most SPAAs, your AP and APDS rounds will prove almost completely ineffective; armour-piercing rounds rely on spalling and densely-packed crew, and unarmored vehicles have a spaced-out crew and don't have enough metal on them to spall. For this reason, always carry 3-4 Mk.1 HE Shells, and if there's an SPAA or 8.8 Flak lurking around, load an HE shell and flatten them. (Since this gun is mounted to British vehicles, you don't usually have the might of an American 12.7mm machine gun to back you up here.)

One of the most favoured targets of this gun is the entire German Tiger line. Tigers have fairly thick frontal armour, but this gun was built to kill Tigers and its rounds will go right through their hulls. As a result, this gun makes for an excellent way of testing how skilled an opposing Tiger commander is: Aim for the right-front flat plate of hull armour. If the enemy commander is smart, you'll likely just knock out his gunner. If the commander is not smart though (and brought too much ammo), you'll slam right into their front ammo rack and detonate it immediately.

Two of the least favorite targets of this gun are the USSR T25 and American M4A3E2 Jumbo Sherman. Both of these tanks have massive plates of frontal armor which even your APDS rounds cannot penetrate; if you find yourself in the sights of either of these tanks you are likely going to die.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• High penetration on most rounds
• Average reload
• Small dispersion
• Very powerful APDS round

Cons:

• Lack of APHE rounds
• Long barrel makes it poorly suited to close encounters

History

Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />.

Media

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See also

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• reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

External links

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• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.