I've been after one of these rounds for years and then along come 3!!!
From looking up information all I have found out is as follows - I'm not sure if its 100% accurate so if anyone has any other information I would be interested in hearing from them:
The 20mm Ehrhardt was an experimental aircraft cannon from the first world war.
At the end of the first world war there were various factories experimenting with new weapons. At the Rheinmetall plant in Dusseldorf Heinrich Ehrhardt was working on a 20mm recoil operated air cooled magazine fed automatic aircraft cannon.
With the occupation of Germany and the take over of the ordnance plants by the inter allied control commission the staff at Rheinmetall were concerned that the allies would copy their new cannon. The few weapons were shipped to Holland and put in storage. The allies never found them. In the years following the war Solothurn was established and a 20mm cannon was put on the market. The cannon known as the Solothurn was apparently the Schmeisser-Ernhardt-Rheinmetall gun that had been hidden from the allies after WW1.
Now onto the 3 rounds I've just got hold of:
The way of differentiating Ehrhardt rounds from the much more common Becker rounds is as follows (measurements taken from a Mk 2 (bottlenecked) Becker and one of the Ehrhardt rounds):
Rim diameter - the Ehrhardt is 20.98mm and the Becker is 19.05mm
Diameter of the case above the extractor groove - the Ehrhardt is 22.97mm and the Becker is 21.77mm
The profile of the Ehrhardt above the extractor groove is much sharper than the Becker that is rounded.
Other than that both case lengths are 70mm.
The photographs show various views of the rounds, all photographs show the Ehrhardt on the left and the Becker on the right. In the photographs with 6 cases the 3 Ehrhardt are on the left and the 3 Beckers are on the right. The photograph showing the 2 headstamps facing towards each other clearly shows the size difference, there is no way that these rounds would chamber in the respective guns if they were switched to the wrong guns.
I have no idea what sort of projectiles the Ehrhardt rounds have, all the ones I have come out of the cases they are in, they may be originals, they may be Beckers. I suppose it would make sense to use the same projectiles as the Beckers to keep costs down but that is pure guesswork. If anyone has a crimped in Ehrhardt or an original design drawing of one perhaps that would clear up that query.
OK so help me out here guys please, I'm really struggling to find more information on these things.
Thanks,
Dave.
From looking up information all I have found out is as follows - I'm not sure if its 100% accurate so if anyone has any other information I would be interested in hearing from them:
The 20mm Ehrhardt was an experimental aircraft cannon from the first world war.
At the end of the first world war there were various factories experimenting with new weapons. At the Rheinmetall plant in Dusseldorf Heinrich Ehrhardt was working on a 20mm recoil operated air cooled magazine fed automatic aircraft cannon.
With the occupation of Germany and the take over of the ordnance plants by the inter allied control commission the staff at Rheinmetall were concerned that the allies would copy their new cannon. The few weapons were shipped to Holland and put in storage. The allies never found them. In the years following the war Solothurn was established and a 20mm cannon was put on the market. The cannon known as the Solothurn was apparently the Schmeisser-Ernhardt-Rheinmetall gun that had been hidden from the allies after WW1.
Now onto the 3 rounds I've just got hold of:
The way of differentiating Ehrhardt rounds from the much more common Becker rounds is as follows (measurements taken from a Mk 2 (bottlenecked) Becker and one of the Ehrhardt rounds):
Rim diameter - the Ehrhardt is 20.98mm and the Becker is 19.05mm
Diameter of the case above the extractor groove - the Ehrhardt is 22.97mm and the Becker is 21.77mm
The profile of the Ehrhardt above the extractor groove is much sharper than the Becker that is rounded.
Other than that both case lengths are 70mm.
The photographs show various views of the rounds, all photographs show the Ehrhardt on the left and the Becker on the right. In the photographs with 6 cases the 3 Ehrhardt are on the left and the 3 Beckers are on the right. The photograph showing the 2 headstamps facing towards each other clearly shows the size difference, there is no way that these rounds would chamber in the respective guns if they were switched to the wrong guns.
I have no idea what sort of projectiles the Ehrhardt rounds have, all the ones I have come out of the cases they are in, they may be originals, they may be Beckers. I suppose it would make sense to use the same projectiles as the Beckers to keep costs down but that is pure guesswork. If anyone has a crimped in Ehrhardt or an original design drawing of one perhaps that would clear up that query.
OK so help me out here guys please, I'm really struggling to find more information on these things.
Thanks,
Dave.
