Some time ago I stumbled across this price list of German weapons while hunting for data on Czech siege artillery. With all the recent discussion on Grand Europa economics, I figure that it is time for this stuff to see the light of day. These prices are in Reichmarks and are for the first of February 1943. The prices of the vehicles do not include weapons, optics or radios.

The squeeze-bore guns were a new concept invented by the Germans to maximize armor penetration for a given caliber and weight. The Gerlich Principle was that a projectile with soft flanges around its dense core fired through a tapered bore forced gas pressure to rise as the barre1 narrows and thus increased muzzle velocity and hence armor penetration.

For example, the schwere Panzerbusche 41 had a barrel that started at 28mm and tapered to 20mm at the muzzle and could penetrate 69mm of armor angled at 30 degrees at 200 meters. For comparison's sake the 37mm Pak 35/36 could only penetrate 42mm at the same range and angle.

The major problem was that the only sources of tungsten ore (wolfram) were Spain and South America and the available supply was needed for machine tools. Substitutes of lesser density and hardness simply don't work anywhere near as well.

The abbreviation "Sd.Kfz" is short for sonderkraftfahrtwagen, a designation adopted by the German Army for vehicles. The use of nebelwerfer (literally, fog thrower) for both mortars and rocket launchers is easily explained: the original use of the mortars was for creating smokescreens and they were used solely by the chemical troops, much like the US 4.2 inch mortar in their chemical mortar battalions.

Morser translates as mortar, but was used by the Germans for their heavy short-barrelled howitzers. The Uxx following the tank guns expresses the barrel length as a multiple of its caliber.

As a general rule of thumb, the longer the barrel, the better the armor penetration. For example a 5cm L/60 gun had a barrel 300 centimeters or 3 meters long. This translates into about 10 feet in English measurements. 5cm. is just slightly smaller than 2 inches.

Light Infantry Weapons : Price
P08 (Luger) 35
P38 32
MP 38 57
MP 40 (Schmeisser) 60
Karabiner 98K 70
Karabiner 41 150
MG 34 310
MG 42 250
schwere PanzerbOsche 41 (2.8cm squeeze-bore AT rifle) 4500

Heavy Infantry Weapons : Price
4.2cm Pak 41 (4cm squeeze-bore AT gun) 8000
5cm Pak 38 10,600
7.5cm Pak 40 12,000
7.5cm Pak 41 (75mm squeeze-bore AT gun) 15,000
7.5cm Pak 97/38 (a modified French 75 gun) 8000
5cm Granatwerfer 36 (mortar) 400
8cm Granatwerfer 34 800
10cm Nebelwerfer 35 (mortar) 1500
10cm Nebelwerfer 40 14,000
12cm Granatwerfer 42 (copy of Russian 120mm mortar) 1200
8.8cm R Pz B 54 (Panzerschreck) (modified copy of US bazooka, not yet in production) 70
7.5cm leichte Infantrie-Geschutz 18 (Infantry gun) 6700
15cm schwere Infantrie-Geschutz 33 20,450

Nebelwerfers (Rocket Launchers) : Price
15cm Nebelwerfer 41 3350
21cm Nebelwerfer 42 4000
28/32cm Nebelwerfer 41 1835
30cm Raketenwerfer 56 3035
schweres Wurfgdrat 40 and 4111.95
(framework for firing 28/32cm rockets directly from their packing crates)

Light Artillery : Price
7.5cm Leichtgeschiitz 40/1 (Recoilless gun for use by paras) 6500
7.5cm Feldkanone 18 20,400
7.5cm Gebirgsgeschiitz 36 (mountain gun) 17,000
10.5cm Gebirgshaubitze 40 13,000
10.5cm Leichtegeschdtz 40/2 (recoilless gun) 13,000
10.5cm leichte Feldhaubitze 18 16,400

Heavy Artillery : Price
schwere 10cm K 18 (medium cannon) 37,500
schwere 10cm K 42 (medium cannon) 60,000
15cm schwere Feldhaubitze 18 (standard medium howitzer) 38,500
15cm schwere Feldhaubitze 42 60,000
15cm Kanone 18 108,000
15cm Kanone 39 135,000
17cm Kanone in Morserlafette (17cm gun mounted on the carriage of the 21cm Morser) 117,000
21cm Morser (howitzer) 107,000
21cm Kanone 38 200,000

Siege Artillery : Price
21cm Kanone 39/40 (Czech-designed gun) 269,000
24cm Haubitze 39/40 (Czech-designed howitzer) 225,000
24cm Kanone 3 500,000
35.5cm Morser M 1 536,000
35.5cm Morser M 1 (including its vehicles) 859,000

Railroad Guns : Price
21cm Kanone 12 1,500,000
28cm Kanone 5 1,250,000
28cm Bruno neue Kanone 1,000,000
38cm Siegfried Kanone 1,500,000

Tank Guns : Price
2cm KwK 30 (adaptation of Flak 30) 4000
2cm KwK 38 (adaptation of Flak 38) 3500
5cm KwK 39 (L/60) (Pz III Special) 5000
7.5cm KwK (L/24) (Early Pz IVs) 8000
7.5cm KwK 40 (L/43) (Pz IV Special) 12,500
7.5cm KwK 42 (L/70) (Panther) 12,000
Sturmgeschutz 7.5cm KwK 37 (L/24) (Early StuG IIIs) 9150
7.5cm Sturmkanone 40 (L/43 or 48) (Late StuG IIIs and StuG IV) 13,500
8.8cm KwK 36 (L/55) (Tiger 1) 18,000
8.8cm KwK 43 (L/71) (Tiger 11) 21,000
8.8cm Pak 43/2 (L/71) (Elephant) 20,000
8.8cm Pak 43/3 (L/71) (Jagdpanther) 21,000

Anti-Aircraft Weapons : Price
2cm Flak 30/38 (complete) 6500
2cm Flak 30/38 gun only 3000
2cm Flakvierling 38 (complete) (4-barrelled mounting) 20,000
3.7cm Flak 18, 36, and 37 24,000
4cm Flak 28 (Bofors) 47,000
5cm Flak 41 52,000
8.8cm Flak 18 (oldest model of the famed 88) 31,750
8.8cm Flak 36 33,600
8.8cm Flak 41 60,000
10.5cm Flak 38 75,000
10.5cm Flak 39 85,000
12.8cm Flak 40 105,000
12.8cm Flakzwilling 40 (twin gun mount) 202,000
60cm Searchlight 15,215
150cm Searchlight 27,500
200cm Searchlight 85,000

Armored Vehicles : Price
Pz II 49,228
Pz III (probably the Ausf N model) 96,183
Pz IV (probably the Ausf G model) 103,462
Panther Ausf D 117,100
Tiger I 250,800
Pz Befehlswagen (Sd kfz 266) (armored command vehicle on Pz III chassis) 110,000
Sturmgeschutz III Ausf G 82,500
sIG auf Fahrgest. Pz 38 (t) (The 15cm infantry gun mounted on a Pz; 38(t) chassis, nicknamed the Grille) 53,000
leichter Panzerspahwagen (Armored car, probably the Sd.Kfz 222) 19,600
schwerer Panzerspahwagen (Armored car, model unknown) 52,960
schwerer Panzerspahwagen (8-Rad) (8-wheel armored car, probably the Sd.Kfz 234) 57,000
leichter Schutzenpanzerwagen (Semi-tracked armored personnel carrier, the Sd.Kfz 250) 20,420
rnittlerer Schutzenpanzerwagen (Sd.Kfz 251) 22,560
leichter Ladungstrager (Sd.Kfz 302) (First version of the radio-controlled Goliath demolition charge carrier) 3000
leichter Ladungstrager (Sd.Kfz 303) (Later version of the Goliath carrying heavier demolition charges) 1000
schwerer Ladungstrdger (Sd.Kfz 301) (Radio-controlled vehicle carrying a 500 kilo demolition charge) 28,000

Unarmored Vehicles : Price
leichter Zugkraftwagen 1t (1 ton semi-tracked tractor) 15,000
leichter Zugkraftwagen 3t 22,000
mittlerer Zugkraftwagen 5t 30,000
mittlerer Zugkraftwagen 8t 36,000
schwerer Zugkraftwagen 12t 46,000
schwerer Zugkraftwagen 18t 60,000

Thoughts

The major anomaly is that of the low price for the Panther; I'd expected the price to be nearly the same as that of the Tiger I based on things I'd read over the years. I can't explain this, except that this is at the very beginning of the Panther's production run and the price might have been adjusted upwards later.

Also of interest are the high prices for cannons as opposed to howitzers, confirming my suspicions that they are harder to make due to the thicker walls of the barrel and chamber. On the other end of the spectrum, notice how much cheaper mortars and rocket launchers are than tube artillery.

Ignore the price of the 10cm Nebelwerfer 40; it was a large, heavy, over-engineered weapon that wasn't bought in any quantity.