ASSAULT TANKS OF THE WEHRMACHT

 

Among this diversity there was also the class of so-called “assault tanks” (Sturmpanzer). The tanks, however, were part of his military machine nothing had. Most self-propelled guns listed as assault tanks armed with 150-mm heavy infantry gun sIG 33. However, some of the machines created for the terms of reference for the assault tanks, never been ranked, and, on the contrary, the specified tool is armed with not only assault tanks.

 

For example, the first ACS, which was installed 150-mm infantry gun was self-propelled gun on the chassis of tank Pz.l. This car in General can be seen as the first serial German self-propelled installation.

 

Demonstration of a prototype self-propelled guns and ammunition carrier (on the self-propelled ammunition is not transported) to the command of the Wehrmacht was on the 29th of January 1940, which was followed by an order for 38 cars.

 

Heavy 150-mm infantry gun sIG 33 (sIG — schwere’infanterie Geschütz) with a barrel length of 11.4 caliber, developed by Krupp in 1927, was installed on the roof of the hull of the Pz.l together with gun carriage and wheels. To protect the guns from three sides were built of bulky turret welded from 10-mm armor plates. The height of the car has exceeded 3 m, and the weight rose to 8.5 t, as the gun itself combat ready weighed 1750 lbs. And both the negative impact on patency. In addition, high and narrow SAU had a tendency to tip over. However, this car is well met in the army. The fact that slG 33 was in service Roth infantry guns in the infantry regiments of the Wehrmacht in 1933 and was well known to the German gunners. But in the towed variant, the gun was too heavy, so that the soldiers could not welcome the appearance of his self-propelled version.

 

In part 701 — 706 th mouth heavy infantry guns these cars took part in the fighting in France and the Balkans, and then on the Eastern front. In the fall of 1943, one destroyer of this type was still in service 704 companies of heavy infantry guns.

 

The first self-propelled installation created as a assault tank, though not quite in charge of the tactical and technical requirements of the latter (in accordance with their military machine had to be fully armored), was ACS on the basis of a light tank Pz.ll.

 

In February 1941, the factory FAMO produced based on the tank Pz.ll Ausf.B a prototype self-propelled artillery unit armed with a heavy infantry gun sIG 33. When this chassis was borrowed without any changes, so the fighting compartment ACS was too tight.

 

 

 

In mass-produced cars, the body was extended to 330 and extended by 600 mm In suspension said one support roller on Board. In this form the car was taken by the Wehrmacht under the designation 15 cm sIG 33 auf Pz.Kpfw.ll or Sturmpanzer II.

 

Heavy 150-mm infantry howitzer (the swinging part of the top of the machine) were installed in front of the open low-profile deckhouse. Combat weight of the machine was 12 so the Maximum speed reached 40 km/h, cruising on the highway is 140 km. Combat tower was welded together from armor plates with a thickness of 15 mm. as additional weapons in the car was placed a machine gun MG 34.

 

Mass production of the ACS began in late 1941 at the firm Alkett. However, it was made only 12 units (7 — in 1941 and 5 in 1942), which formed 707 th and 708 th company of heavy infantry guns. Both companies were sent to North Africa where they participated in the fighting, including the battle of El Alamein. Last Sturmpanzer II was captured by the Western allies during the surrender of German forces in the spring of 1943 in Tunisia.

 

The initiator of the next assault tank was the famous German designer Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, who served until 1944 the post of Chairman of the tank Board and the Ministry of armaments. He proposed to use as a base for SAU 150-mm infantry gun medium tank chassis Pz.III, is much more suited for this purpose than the Pz.ll and, especially, Pz.l.

 

In the winter of 1941/42 the Berlin firm Alkett produced a prototype of such ACS. With a combat weight of 21 tons machine has a fully armoured cabin a simple form with a front armor of 50 mm, reinforced subsequently to 80 mm patch plates. In the embrasure of a frontal leaf cuttings were set swinging part of the 150-mm gun sIG 33. To the right of it in the regular tank ball mount Kugelblende 50 set exchange machine gun MG 34. In the top of the cabin there was a hatch for the landing of the crew and the recess for the output periscopic sight.

 

 

The contract concluded with the firm Alkett, provided for the production in 1942, 12 self-propelled guns, called Sturminfanteriegeschütz 33 (StuIG 33) or Sturmpanzer 33). StuIG 33 was used in Stalingrad in part 177 th attack division. Their 150-mm shells more than any other came to shooting the walls of buildings, invulnerable to guns of smaller caliber. Fully armored corps ACS protected the crew from bullets and shrapnel.