Collectible Motorcycle For Sale

Spg Tank

Was the most common or produced German WW2 Tank/Tank Destroyer/SPG the Stug III or Panzer IV Tank?

I know they produced a lot of Stug SPG with short L/24 originally designed to support infantry using direct fire and the longer L/43 & later the L/48 7.5cm guns, mainly produced as a kind of anti armor/artillery (all rounder) role. I know they produced Sturmgeschütz III on Panzer 3 chassis and Stug IV on the Panzer IV chassis. I know Michael Whittmann original was a crew member of one but that's about it. Does anyone know much about the Stug SPG. Cheers John.

Most Gepanzerte Selbstahrlafette fur Sturmgeschutz (Stug) were built on the Panzerkampfwagen III medium tank chassis and accounted for the bulk (about 10,000) of the 15,000 chassis built by 1945. Stug were originally concieved as armor protected self-propelled artillery for use in close-support operations. They were not general support divisional artillery like a Wespe or a Priest and were not issued to Panzer divisions. Rather they formed independent Sturmartillerie Abteilung (artillery battalions) held at Corps or Army Group level and distributed to support attacks by individual infantry divisions or to reinforce Panzer divisions as needed. These vehicles would attack enemy strongpoints with direct fire - anti-tank guns, machine gun or other entrenched positions, etc, in cooperation with infantry. In this they were similar in role to the American indpendent GHQ tank battalions. The design suited the role - low overall height (about that of a standing man), armor sufficient to protect against enemy field artillery and anti-tank guns (25-37mm) and a short, low-velocity 7.5cm Stuk 37 L24 gun, which was virtually identical to the 7.5cm KwK 37 L24 gun of the Panzerkampfwagon IV "heavy" tank. Both fired the same 75x243R ammunition.

Combat experience on the Eastern Front demonstrated that an ability to deal with enemy armor was desireable so the Stug was up-gunned first with the high-velocity Stuk 40 7.5cm gun originally with an L43 barrel and firing the juicier 75x495R round and later with an L48 version of the same gun and nearly identical performance. The projectiles fired from this more powerful gun were nearly identical to the original low-velocity L24 gun so there was little loss of close support capability. In later production though some 1,200 Stug were eventually fitted with 10.5cm STuH guns firing standard leFH Haubitze ammunition to return some of the fire support (vice anti-tank) capability to the vehicle.

By 1943 the Panzerkampfwagen III tank was obsolete but the Stug was still very useful (and about 25% cheaper to produce) so when tank production ended all effort went into the Stug's instead, right up to the end of the war. Krupp also produed a number of Stug later in the war as a stop-gap to make up for damage to the Stug III factory at Alkett. Since Krupp didn't make the Pzr III they used the Pzr IV chassis instead, just slapping a Stug III casemate on top.

As tank and Panzerjager production failed to meet demand for replacements, let alone the creation of new units by 1944 Stug began to be issued to Panzer Abteilung in place of tanks (usually in place of Panther's) and it was not uncommon for one Kompanie in a Panzerjager Abteilung to be equipped with Stug instead of the preferred Jagpanzer Hetzer or Jagdpanzer IV. The Stug had numerous disadvanates in the anti-tank role, having been designed as an assualt gun, not a tank killer. The Jagdpanzer IV very nearly closed the gap between the Panzerjager and Sturmartillerie and it is likely it would have replaced the Stug in production entirely had the war continued.

Wittman started out in armored cars in Poland, 1939. He moved to Stug's for the invasion of France in 1940 and for Barbarossa. By 1943 he had been promoted to Tiger I's and scored the lions share of his tank kills during the "happy time" of the last 6 months of 1943 when the Tiger dominated a target-rich environment and the Soviet's had little counter.