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Battle of |l ; l:l,r l::, rt ill:u:ti t:rl
Volume 8 Ise lll
Published by
Orbis Publishing Ltd
@ Aerospace Publishing Ltd 1985
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llrril(Destro ers
of we-- dllilarll
Successful tank desigms are the product of a carefuf
compromise between firepower, protection and. mobility,
Nevertheless, during World War II many of the belligerent
nations resorted to producing 'tank desttoyers', vehicles
which sacrtficed, armour, speed or Ilexibility in order to catry
a much more powerfuJ ga n than contemporary tanks.
The tank destroyer was very much a product of the milrtary and econo-
mic developments peculiar to World War IL During the war years the
tank destroyer flourished for various reasons which will be described tn
this study, but rn the years that followed 1945 the type all but vanished,
and it is a rare thing to find rn modern iank parks, The truth was (and sttll
Ls) that the tank destroyer has severe limitations as a fighting vehtcle, but
ihat it was capable of carrying a large-calibre gun, one far heavier than
-he correspondrng tank chassls of the time could ever carry and fire.
The tank destroyer and the tank were very different beasts. Although
-hey often used identical chassis, and at times even looked alike, they
'rere markedly dissimrlar when it came to combat, The tanks with their
:ombination of flrepower, mobrlity and protection usually had the com-
bat edge over the tank destroyer wrth its limited-traverse armament and
relatrvely thin armoured protection, but to be set against thrs the tank
iestroyer usually had the more powerful gun and a low silhouette that
qave it the edge in concealment. There was at one time the philosophy
,hat as tanks were not expected to fight tanks, specralized tank des-
royers would have to be used. This approach did not last long under the
severe strictures of combat, where it was soon learned that the best way
The small frontal atea of the
J adgpanzer 38(t) Hetzer made the
vehicle a difficult target to spot or hit,
which assisted greatly in the Hetzels
overall prctection. The Hetzer
mounted a75-mm (2.95-in) modified
tankgun andwasfast, handy and
relatively easy to produce.
to defeat a tank was to use another tank. The tank destroyer could be
used for thrs purpose but at a cost in weapon flexibiiity and all too often r:
protection for the crew.
Tank destroyers were also important during World War il for pwel-.-
economic and production reasons, Among the types of tank destroyel
and German Panzerjdrger (tank hunter) were some superb frghtrng
vehicies such as the Hetzer, the Ml8 Hellcat and the superlative Jagi-
panther, of which the last would be a viable frghtrng machine today. Bu.
there were some dreadful lash-ups that were undergunned, lackec
protection for their unfortunate crews and, in addition to these farlings
were so underpowered ihey had difficulty in moving at combat speeds
Add to these lumbering monsters such as the Jagdtiger,and the scope c:
thrs study can be appreciated,
The Gun Motor Carriage M36 was a late war version of the M10 series
mounting a 90-mm (3.54-in) anti-aircraft gun as a counter to the German
equivalents.ltwas used in Europe from late1944 onwards, but never in large
numbers.Itwas relatively lightly armoured and the tufiet hadno overhead
protection.
 Panzerjigrer I
-,r'ten
the first PzKpfw I (Panzerkampf-
-,';agen I) light tanks were produced in
,334 it was intended that they would
be used only as trainingr vehicles, but
-: rne event they had to be used as
::mbat tanks during the early war
-.'ears for the simple reason that larger
ald heavier tanks were not yet avail-
able rn sufflcient numbers But the
PzKplw I had a crew of a mere two
nen. carried only a machine-gun
ilnament and was poorly protected
by thin armour. By no stretch of the
rnaqdnation was it a viable batile tank
and most were phased out of use after
:le end of 1940 (but retarned for the
:ngrnal training role), Thrs left a num-
ber ofspare tank chassrs wrth no oper-
aiicnal role, so the opportunity was
:aken to convert these vehicles into the
:JSt German self-propeiled gun,
It had already been decided that
scme form of mobile anti-tank gun
,'rould be a great asset to the anti-tank
'mits who would otherwise have to use
lo-red gnrns. Thus the first example of
.:s requirement was met by mounting
a 3.7-cm (1,456-in) Pak 35/36 onto a
rrretless PzKpfw L WhLle thrs conver-
ston showed promise it was
not
adopted because even by mid- 1940 it
,,vas appreciated that the 37-mm gmn
lacked power to deal with future
arrnour, Thus a Czech 47-mm (1.85-in)
antrtank qtun was mounted instead,
and this combination was adopted for
service as the Panzerjiiger I fiir 4.7-cm
Pal<(t).
The Czech gun was a powerful
lard-hrtting weapon that was well cap-
able of penetrating most armour it was
1,kely to encounter and Alkett AG pro-
iuced a total of 132 conversions, The
result was very much a flrst attempt for
aLi that was required was to remove the
:rignnal turret, plate over the front of
.ie turet ring and afiange a small
.'.': lk-ng platlorm over lhe engine cov-
The gun was mounted in a small
=:s
GERMANY
Marder II
-:-.
-.;th the PzKpfw I, when the PzKpfw
-- eliered service in 1935 rt was meant
.: be used only as a training and de-
.'el:pment tank. In the event it had to
i:: .sed as a combat tank from 1939 to
-:12 smply because there were not
::-,:.:qh combat tanks to replace the
.'.'p: which acquitted itself well
::=-:'-gr despite the fact that 1ts main
:::-:rr.ent -oas limited to a 2-cm can-
:,::- i:1' 1941 the PzKpfir II was over-
:*e :cr replacement as its armament
-.';=': ..ci abie to penetrate other than
-.::-skri targets and the small tuffet
:-::;: coi;1d not accommodate a heavier
r.':apon. However, the productton ltne
::r ::e chassrs was still rn being and at
--:-: .r:re it seemed to be too valuable to
,l'.s:e so the opportunity was taken to
r: :.,:r lhe PzKpfw ll to a Panzerjager
,.1e prototype of this new Panzerjd-
;::,';as fltted with a S-cm (1,97-in) anti-
::::< !nin. but the fu]I production ver-
s-:-=,'ras fitted with a special versron of
-.'-: : 5-cm (2.95-in) Pak 40 antt{ank
;-: known as the Pak 40/2. This
1:','.'erir-rl gun was the German army's
. --iald anti-tank weapon and the in-
:::p:raiion of greater mobility added
:::-s-ierably to the gun's anti-armour
; -.=:iral The qnrn was placed behind
r -,-nm (0.39-in) thick armoured
.,-,-:.j ihat sloped to the rear to pro-
. -i= :he grm crew with adequate pro-
shreld that was left open at the top and
rear. The crew consisted ofthe driver,
still usrng his original PzKpfiri I posi-
tion, and two men serving the gun. A
total of 74 rounds could be carried as
standard, although more could be
added to this total. The chassis mainly
used for the conversion was that ofthe
PzKpfw I Ausf B.
The Panzerj6rger Is served in North
Africa and during the early stagres of
the camparqns in the Soviet Union.
They proved to be powerful enougrh to
defeat opposing tanks, but their over:
all lack of protection for the crew made
them very lrrlnerable targets. Accor-
dtngly when better equrpments be-
came available they were withdrawn
from front-line use and assigned to
theatres where they could be used for ThisSdKfz 101 Panzerjdger I was the mounted an ex-Czech 4.7-cm
policrng rather than for combat duttes. first example captured by the Allies (1.85-in) anti-tankgun in an open
Among the iocatrons so honoured inNorth Africa andwas subjected to mounting that used only a frontal
were the Balkans, where the vehicles a great deal of technical scrutiny. It shield for crew protection.
were used on anti-partisan operations,
Units operating on the Eastern Front
after about the end of 1942 frequently
removed the giuns and used the chas-
sis for supply carrying, and some unrts
replaced their Czech gmns with cap-
tured ex-French 47-mm guns, Few
Panzerjeiger Is remarned in use after
mid-1944.
Specification
Panzerjiger I
Crew:3
Weight: 6000 kq ( 13,228 Ib)
Powerplant:one Maybach NL 38 6-
cylrnder perrol engrne developing
74.6 kW (lO0 hp)
Dimensions: Iength overall4. 14 m (i3 ft
7 in); wrdth 2.013 m (6 ft 7,25 in); heisht
2.1 m (6 ft 10.7 in)
Performance: maximum road speed
40 km/h (24.8 mph); rangre 140 km (87 This photograph of a Panzerjiiger I Iifeof thePzKpfw I lighttank.The
miles); gradient 57 per centt vertical shows the extemporized nature of gunwas powerful enough, but the
obstacle 0,37 m (14,6 in); trench 1.4 m this earlyGerman conversion, made mounting pr ov ide d vir tu aLly no
(4 ft 7 in); fordins 0 6 m (2 ft) in an attempt to prolong the service protection.
tection, To accommodate the weight of
the gn-rn the engine was moved to the
rear of the hull and the engrne covers
were used as a working platform to
selve the Emn, The vehicle was known
as the Marder II (Marder meaning
marten) although other and more
cumbersome designations (such as
7.5-cm Pak 40/2 aufSlfII) were used on
official documents,
The Marder II remained in produc-
tton until 1944 and became one of the
most widely used of all the many Ger-
man sellpropelled gun conversions,
In production terms it was manufac-
tured rn greater numbers than any
other weapon of its type, for 1,2 l7 were
made. The Marder II was certainly a
handy and efficrent weapon in combat
for it was relatively small, had a good
cross-country performance and the The SdKfz I31 Marder II mounted a thePzKpfwll Ausf A,C orF, 1217
gun could knock out virtually any 7.1-cm ( 2.9 5 -in) Pak 40/ 2 and was one were produced to be used on all
enemy tank other than super-heavy of the more important of the fronts. The crew was four, including
Soviet tanks such as the IS-2. Racks for Panzerj iiger conversions. Based on the driver.
37 rounds were provided over the en-
gine covers and there was also space often reduced by one man to conserve novel equipment could have but little
for stowingr 600 rounds for the manpower, but the deveiopment of the impact on the outcome of the war.
machine-gmn usually carried; this was type did not cease. During the latter
a 7.92-mm (0.312-in) MG34 or MG42, stages of the war some Marder IIs
Most Marder II production was sent were equipped with infra-red search-
to the Eastem Front, but the Marder II lights for engaging tarqets at night and Specification
was found wherever German troops some of these equlpments were used Marderll
were in action, By i944 the type was in action on the Eastem Front duringt Crew: 3 or 4
out of production and the crew was the last staqres of the war, By then such Weight: I iO00 ks (24,25 L Ib)
Marder II (continued) Tank Destroyers of World War II
i*( .
,_,,1.

\:

:i:
!,,i

AMarder II with the7.j-cm (2.95-in)
Pak40/2 gun barrel clamps lowered.
Althoughthisvehiclewas one of the
more important (numerically) of the
Panzerjdger, itwas rather high and
g e ne rally lac ke d protection.
Powerplant:one Maybach HL 62
petrol enqine developing 104.4 kW
(140 hp)
Dimensions:length 6,36 m (20 ft
10.4 in); width 2,28 m (7 ft 5.8 in); heisht
2.20 m(7 ft 2,6 in)
Performance: maximum road speed
4Akrn/h(24,8 mph); roadrange 190 km
( I IB miles): gradient 57 per cenr;
vertical obstacle 0.42 m ( 16, 5 in);
trench l,B m (5 ft 1 I in); fording 0,9 m
(35ln)
This profile of the Marder II shows
the rather high mounting of the
7.5-cm (2.95-in) Pak40/2, a specia!
version of the standard G erm an ar ::.
tank gun of the late waryears.

Marder III
l:ere were two self-propelled gmns
:at were known Marder III, and
as the
:3th used the same chassis, a deriva-
:-:n of the Skoda TNHP-S tank chassis.
lls tank had onginally been pro-
r:ced by the Skoda factory at Pilsen
-:: the Czech army but with the
=nexation
of the Czech state by Ger-
::any in 1939 the Skoda works con-
-:.ied production of tanks under the
::signation PzKpfw 3B(t) for the Ger-
::.ir army. The Germans introduced
- =ry producrion and in-servrce
-:-lrges to the orrginal Skoda design,
- .r by 1941 the PzKpfir 3B(t) may be
:=;arded as a German desiqn, but the
,r-::.nal tullet was too small to carry
-.--:1Dons powerful
enouqh to defeat
::,.my armour after 1941 and the
-:-srs was then kept in production for
. : -mber of alternative pxrposes.
l:e of these purposes came to hght
--. -:-11. The appearance oftanks such
.- :,= Sovret T-34 meant for a while that
= 3erman army had no anti-tank gmn
: - ,-,-:rful enough to knock them out
.: : :ll manner of hasty improvisations
"=:: made to counter this state of
.
'-
-:s. One was to take the chassis of
= :zKpfw 3B(t) and mount on rt a cap
-=i Soviet fleid gmn, the 76.2-mm (3-
I.l:del 1936. This was a very grood
-r:-oinpose weapon that could be
-i=r as an anti-tank weapon and the
,=:::-ans even went to the lenqth of
". '.':riing some for use as speclalized
. - - :ik gn:ns, On the PzKplW 3B(t) the
'.','.s
r,:
-=
mounted in a fixed shreld and
:::version
'?42
went into production in
. ':
.- as the Marder iIi, otherwise
= ?aruerjiger 3B(t) fur 7.62-cm Pak
-: : '.me 344 of these conversions
=- = :::ade, and the Marder III was
- -- --r: only on the Eastern Front but
,-:-n Africa and elsewhere
' -
=-.-.i it was at the time regarded
: : i-opgap until sufficrenl num-
r-- .-,- b:came
:re German 7,5-cm (2,95-in)
avarlable. When this
'-.::-=:-: during 1942 productron of
J--.' :,-qmnned Marder III ceased
model, The frrst of the Pak 4O-armed
Marder IIIs were rushed lnto action
durinq the last stases of the Tunisian
campaign where some were cap-
tured, providing Ailied intelligence
staffs with somethinq to muli over But
their 'find' did not last for long for the
Marder III was soon to underqo
another transformation,
Up to 1943 the various German self-
propelled guns using the Skoda chas-
sis used the PzKpfw 3B(t) tank as a
basis, However, with some early con-
vetsions (including the original Mar-
der III) the vehicies were nose-healry,
which at times limited mobrlrty Usrngr
the orrgrnal Czech desrgn as a basis
German enqdneers now relocated the
engine at the front of the chassrs and
moved the 'working platform' to the
rear to produce a specialized self-
propelled gnrn carrier, As soon as this
became available Marder III produc-
tion changed once more to the new
Panzerjiger 38(t) Ausf M fiir 7.5-cm
Pak 40/3 confiqn-rration with the gnrn and
its protection mounted at the rear of
the vehrcle, This provrded a much bet- The laterMarder IIIyhad the main more handyvehicle, and nearly 8Cl
ter balanced vehicle and the new gun position moved to therear of the were produced, still using the bas:c
chassis was also used to mount a var.e- chassrs and tfte engine to the front. components of the PzKpfw 3B(t) ta:.-i<
ty of other weapons. The late type of This provided a better-balanced and
Marder III was manufactured by BMM
of Prague, and when production
ceased in May 1944 799 had been
made. They were used on all fronts.
Specification
Panzerjdger 38(t) Ausf M
Crew: 4
Weisht: 11000 kq (24,251 lb)
Powerplant: one Praga AC petrol
engine developinq 1 1 1,9 kW (150 hp)
Dimensions: lenqrth overall4.65 m ( 15 ft
3. I in)t width 2,35 m (7 ft 8,5 in); height
2 48 m (B ft 1,6 in)
Performance: maximum road speed
42ktn/h(26 mph); roadrangre 140 km
(BZ miles); gradient 57 per cent;
vertical obstacle 0,84 m (33 in); trench
1.3 m (4 ft 3 in); fording 0,9 m (35 in)

:. - .r li the German-gfirnned ver-

. ':-:,:.--.n
-.r::r:renced. The qudchassis
was still called the Mar-
- -, ::: had the desrqnation Pan-
::::je: 38(t) Ausf H fiir 7.5-cm Pak
-.' : -... -+o a slrohlly orllerrno grun
-.: =--.: mountrnq from the earlier
This Marder III was captured in
N orth Africa in April I I 43 and
mounted its 7.S-cm (2.91-in) Pak40/3
in a central position.ltwas avery
simple conversion of a Czech tank
chassis butwas effective enough.
TheTcrnkDestroger
Tank destroyers were as much the product of expediencyas
combat doctrine ; specifically-designed' tank killers' were
soon supplemented by obsolescent vehicles modified to carry
massive anti-tank guns. The German late-war tank destroyers
took the concept to its logical conclusion andwere capable of
dealing with any tank on the battlefield.
The concept of the tank destroyer as a vehicle different from the battle tan k may
be considdred to originate in two basic philosophies: one is the concept of the
tank destroyer as an brmed vehicle produced specif ically for tactioal deployment
as a tank k,ller; and tne other is the philosopny ol using existing tanks or other
armoured vehicles to carry weapons larger and more powerful than those tor
which they were originally designed. Boih philosophies were current in World
War ll.
The concept of vehicles designed specif ically as anti-armour weapons-w^as
very much a iesult of American ihinking during the late 1930s and early 1940s
The Americans came up with the ideb that fast-moving armoured columns,
epitomized by the Panzer divisions of the German army, could be arresfed in
tAeir forward'progress only by the use of massed high-velocity guns of large
calibre, both towed and seif-propelled. At that time it was fashionable in some
armies to consider that tanks would not meet tanks in combat, but exactly why
is now diff icult to fathom for it soon emerged that the tank was indeed the ideal
platform with which to counter enemy tanks. The tank had good. mobi,lity, a
lowerf ul main armament and protection for the crew in combat. The vehlcles
ihat emerged as the specialized tank destroyers used by the US Army lacked
this overallbalance. While they did indeed have powerf ul main guns;they lacked TheAmericanMll was used by severalof theAllied armies including thatof
protection for the crew and with the exception of the remarkable M1B Hellcat French, seen here on exercises in North Africa. The M 10 was based
the Free
their overall performance in actlon was such that they gained liltle in mobility onthewidely-usedM4 chassis, butwasrelatively lightly armoured and had an
over conveniional tanks. By 1 944 this had been realized bythe US Army, and the open4opped turret mounting the main 7.62 - mm (3-in) high velocity gun.
specialized tank destroyei vehicles were diverted to the more conventional
aimoured formations, by which they were used as assault guns or even self-
propelled artillery
ihus the Ameiican tank destroyer concept may now be seen as an aberration,
and it was in the second concept that the tank destroyer had its main origins
during World War ll, Many of the tanks that were ln use when World War ll
begai may now be seen as being undergunned, a situatlon common to nearly all
tarik designs of the period wheriit was donsidered that there would be little call
for tank glns with calibres larger than about 40 mm ('1 .57 in) on the grounds that
opposlng tanks would be relatively lightly armoured and that really heavy guns
would thus not be needed. Therefore, tanks could be produced that were
relatively small and possessed of small turrets and, more importantly, small
turret rings. This state of affairs did not last long once eombat started in earnest
during 1940: lt was soon learned that new tanks had thicker and thicker armour
bandd applied to their hulls, and the only way to get through this armour was to
use heaVier projectiles f ired f rom larger-calibre guns. Thrs was acutely demons-
trated by the arirval of the T-34 tankS during 1941, for with their combination of
thick armour and a powerf ul 76-mm (3-in) gun they were virtually invulnerable to
German countermbasures for a period. Even before the arrival of the T-34 the
British Matilda had demonstrated during May 1940 that its armourwas proof
guns. Based on thewidely-used Panzer IV chassis, theJadgpanzer IV combineda
"The existing German anti-tank and tank
against
powerfulT.S-cm (2.95-in) Pak 39 gunwith a )owwell-armoured supersttucture
main problem for tank designers lay in the turret ring, which absorbed
most of the gun recoilforces. Most tanks of that period were already titted w th andgood overall performance.Well-sloped armour added to the overall
weapons as'large in calibre as their turret rings could bear. The only way to fit protection for thecrew offour. Laterversions mounted a longer7.5-cm gun.

This Elefant, captured inltaly, bears awrittenwarning that booby traps are TheSdKfz 139 MarderIII series was typicalof the improvisedPanzeri|ger
suspecled lo ft ave been attached. This photograph shows the size of the main produced by the Germans that were still very efficient fighting vehicles. Based
fig*ting compartmentfor the crew of six, but this made it abulkyvehicle that on a Czechfankcfiassis, the Marder III carried a 7.5-cm (2.95-in) Pak 40/3 gun
was difficult to hide and easy to hit. and was handy and powertd for its role.This is an early type.

:a=
 Tank Destroyers of World War II
bigger guns was to produce tanks wlth larger turret rings and that took time,
more time than could usually be spared. Designing a tank from scratch and
setting up the necessary production lines from nothing was a lengthy process
which only nations such as the United States could eveh contemplate overcom-
ing in a short time. Thus many of the early World War ll tanks were virtually
obsolete within a few months of taking the field, yet some form of vehicle to
mount larger guns had to be found.
The answer was the conversion of the existlng tanks to accommodate new
superstructures in which the larger-callbre guns could be mounted in limited-
traverse mountings. Usually this meant removing the old turret and turret ring
and building onto the chassis a boxlike superstructure, usually with sloped sides
to improve projectile def lection, with the new gun mounted on the f ront plate.
There were many of these conversions du ring the years '1 940 to 1 943, usually by
the German army who termed their conversions Panzerj6ger (tank hunters), for
the conversions were intended as tank destroyers. One irnportant fact to
remember when considering the.Panzerjdger is that theywere not tanks. One of
the main attributes of the tank is still its combination of f irepower, mobility and
protection, and the Panzerjdger/tank destroyer often lacked at least two of these
attributes. Most of the PanzerjSger and their ilk were only thinly armou red. And,
being vehicles from an earlier generation, they were generally underpowered
for the new loads they had to carry, and mobility was thus impaired.
The early generation of conversions was replaced by full production exam-
ples, at first by using existing production lines and then by deslgning and
producing purpose-built designs specif ically for the Panzerjdger/tank destroyer
role. For nations such as Germany this was a deliberate policy to boost the
number of armoured vehlcles in the field, for it was appreciated by them that a
lrmited-traverse mounting on a tracked chassis could be produced in less time The SdKfz I 84 Elefant (or Ferdinand) was first used in action at Kursk in I 945
and at far less cost than a turreted tank on the same chassis. This expediency andwas afailure, as itcarried no secondary armament andwas thus
cost something tactically. for the limited-traverse main armament had severe vulnerable to Soviettank-killer squads. Althoughitwas meant tobe a
iactical disadvantages. Panzerj 6ger it was oflen used as an assault gun.
The main disadvantage was the limited traverse itself. ln mobile armoured
warfare targets can appear from any point of the compass, and if a target
appeared to the side of a Panzerjdger the entire vehicle had to be turned towards
t, which often took too long: once the Panzerjdger had been turned the target
rad elther gone or had been able to get in its first important shot, with all its
consequences. Set against this was the fact that the tank destroyers with their
iow huils often had a much lower silhouette than corresponding tanks, so they
rvere easier to conceal, the Hetzer providing the supreme example. They were
ihus usually used as ambush weapons that could lle in wait for targets and then
'nove out after f iring before being spotted for the inevitable retaliation; here the
3ntish Archer provides a good example.
Thus the World War ll tank destroyer was very much a compromise between
,veapon power and production expediency. lt was relatively easy to produce but
n action lacked the overall combat eff iciency of the tank. lt relied almost entirely
:n its main weapon for its existence, as the limited-traverse mounting could
:arry a gun much heavier than that of a tank of similar size and weight. Later
jesigns had far more power than the hasty improvisations of the war years, and
.rus had more mobility.
After World War ll the tank destroyer concept all but died, and today there are
:nly a few in-service armoured vehicles thirt ref lect the philosophies of the war
.ears, some of these are based on the use of guided missiles. lt has been This is an SdKfz 132 PzKpfw II conversiontocarry acapturedSovietT.62-cm
:ccepted that the best counter to the tank ls another tank, and now that the gun.The conversionused a new large-wheeled suspension and a new hull
::oduction pressures of wartime have gone, the tank destroyer has all but andwas sometimes knownas theMarder IL The ex-sovietgunswere fitted
::ssed away. with Pak 40 muzzle brakes.

?ommel inspects a rather awkward-looking conversion of old French Thesevehicles areconversions of thePzKpfw II Ausf D or E light tanks -,,,-::.
iotchkiss H.39 tankcftassjs fo carry a 7.5-cm (2.95-in) Pak 40 gun. This Luchs (Lynx) suspension and captured Soviet 7.62-cm (3-in) fieldgurs.
:onversion was made in early 1944 in an attempt to provide more weapons for rechambered to fire German anti-tank ammunition. They were usec' -:1--_,
:e defences ofnorthern France, and aboutT2 conversionswere produced. on the Eastem Front but some were used in France during 1944.
 iT#"'
Although tank-destroyer conversions
of existing tank chassis to produce
weapons such as the Marder lll were
moderately successful, the results
were, rn overall terms, high and clum-
sy vehicles that lacked finesse and
showed every srqn of the haste in
which they had orrgrnally been pro-
duced, In contrast, the various Sturm-
qeschiitz close-support artillery vehi-
cles demonstrated on many occasions
that they too could be used as tank
destroyers, and thus in 1943 it was de-
cided to produce a light Panzerjdger
along Sturmgteschiitz lines, the chassis
of the PzKpfw 3B(t) being taken as the
basis,
The result was one of the best of all
the German Panzerjiiger, the Jagdpan-
zer 38(t) fiu 7.5-cm Pak 39, or Hetzer
(baiter, as in bull-baitinEt), The Hetzer
used the basic engine, suspension and
running gear ofthe PzKpfw 3B(t) allied
to a new atmoured hull that sloped
inwards to provide extra protection for
the crew of four, The armament was
the usual 7,5-cm (2.95-in) Pak 39 mod-
ifled for the vehicle, along with a roof-
mounted machine-gmn, Production of
the new vehicle began in Pragn:e at the
end of 1943 and also involved were
factorres at Pilsen, Koniqgraitz, BOhm
and Breslau, These factories were
soon working flat out, for the Hetzer
proved to be a very successful grln/
chassis combination: tt was small and
low, yet it was well protected and had
very good cross-country pedormance,
The gn:n could knock out all but the
very heaviest enemy tanks, yet the
Hetzer itself was very difflcult to knock
out and in combat it was so small as to
be virtually invisible to the enemy gun-
ners. Calls for more and mote came
from the front line, to the extent that by
late 1944 all available PzKpfw 3B(t) pro-
ductlon was diverted towards the Het-
zer, Production continued until the fac-
tories were overun in May 1944, by
which trme 1,577 had been built.
Several versrons of the Hetzer were
produced: one was a flamethrower,
the Flammparuer 38(t), and another a
Iigrht recovery version, the Bergepan-
zer 38(t). But the Hetzer story did not
cease in 1945. It was not long before
the Hetzer was placed back in produc-
tion for the new Czech army, The Het- 2,50 m (B ft2,4 in); heiqht 2 10 m (6 ft This Jadgpanzer 38(t) Hetzer has a
zer was even exported to Switzerland 10,7 in) roof- mou nted remote control
between 1947 and 1952, the Swiss Performance: maximum road speed m achine- grun for local and s elt-
army using these Hetzers until the 39krn/h(24,2 mph); roadrange 250 km protection. The small stand-off
1970s, ( I 55 miles); grradient 75 per cent; armour side plates are fitted with the
The wartime Hetzers were used for vertical obstacle 0,65 m (25,6 in); large road wheels providing more
a series of trials and various weapon trench L3 m (4 ft 3,2 in); fording 0,9 m side-on protection.Well over 1,500 of
mountings, At one point trials were (35 in) these vehicle s wer e produce d.
carried out with guns connected
directly to the front hull armour and
with no recoil mechanism fltted to see
if the concept would work (it did), One
trial model was an assault howitzer
mounting a lS-cm (5,9-in) infantry
howitzer and there were several simr
lar projects, but none reached the pro-
duction stage for the assembly lines
had to concentrate on churning out
more and more basic Hetzers to meet
demands,
The Hetzer is now reqarded as one
of the best of all the German Panzerjd-
ger for it was a powerful little vehicle
that was much mote economical to
produce and use than many of the lar-
ger vehrcles, Despite berng armed
with only a 75-mm gnrn, it could knock
out nearly every tank it was likely to
find and yet it was little higher than a
standinq man,
Specification
Hetzer
Crew:4
Weisrht: 14500 kq (31,967 Ib)
Powerplant: one *aga ACl2800petrol
engine developing I I 1,9-1 19.3 kW The low height of the Hetzer can be protection and the lack of a muzzle
(150-160 hp) clearly appreciated. Note the weII- brake, usually fitted to other German
Dimensions: lengrth overall 6,20 m (20 ft shaped'Saukopf (pig's head) gun vehicles of this type.
4. I in) and hull4,B0 m (15 ft 9 in); u'tdth mantlet that provided extra head-on

g i-,i[o"*er IV
Combat experience gained dwinq the
1942 campaigns indicated to German
staff planners that the existing Sturm-
geschi.itz close support artillery vehi
cles would have to be upgnrnned ifthey
were to continue to be used as tank-
destroyers, and the future standard
weapon was selected as the long ver-
sion of the 7,5-cm (2.95-in) tank gn:n
fitted to the Panther tank. Thts gun was
70 calibres long (as opposed to the
49-calibre lenqth of the tank and antt-
tank versions of the Pak 40 family) and
to house this gnrn in vehicles such as
the Sturmgeschiltz IIi would require
considerable modifications. These
modifications would take time so it was
decided to adapt the larger PzKpfw IV
tank chassis to act as a 'fail safe' model, examples had to be content with 48- thad the hulVturret combination of the TheJagdpanzer IV (SdKfz I 62) was a
Desigm work was soon under way on calibre quns, tank, and mounted the gpn in a well- Panzerjdger version of the PzKpfw IV
this new model, which emerged tn The first of these Jagtdpanzer IVs protected mantlet on the front hull. The tank and housed its 7.1-cm (2.9 5-in)
1943 as the Jagdparuer IV Ausf F fii,r appeared in October 1943, They con- result was well-liked by the Panzerjii- main gun in a superstructure formed
7.5-cm Pak 39 or Panzerjiger 39, but by srsted of the well-tried suspension and qter crews, who appreciated the low from well- slope d armoured p lates.
the time the first examples were ready engine layout of the PzKpfiw IV allied to silhouette and the well-protected hull, This is anearlyexamplewith the
the long 7,5-cm gnrns were earmarked a new armoured carapace with well- so the Jagdpanzer IV was soon rn gneat gruns still retaining the muzzle brake,
for the Panther tanks and so the first sloped sides. This hull was much lower demand, The qun was powerful an item later omitted.

rB66

t
Jagdparuer IV (continued)
enough to tackle virtually any enemy
tank, and rn action the Jagdpanzer IV
was soon knocking up appreciable
'ki11' totals, especially on the Eastern
Front where most were sent. The
secondary armament of two 7,92-mm
(0,312-in) MG34 or MG42 machine-
gmns also proved highly effective,
Many Panzer commanders const-
dered that the Jagdpanzer IV was
good enouqh in its orignnal form to re-
quire no upgnrnninq but Hltler insisted
that the change to the lonq gnrn had to
be made, Thus durrnq 1944 someJagd-
panzer IV mit 7.5-cm Stuk 42 equip-
ments with the longer L/70 gun
appeared, but the changeover on the
production line took time, too much
time for Hitler, who insrsted that the
changeover to the new gnrn had to be
made even if it meant divertinq all
PzKpfw IV tank production to that end.
Thus a third Jagdpanzer IV appeared,
this time a hasty conversion of a basic
PzKpfw IV hull to take a form of Jagd-
panzer IV sloping carapace and
mounting the 70-ca[bre gmn. This con-
version was known as the Panzer N/70
Zwischenlosung (interim) and was in
production by late 1944,
In service the 70-calibre qmn Jagd-
panzer IVs proved to be powerful tank
killers, but the extra weight of the longr
qun made the vehicles nose-heauy to
the extent that the front road wheels
had to be ringed with steel instead of
rubber to deal with the extra weight,
The gmn weight also reduced the over-
all performance of the vehlcle, espe-
cially across rough terrain, But by late
1944 and early 1945 such drawbacks
GERMANY
Nashorn
During the mid-war years the German
army carrred out a large number of
hurried improvisations in order to qet
useful numbers of Panzerjdger into the
field, and some of these improvrsations
fared better than others. One ofthese
hasty measures was the adoption of the
specral weapon-carrier vehicle that
had originally been produced to carry
the large l5-cm (5.9-in) sFH 18 field
howitzer and known as the Geschiitz-
wagen IIVIV as it was based on the
chassis of the PzKpfw IV but used
some of the drive components of the
PzKpfw IIL Despite the grreat demand
for lhe arlillery versron ol lhs weapon
carrier it was decrded to adapt it to
carry the largre B,B-cm (3.46-in) Pak 43
anti-tank qun as the B.B-cm Pak 43/I auf
GW IMV. The first of these new Pan-
zerjiiger were issued during 1943, and
-&e type went under two names: the
official name was Nashorn (rhi-
roceros) but Hornisse (hornet) was
also widely applied,
The Nashorn was very much one of
the lnterim' Panzerjdger designs, for
although the gnrn was mounted behind
armour at the front and sides this
armour was relatively thin, ;ind the top
ald rear were open. The gun mount-
rng itself was rather hrgh, so the
Nashorn had defrnite combat deficien-
cies, not the least of which was the
problem of concealinq the height and
bulk of the vehicle on a battlefreld As
ihe chassis had been intended as an
artillery carrier the bulk problem was
ongnnally of little moment, but for a
Panzerjager it was of considerable im-
-Dortance, making the stalking of tank
:argets very drfficult. Thus the Nashorn
Tank Destroyers of World War II
simply had to be overlooked, for the
Allies were at the gates of the Reich
and anything that could be put into the
field was used.
The Jaqdpanzer IV proved to be a
sound PanzerjiiQler that enabled the
Germans to utilize exrstinq production
capacity and maintain the PzKpfim IV
line in being when it would otherwise
have been phased out. In service the
Jagrdpanzer IV was a popular vehicle
and a powerful tank-killer,
Specification
Jagdpanzer IV mit 7.S-cm Stuk 42
Crew:4
Weight: 25800 ks (56,879 ]b)
Powerplant: one Maybach HL 120
petrol engine developinq 197.6 kW
(265 hp)
Dimensions: length overall B 58 m (28 ft
1,8 in); width 2,93 m (9 ft 7.4 in); height
overall 1;96 m (6 ft 5,2 in)
Performance: maximum road speed
35 krn/h (22 mph); road range 2 14 km
( 133 miles): gradrent 57 per cent:
vertical obstacle 0,6 m (23.6 in); trench
2.3 m (7 ft 6.6 in); fording 1,2 m (3 ft
il in)
This early production J agdpanzer IV
has the muzzle brake still fitted. Later
versjons used a much longer 7. 5 - cm
(2.95-in) maingun, hutthis longer
gun rather overloaded lhe cftassi5
and later versions also used side
armour plates. This P anzerj dger was
later considered to be one of the best
of its type.
was often used as a 'stand-off weapon B,B-cm Pak 43/4 1, a weapon introduced TheSdKfz 164 Hornissewas the frrct
that was able to use the considerable to speed up production ofthe Pak 43; Panzerjdger to mount the 8.9-cm
power and longt-rangte accuracy of its although it was manufactured dif- (3.46-in) Pak43/1, andused the same
gn-rn to pick off tarQiets at ranqes of ferentiy from the original it was iden- cfiassr's as lheHummel
2000 m (2, lB7 yards) and more; most of tical as far as balhstics were con-
the other Panzerjdqer types fouqht at cerned, The Nashorn carried a
much closer combat ranqes, machine-gn-rn for local defence and the Specification
The Nashorn carried a crew of five crew was supposed to be tssued with Nashorn
with only the driver under complete at least two sub-machrne gmns. Crew:5
armoured protection. The rest of the Most Nashorn production was cen- Weight: 24400 ks (53,793 1b)
crew was carried in the open fightlng tred at the Deutsche Eisenwerke. at Powerplant: one Maybach HL 12C
compartment with only a canvas cover Teplitz-Schonau and Duisburg, and by petrol engine developinq 197.6 kr,';
to protect it from the elements. Most of the time the last of the vehicles rolled (265 hp)
the 40 rounds carned were located in ofI the lines during 1944 473 had been Dimensions: length overall8.44 r
lockers along the sides of the open made, in combat the powerful gnrn 8.3 in) and hull S B0 m (19 ft 0.3 :.
compartment and the gunner was made the Nashorn a potent vehicle/ ::
width 2,86 m (9 ft 4.6 rn); heiglt 2 o:
equipped not only with the usual drrect weapon combination, but it was really (B ft 8.3 in)
vision sighting devices but also with
artillery dial sights for the occastons
too high and bulky for the Panzeaager
role and only a shortaqe of anything
Performance: maxrmum roai :r
- :
40 km/h (24.8 mph); range 2rl ]c-
when the Pak 43 could be used as a better at the time maintatned the type (130,5 miles); gnadient 57 pe: :::-:
long-range artillery weapon, During in production, As it was it was suc- vertical obstacle 0.6 m (23 e ::,' ::-::
the latter stages of production the Pak ceeded by the Jagdpanther, 2.3 m (7 ft6 6 in); fordinoC ! :.i -'-
43 gmn was replaced by the similar 7.5 in)
El ii"ni"faser Tiser (P) Elefant
,',1::- -ie tank that was to become the
l-;:: ,';as still in its planning staqe two
:::l3rns, Henschel and Porsche,
;r:re r competition for the production
:::-lact. The Porsche entry was at one
::-e the more favoured, mainly as a
::.sl.i cf Professsor Porsche's influence
]i: Hitler, but also because the de-
s-;n ieatwed a radical approach by
::-ployurg a petrol-electric drive with
:rec-inc motors actually propelling the
;:hrcle. However, the Porsche
approach proved to be unreliable on
.:; a:rd the Henschel entry went on to
i:ecome the PzKpfw VI Tiger.
But by the time the Henschel desiqn
il production, Porsche drives and
-,.;as
r-e hulls to put them in were also ready
rr production. It was then decided to
place the Porsche design in produc-
::n ior use as a heary tank-destroyer
incuntmqt the new B,B-cm (3.46-in) Pak
i3.2 anti-tank gmn, a development of
-ie earlier Flak 18-37 anti-aucraft gun
senes. (Actually the Pak 43 was virtual-
11,. a new gun and fired more powerful
ammunition than the earlier gmns.) The
gun would be placed in a larqe
armoured superctructure tl.th limited
taverse, and 90 ofthese vehrcles were
produced to become the Panzerjiger
Tiger (P), later known as either Ferdi-
nand or Elefant. The (P) denoted Pors-
che.
The Elefants were produced at the
NrJcelungruverke in something of a hur-
ry duringT early 1943, the urqency
being occasioned by the fact that Hit-
ler demanded them to be ready for the
cpemng of the main campaign of 1943,
'r;Luch was to commence aqalnst the
l{ursk salient on the Eastern Front; the
:]ew Panther tanks were also sche-
Culed to make their combat debut in
-ne same battle, Production delays and
fammg the Panzertruppen to use their
rew charges delayed the start of the
:fensive until 5 July 1943.
By then the Red Army was more
:ral ready for them. The defences of
re Kursk salient were formidable and
re delays had enabled the Red Army
:o add to their effectrveness in depth so
:at when the Germans attacked their
e:'crts were of little avail, For the Ele-
:=s the Kursk battles were a dreadful
.apilsm of flre, The Elefants were
ffi i"s[p""ttr"t
',"ien the vehicle now known as the
Jagdpanther was flrst produced in
::bruary 1944, it marked a definite
::::i away from a period where Pan-
:=:iEer were hasty conversrons or im-
;::.,':satrons to a point where the tank-
i:siroyer became a purpose-built
-,';:apon of war. The
Jagdpanther was
,:s: rnooted rn early 1943, at a time
',',-:e:: tank destroyers were requrred
:- 1:antity, and by taking the best
:-,-Jable tark chassis it was hoped that
!::i:chon totals would meet demand.
l:---;te Panther chassis was used vtr-
-al unaltered as the basis for the
-=-:-,';'?alzerjdqrer, and an B.B-cm (3.46-
:- ?ak 43 aati-tank gun was mounted
::, a'r,ell-sloped armoured hull super-
:-i*::dre, with a 7.92-mm (0.312-in)
l"l3:i or MG42 machine-giun for local
::-:r:e. The prototype, then known
--- -:-e Paruerjiger Panther, was de-
::-::i:ated to Hitler in october 1943
-i was Hitler tumself who decreed
=r
-::: ie name should be changted to
--
-:-^
*+L ^-
:::
Above: The Elefant used a complex
twin- engine power p ac k driving an
electric transmisison that did not
work too well in sewice. I t was heavy,
slow and ponderous, making it more
of a heavy assault gun than a
P an zerj dger. Most were us ed in
Russr'a but a few ended up in ltaly in
1944.
organized in two battalions
(Abteilungen) of ParuerregTiment 654,
and even before going into action their
troubles began, The Elefants had been
rushed inlo use before their many
techmcal bugs had been entirely re-
moved, and many broke down as soon
as they started to move forward, Those
that did make it to the Soviet lines were
soon in trouble, for although the vehi-
cles were fitted with the most powerful
anti-tank guns then available they
lacked any form of secondary arma-
ment for self-defence. Soviet tank-
killer infantry squads swarmed all over
them and placed charges that either
blew off their tracks or otherwise dis-
abled them, The Elefant crews had no
way of defending themselves at all and
those that could either withdrew or
abandoned their vehicles and ran.
Some Elefants did suwive Kursk and
were later fitted with machtne-gmns to
defend themselves, but the Elefant
never recovered from its rnauspicious
debut. The few that were left were
The Jagdpanther was one of those
vehicles where superlatles could be
justifiably lavished, for it was a superb
f,ghtingr vehicle and destined to be one
of the most famous of all the many
World War II armoured fighting vehi-
cles. It was fast and well protected,
and it mounted a potent gun, but not
content with all that it had about it a
def,nite aura that distingnrished it from
all its contemporaries. So well bal-
anced was the design that it would not
be too out of place in any tank park
today, 40 years after it first appeared.
The Jagdpanther could knock out vir-
tually any enemy tank, includtng the
healry Soviet IS-2s, although for them a
side shot was required for a certatn
kill. At times single Jagdpanthers or
small groups of them corid hold uP
Allied armoured advances for con-
siderable periods, Fortunately for the
Allies, production of the Jagdpanther
never reached the planned rate of 150
per month, By the time the productlon
facilities were overun during April
1945 only 382 had been completed, a
withdrawn to other fronts such as Italy
but even there their unreliability and
lack of spares soon rendered them
useless. Some were captured by the
Allies in ltaly,
Specification
Elefant
Crew:6
Weight: 65000 kq (143,300 lb)
Powerplant: two Maybach HL 120 TRM
V- 12 petrol engines each developing
395.2 kW (530 hp) and drivrng a
Porche/Siemens-Schuckert petrol-
electric drive
Dimensions: Iengrthoverall B, 128 m
(26 ftB in); wldth3.378 m(II fr 1 rn);
fact for which Allied tank crews must
have been very qrateful, The marn
cause of these low production totals
was the drsruption and damage
caused by Allied bomber raids on the
two main centres of production, the
MIAG plant at Braunschweig and the
Brandenburg Eisenwerk Krrchm6ser
at Brandenburg. These disruptions led
to their being several variatrons of
Jagdpanther rn use, Some had large
bolted-on gun mantlets while others
had much smaller mantlet collars.
Late-production versions used gnrns
built with the barrels rn two parts to
ease barrel changnnq when the bores
became worn, and the stowage of tools
and other bits and pieces on the out-
side also varied considerably,
The Jagdpanther had a crew of five
and there was space inside the well-
sloped and heavily-armoured super-
structure for 60 rounds of ammunition.
When the war ended plans had been
made to produce a new version mount-
ing a 12.8-cm (5.04-in) anti-tank gun,
though in the event only a wooden
The Elefant was one of the failures of
the German Panzerjdger designers,
for despite its main 8.8-cm (3.46-in)
gun itwas too cumbersome and,
more importantly, the first examp)es
lacked any kind ofself-defence
armamenL I t was also too
complicated and was generally
unreliable.
heisht 2.997 m (9 ft 10 in)
Performance: maxrmum road speed
20.1 krr/h (12,5 mph); roadrange
153 km (95 miles); crradient 40 per
cent; verticalobstacle 0.8 m (31,5 in);
trench 2.65 m (B ft 8.3 in); fordlng LO m
(3 ft 3,4 in)
mock-up had been built. But even with
the usual B.B-cm gn-rn the Jagrdpanther
was truly a formidable tank destroyer
that was much feared and respected
by Allied tank crews, Few other
armoured fighting vehicles of World
War II achreved rts unique combina-
tion of power, lethality, mobility and
protection.
Specification
Jagdpanther
Crew:5
Weisht: 46000 ks (10 1,4I I lb)
Powerplant:one Maybach HL 230
petrol engine developing 447.4-
522,0 kW (600-700 hp)
Dimensions: length overal]9,90 m (32 fl
5.8 in) and hull6.87 m(22 ft 6,5 in);
width 3.27 m ( 10 ft 8.7 in); heiqht
2.715 m (B ft 10.9 in)
Performance: maximum road speed
55 kn/h (34,2 mph); roadranqe 160 km
(99.4 miles); grradient 70 per cent;
vertical obstacle 0.9 m (35 in); trench
1,9 m (6 ft 3 in); fording I.7 m (5 ft 7 in)
Icgdpcntherin Acfion
Despite the limitations of a turretless desr'gn, the J agdpanther praved to be the most
outstanding tank destroyer of the war. W ell arm6ured, its Maybach engine still
provided enough power to give vital mobility and its formidable 8.9-cm Ll7 I Pak
43/3gun could defeatanyAllied tank.Taking every advantage of terrain,the
] agdpanthers had to defend their positions agarnsf uas tly superior numbers.

By the tlme the first JaEdpanthers were issued but 1t dld work against smaller magnetic
to Panzerjiiger unlts during early 1944, rhe charges. The srde plates along each srde oi lhe
crews had become experienced in the particu- vehrcle were lhere to detonale hol[ow-charqe
lar art of warfare drctated by their special anti- warheads belore they courd hrt rhe huJl proper.
iank weapon platiorms. The Panzerjdrgertrup- The rdea was that the thin metal sheets would
cen assigned to the new Jagdpanthers were ail cause the warhead to detonate and dissipate ils
rlghly experienced men who had nearly all lethal fire jet before it could bore its way
:lewed some form of Panzeldger in action, through'he main armour. Thus the plates were
-:C some of the men involved wrth the new useful againsl infantry weapons such as This early productionJagdpanther still used the
'.':hicles couid state that they had escaped bazookas or anti-tank grenades, but in action welded gun mantlet later replaced by a bolled-or.
-::m the Elefant disaster at Kursk the year be- they were often easrly knocked offor otherwrse component. Thk example also features the firs t
lost, so they were at best oi secondary vahre. type of driver's vision blocks, later replaced bv a
-;re. Their experrence rnras to be put to good one-piece item. These early models were
'rse ln the months ahead, for the Once inside the crews iooked around them
lagdpanther produced by MIAG atBraunschweig, with the g:;r.
',ras the very epitome of the Panzerjziger they and liked what they saw. The rnler-or was fromKrupps.
rad demanded for years. rather cramped, the massive breech mechan-
The PanzerliLger crews had prevrously been ism of the Pak 43/3 and the racks for the 60 surprise, Every member of the crew ha :: :=
-s<ed to drive into battle on what were essen rounds of ammunition taking up much of the able to drive the vehicle in case oi ba..-=
.:a11yopen and lightly protected mobile gnrn space, but the five men that made up the crew casualiies and they soon found that the _ia=l:r-
ctatiorms. Althouqh the vehrcles usually found that there was adequare space lo work. panther had plenty of power and that the -,-::..
:-rrnted powerlul guns such as the 7.5-cm The driver sar aL the lelt ironL, r,vhrle on the cle handled well. The power came frci: .:-:
- 9i in) Pak 40. their crews had Io serve Lhese other side of the gun sat the wireless operator Maybach HL 230 P3O installed at the rea' .: .
; ,ns with only thin armour between them and who also used the ball mounted machine-gun. V-12 unit could suppiy adequate power a: :--
:heir opponents and usually with no protection Behind lhem were Lhe gunner (wirh his roof- times, and provided the Jagdpanther ',"r i:r ..
rr cover to the sides and rear, This lack ol mounled sighlrng systems) and the loader, The grood power-to-weight ratio; and vrhije ::-:
' ver made lhe crews vulnerable even to commander sar al lhc rear ol the compartmenl overall agility of the heavy Jagrdpanther cc-::
:rali-arms fire and prone to injury lrom mortar under hrs own cupola. In the rear watl of the never be described as spnteLy. rL was a deh:-- .
-:,ci artillery projectrle splrn'ers. On the new superstructure was lhe main compartment rmprovemenl over lhal oi lhe many -ypes ::
-agdpanther that was about to be put right, for hatch through which some ol the crew could troops had been using befirre, In particular ::-e
' e Jagdpanther had thrck armour all round and enter or ieave but which also doubled as a placrng ol the gun well back in rhe slcp--..
:n top as well, To add more protection, the loading hatch for the long fixed-type ammun- superstructure virtually overcame the nos:
lrmour was well sloped so that lncoming tron. Insrde the comparlmenl was slowage lor heaviness of vehicles such as the Jagidpan.::
:rrnour-piercing projectrles would tend to be 600 rounds for the machine-Qun, Jagdpanthers
used by section or plaloon commanders had This large vertical sliding breech mechanism of
iei1ected away ralher than contjnue their hori.
the B.8-cm (3.46-in) Pak4Sl3was carried by the
::ntal path. The frontal armour was 80 mm extra radio installed. Externally these could be
Jagdpanther. The two cylinders over the
: - 5 rn) thick and ser a I an angle of 35' from the dislrngurshed by lhe two radio aerrals at the'he mechanism are the recoill recuperato:r cylinders,
iorizontal. The massive gun mantlet, always rear of the supers'ruclure. and the breechcouid close as tft e cartridge case
re main targel of any anri-lank qunner. was no When lhey oot a chance to drrve their new was pushed into the chamber; it was ejected
-=ss than 120 mm (4.72 in) thick Jagdpanrhers the crews were in for a pleasant automatically.
The gmn was a Eood one. It was the 8.8-cm
: 46-rn) Pak 43/3 wrth a barrel 71 calibres long,
:he same qn-rn that was used to arm the massive
lger II (Konigstiger) battle tank, This gnrn was
-ble to penetrate up Io 274 mm (10.79 1n) of
:rrnour with its special Panzerqranate 40/43
,rnour-piercrng projectrle at a range of 500 m
:47 yards), and even at 2500 m(2,734 yards) it
uld punch rhrough 159 mm (6 26 rn) of
:rmoLlr. thus the crew would be able to knock
:ut virtually any tank they couid see on the
:attlef,eld. However, the lack of secondary
-r mamenr so dearly learned by the Elefants at
:,ursk was not going to be repeated. On the
:: :nt of the sloping front plate was a ball mount
.:g lor a 7,92-mm (0 312-1n) MG34 or MG42
.:.r--hine gun to keep away enemy infantry
.:.nk-killer squads. This close-in deience was
:-rpplemented by a turret-roof fitting ior a new
.:.d rather unusual defence weapon. Ihis was
..:-o wn as the Nahverteid igungswaf le (literally
:lose-in defence weapon) and projected a
small high explosive charge against enemy in
'.r..ry it doubled as a defensive smoke projec-
.t t
:!
I c add to their proteclion against the enemy
'.nk-killer squads thal had by 1944 become
:ommonplace on every battlefield, the Jagd-
:anrhers were often coated wrth a substance
<:rrwn as Zjmmerrl. a plasLer-like coating thal
.:-ade Lhe attachment of maqnetic charqes
-:ainst the hull more difficult. 'l hrs coating had
i Lmitalions and olten flaked olf after a whrle,
 r.,r::, lfi:
1:.

'.{i': ::.

The SdKfz I 73 Jadgpanther was one of the

finestcombat machines of WorldWarll. and
despite fhe overall lack o{traverce for ils
43 3 main gun it was
8.8-cm ( 3.46 -in) Pak r

capable of defeating any AIIied lankset agarnsl

it. Counteracting this overall lethality.
production of theJadgpantherswas limited to a
total of anly 382, mainly as a resultof Allied
bombing iampiaigns. The futl crew of a
Jadgpanther was five. all protected within a
well- armoured and we I 1- s haped
superstructare. This exampie is from the late
prcduction batch that used a bolted-an mantlet
lor the main gun. A7.92-mmQ.31Z-in)
m a chi ne g u n was carr jed.
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 Tank Destroyers of World War II

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Jagdpanther in Action
The well- sloped roof of the J agdpanther allawed
the main gun to be depressed fior hull-down action
whenvirtually all that could be seen of thevehicle
was the wn.The long tube on the side of the hull
housedihegun cleaning rods, and the railfor
carrying extra side stand-off armour can be seen.
IV wirh its long 1,,70 gun a tendency so severe
that the type frequentiy got stuck even in sma11
gullies and the lront road wheels wore out alter
short periods in action, even when they were of
ah steel construction.
Ihe mobility of the jagdpanther was pul to
good use as soon as the type went into combat,
Among the very flrst to do so were the few that
became embroiled rn the fighting rn Normandy
lotlowrng Operation 'Overlord' rn June 1944.
Despite the fact that they were in qieneral out-
numbered by Alhed tanks, the JaQrdpanthers
took a fearlul roll oi tanks out ol all propor tion 'o
Lheir numbers. Itwas durino th-s perrod tha' Lhe
Jaqdpanther crews began t6 notice increasing
Iy thar allhough they frequently came ou'on 'op
in combat sitrlations, they were nearly always
lalling back, The reason lor this was stmple 'he
Jagdpanthers were berng overwhelmed by
sheer weight of numbers and materiel. No mat-
ter how many Shermans the Jagdpanthers
),a72
This J adgpanther, straig ht off the production line,
has its tool and other stowage intact. The
superstructure is coated with Zimmerit, a
substance intended to prevent magnetic charges
being applied; the overlapping road wheels
addedexlra side protectian against incoming
projectiles. Note the tctwcable
knocked out. there were alwavs more left for
the A.lres had vrrtuarly limrtless stockprles and
producrion facrlilres lor more. The Germans
were in no such situation: every time a Jaqd
panther was lost, usually by being taken in the
flank lrom close range by a tank that escaped
notice while others were engaged, it could not
be replaced. There were quite simply not
enouqh new Jagdpanlhers being produced.
The streams of Alhed bombers that flew over
the Reich day and night not only disrupted the
German assemblv lines but created havoc with
the German rnternal communicalions nerwork
of roads, rarlways and canals that supplied the
factories. Thus every time a Jagdpanther was
Allied soldiers examine a knocked-out
Iagdpanther. This is an early version lacking the
Iater bolt-on mantlet around the Wn baftel Note
the size of the spent propellant case in the front oI
the vehicle and the distinctive appearance
provided by the well-sloped superstructure.
issued to the Panzerjeigertruppen it was an arti-
cie precious beyond its monetary worth, for all
too frequently rf lt was lost in combat there was
no other vehicle to replace it,
This was particularly noticeable on the East-
ern Fronl, where lhe Red Army was pressrnq
lowards 'he border of the Rerch all throuqh
1944. On the Eastern Front there was llttle
f,nesse rn the frghling. Red Army advances
were always heralded by massed artillery bar-
ragfes and presaged by waves of T-34 tanks
"backs
cairying ontheir squads of Soviet infan
try. Under such circumstances a single Pan-
zerjdger unit equipped wrth Jagdpanthers
could hold back whole waves ol Red Arn,-
tanks, From carefully concealed positions the
Jagdpanthers could easily knock out the T-34s
before they reached their combat ranges and ii
rhe lacr,cal srlualion diclaled an ambush a
closer ranges the machine guns of the Jagci
panthers could be brought into use to sweep
the rnfantry ofltheir carrier tanks. The problem
on the Eastern Front, as elsewhere, was thal all
too olten the Jagdpanthers had to operate in
ones and twos in order to cover as much battie
irontage as possibie. Thus single Jagdpanthers
frequentl.y had to operate in vrtual isolation
lrom the iest ol theli unit, back-up beingr pro
vided oniy by Panzergrenadiers (when thev
were available) or small Panzer units.
Thus to add to their own protection (and to
ensu-re lhat they could frghl and run away l.
fighL another day) rhe PanzerjagerLruppen de-
veloped some devrous combat ploys. One was
to conceal the Jagdpanther in ambush situa-
tions by srmply driving it into a house or farm
buildln-g. This was an old Panzertruppen trick,
but it partrcularly suited the defensive Jagd-
panthers, for the building structures not onty
provided good concealmenL bul added to the-r
overall protection When rhe lime came -o
move out the vehicle could be driven either
backward or forward as required, Another
ploy was to make as much use of the gmn de-
pressron as possible, Again, thrs was an old
'tankie' trick, but as the gun barret could be
depressed to *8'the vehlcle could be em-
placed on reverse slopes with only a smali
amodnl ol the vehrcie visible from the fronr
Wilh a Lllle camouflaqe added the Jagdpan-
ther was almost invisible and any target com
ing wrthin the 22o total traverse of the gun could
be engaged, Ii was for this reason that the rool
ol rhe Jaqdpanlher sloped upwards to the rear
givrng the commander a good field of vision
These were only two of the combat ploys
used by the Jagdpanther crews. There were
many more, ior the Jagdpanthers were always
grvento lhe most experienced crews, men wh:
had already proved their worlh in combar
They had many ways oI using Lhe capabilitres o:
their charges to the utmost and yet staying aiive
and retaining their vehicles to fight anolher
day. But they were consistently outnumbered.
Despite the large numbers of Allied tanks that
they knocked out there were always more to
come and al1 the tlme the Panzerjdgertruppen
were being pushed back over lhe borders ol
the Reich to their inevitable defeat. When the
end came the Jagdpanthers were no longer
comrng ofl the production irnes. The Allied
bombers had iorced them to close during April
1945, by which time some of the assembly lines
had even been overrun. But riqht until the end
the Jagdpanther crews fought on, continuing
their attempts to stem the flood until they were
either knocked out during combat or were
simply disabled by lack of further fuel supplies.
m i"s[tige'
By 1943 it was an established German
Tank Destroyers of World War II

policy that as soon as any new tank

design became avarlable, a flxed-
superstructure version mountrng a li-
mited-traverse qun would be pro-
duced. Thus when the massive Tiger II
or Konigstiger (King Tiger) appeared,
a correspondinqt Panzerjdqer was de-
veloped. An ron mock-up develop-
ment model of thrs super-healry tank
destroyer appeared in October 1943,
and production began during 1944
under the desiqnation Paruerjdger T!
ger Ausf B, more commonly known as
the Jagdtiger.
With the Jagdtiger the Germans pro-
duced the heaviest and most powedul
armoured vehicle of World War IL The
Jagdtiger had an official weight of no
less than 70000kq (154,3241b) but by
:he time extra combat equipment and
a firll load of ammunition plus the crew
:fsix had been added the weight rose
:c around 76000 kq (167,551 1b), Much
:f thrs weight was attributtible to the
armour, whrch was no less than Above: Two types ofsuspensrbn
250 mm (9,84 in) thick on the front plate w ere u s ed on the J ag dtiger. This
cf the superstructure. The main arma- example has the Henschel
ment was originally a i2.B-cm (5.04-in) suspersior; fft e other type used
Pak 44 anti-tank gun, but thrs was later larger roadwheels from Porsche.
chanqed to the similar Pak B0 and at Based on the Tiger I I tank chassis,
cne time a shortaqe of these guns only aboutT0were produced, andit
caused by Allied bomber raids meant was the heauiestAFv to see service
ihat the much smaller B,B-cm (3.46-in) duringWorldWar II.
Pak 43/3 had to be used. The lZ.B-cm
Euns were the most powerful antrtank box, but by the time the Jagrdtigrer was
weapons used by any side during in sewice the Germans were fiqhtinq a
World War II, and the large size of rts defensive war so the lack of mobility
ammunition meant that each Jagdtiger was not so desperate as it once miqht
could carry only 38 or 40 rounds, The have been,
Cefensive armament was tvvo 7.92-mm The produclron hne Ior the Jagdtiger
10.3 I 2-in) machine-quns. was at the Nibelungwerk at St Valentin
Without a doubt the Jagdtiger was a where total production ran to only 70
massive and powerful vehicle as far as vehicles, as a result mainly of the dis-
weapon power and protection were ruption caused by Allied bombing, not
concerned, but in respect of mobility it only at the factories but in the raw
could be reqarded only as ponderous. materral supply lines, By the time the
ll was driven by the same engrne as war ended two types of Jagdtiger were
hat used in the Jagdpanther, but this to be encountered, one with Henschel Specification The massive J agdtiger with ils I 28-
engine had to drive the much g[eater suspension and later versions with an Jagdtiger mm (5.04-in) gunwas apowerful
-weight of the extra road axle and Porsche suspen- Crew:6 weapon, but it was underpowered
Jagdtiger and to do this
had usually to be driven full out, con- sion. In both forms the Jaqtdtigrers were Weisht:76000 kq (167,55i lb) and too heavy to be anything other
siderably increasinq the fuel con- ponderous to an extreme and although Powerplant: one Maybach HL 230 than a purely defensive weapon. Not
sumption and reducingt range, When on paper they were the most heavily petrol engine developing 447,4- many were made before the war
moving across country the Jagdtiger armed and protected of all the 522.0 kW (600-700 hp) ended, but the 250-mm (9.84-in)
had a speed of only 14.5 km/h (9 mph) armoured fighting vehrcles used dur- Dimensions: length overall 10. 654 m frontal armour made it a difficttlt
ard often less, and the maximum possi- ing World War Ii (and for many years (34 ft 1 1,4 in), width 3,625 m ( I I ft vehicle to knock ouL
ble cross-country range was only afterwards) they remained consrder- 10,7 in); height 2,945 m (9 ft B rn)
120 kn (74,5 miles). This reduced the ably underpowered, a fact that ren- Performance: maximum speed cent; verticalobstacle 0,BS m (33.5 lt:_
Jagdtiger from being a true Panzerja- dered them little more than mobile 34.6 km/h(21.5 mph); roadrange trench 3.0 m (9 ft l0 in); fordinq 1 65 ::,
ger to a sort of mobile defensive pill- weapon platforms. 170 km ( 105 miles); gradrent 70 per (5 ft 5 in)

5.*o*r"nte L.40 da 47/32

During World War II the Italians were
never noted for dramatic innovations
as far as armoured vehicle design was
concerned. However, in one aspect
they were abreast of tactical thinking
elsewhere for they became interested
rn the tank-destroyer concept durinQr
the late I930s. At that tlme they pro-
duced an intrignring design known as
the Semovente L.3 da 47132 mounting a
47-mm (1,85-in) anti-tank gmn with a
barrel 32 calibres long (hence 47132).
The L.3 mounted the qun on an open

The I talian Semovente L.3 da 47 / 32

was an early attempt to mount an
anti-tank gun on a lglrt fanJ<cftassl's,
andwas muchused for trials and
var iousWnnery tes ts. I t gener ally
Iacked protection and was later
replace d by better desr'grns.
Semovente L. 40 da 47 /32 (continued)
mountinq at the foont of a small and low
chassis based on that of the L,3 tanket-
te; a two-man crew was carried, This
early project did not get far for there
was virtually no protection for the crew
and the idea attracted little attentron.
When the ltalians entered the war in
1941 they soon realized that their
much-vaunted tank arm was seriously
undergmnned and lacked protection,
This was particularlay true of their
lighter tanks, in which the italian treas-
ury had invested to a considerable de-
erree, especially the L.6 series that
generally lacked protection and were
armed oniy with a short 37-mm (1,456-
ur) gnrn of hmited antr-armow capabil-
ity. The main combat version, the L.6/
40, soon proved to be of little combat
value against the Britrsh armour then in
use in North A-frica and was obviously
npe for the usual limited-traverse anti-
tank gnrn treatment. it was not long in
coming when Fiat-SPA and Ansaldo
combined to use the chassis for the
basis of a tank destroyer.
The gmn used for the new vehicle
was the powerful 47-mm licence-bult
version of the Austrian Bdhler dual-
f $l*ou"nte M.4IM da 9o/s3
The ltalians used the chassis of their
M.13 tank as the basis for a number of
self-propelled gmns (Semovente), but
most of them were built alonq the iines
of the German Sturmqeschiitz types
ald were intended for use as close-
support assault artillery. At trmes they
could be used against tanks with some
degiree of success, but that was not
ther primary function and the Italians
produced only one really heavy type
of tank destroyer, This was the
Semovente M.4lM da 90/53, which
used the chassrs of the M, 14141 tank, a
development of the M, 13 tank series,
The Semovente M,4iM da 90/53 car-
ned a powerful anti-armour weapon in
the form of the cannone da 90/53 anti-
aircraft gun, a long and very powerful
weapon that had a performance very
simrlar to that.of the famous German
8 8-cm (3,46-in) Flak series, The gmn's
orrmary characteristics were denoted
by the 90/53 desrgnation, for it was a
90-mm (3.54-in) Qnrn with a barrel 53
:alibres long, To accommodate the
gun mounting the engrne was moved
ro the front ofthe chassis and the gmn
',\-as mounted at the rear. In action two
men sat on the gnrn mounting behind a
glrm sLueld; there was no other form of
protection as the ltalian approach was
Lrat such a powerful gmn would not be
used directly ln the front line but would
rstead be used as a 'stand-off weapon
picking offtank targets at long ranges.
\o ammunition could be carried on the
';ehicle itselt 26 rounds were carried
r a special conversion of the L,6 lght
:alk that used a box-like superstruc-
:trre very similar to that of the
Semovente L.40 da 47/32, and another
4,1rounds were carried in a trailer
::wed by the ammunition carrier, In
acion the long rounds were loaded
-:io the qun breech by ammunition
:-.:mbers standing on the grround be-
:.rnd the Semovente M.4I.
Affer noting the power of the Ger-
nan 8.8-cm Flak series the Italians
ir;ere quick to get their Semovente
lv141M into production, The first exam-
ple came off the Fiat, SPA and Ansaldo
hnes dwing 1941, but inthe end only 48
purpose anti-tank/infantry support
gnrn, one of the hardest-hitting of all
anti-armour weapons in its day, On the
new Semovente L.40 da 47132 it was
mounted in a simple box-like super-
structure built directly onto the light
tank chassis, and while this simple
arrangement worked well enough the
slab srdes ofthe superstructure lacked
the added protection that sloping sides
would have pronded But it was better
than nothing and went straight into ser-
vice foom 1942 onwards, In all about
280 were produced and in action they
proved to be capable enough when
dealing with the lighter British and
other armour on the battleflelds of
North Africa, Ammunition stowagie
was 70 rounds.
When the Italians surrendered to
the Allies in 1943 the Germans quickly
took over as many ltalian armoured
vehicles and as much Italian equ-tp-
ment as they could, The Semovente
L,40 da 47/32 was amongt this booty,
and was quickly Lmpressed as part of
the equipment of German units
fightlng in ltaly, However, the terrain of
many of the ltalian battlefields during
were produced, The main reason for
this small total was the lack of produc-
tion potential within ltalian industry
and the ever-pressing requirements
for the Cannone da 90/53 as an anti-
aircraft gun. In the field the Semovente
M,4lM proved to be a powerful
weapon, especially across the flat
wastes of the North African deserts,
but once that campaign ended so did
the gnrn's career with the ltalian army,
Soon after the fall of Sicily and the inva-
sion of the ltalian mainland the ltalians
surrendered, The Germans had been
expecting such a move and promptly
took control of as much ltalian war
mat6riel as they could lay their hands
on, and amonQl the loot was a number
of Semovente M.4lMs, The Germans
soon had control of the gnrns ammuni-
tion production facilities and thus the
weapon ended up as part of the Ger-
man army's rnventory, with the type
still in service in northern Italy when
the war ended, By then there was little
call for their tank-killing capabilities,
for much of the Italian campaigm took
place over mountainbus country
where few tanks could move, so the
Semovente M,4lMs were used mainly
as long-rangre artillery.
the long slog north that lasted through
1944 and 1945 was such that armour
could be used on few occasions, and
the Semovente L.40s often had their
antt-tank armament removed and
were used instead as mobile com-
mand posts for senior commanders,
with an armament of one B-mm (0.315-
in) Breda modello 38 machine-grun,
The Semovente L.40 da 47/32 may
have been a simple conversion and it
had little impact on enemy armour, but
it did demonstrate that the Itahans had
absorbed the tank destroyer concept
at an early stage ofthe war and used it
as well as their limited production
basrs allowed,
Specification
Semovente L.40 da47/32
Ctew:2
Weisht: 6500 kq (14,330 lb)
Powerplant: one SPA lBD 4-cylinder
petrolengine developing 50,7 kW
(68 hp)
Dimensions: lenqlh 4,00 m (13 ft 1,5 in)
andhu1l3.7B2 m (12 ft4,9 in); width
1.92 m (6 ft 3,6 in); heisht 1.63 m (5. ft
4.2in)
Specification
Semovente M.4lM da 90/53
Crew: (on gnrn) 2
weight: i7000 kq (37,479 lb)
Powerplant:one SPA 15-TM-41 B-
cylrnder pet rol engine developing
108, I kw (145 hp)
Dimensions: lenqth 5,205 m ( 17 ft
0,9 in); width 2,20 m (7 ft 2.6 in); heisht
m (7 ft 0,6 rn)
2. 15
Performance: maxrmum road speed
35.5 km/h (22 mph); roadrange 200 km
(124 miles); vertical obstacle 0,9 m
(35,4 in); trench 2. I m (6 ft 10.7 in);
fording 1,0 m(3 ft3 in)
The S emovente L.40 da 47 / 32 was
usedr'n somenumbers by the ltalian
andlater theGerman armies, and
was a conversion of the L.6/40 light
tank to take the powertil lhlian 47-
mm ( I .B 5-in) anti- tank gun. I ts box-
like supers tructure was latet widely
used toactas amobile command
post or ammunition carrier.
Performance: maxim'um road speed
42.3 krr/h(26,3 mph); roadrange
200 kn ( 124 miles); qradient 84 per
centi vertical obstacle 0.8 m (31,5 in);
trench l.7 m (5 ft 7 in); fording 0.8 m
(31,5 in)
The Semovente M.4 I M da 90/ 53 was
the most powerful of the ltalian tank
destroyers, andused the 90-mm
(3.54-in) anti-aircraft gun mounted
on an M.l5/42 tankcfiassis.
A Semovente M.4 I M da 90/ 53 is
examined by American troops after
being knocked out in Sicily in I I 43. I
To serve the gan, the crew had to
stand behind the breech and only the
driver had all-round armour.These
gruns were first used in North Africa
in late 1943 and were much
respected.
Battleof theBulge
As the Allied armies advanced inexorably across France towards the German
frontier,Hitler plannedhis counter-attack. Despitetheproximity of the RedArmyto
thePrussianheartland and the pleas of his generals, theFthrer insistedon
attempting a repeat of his masterstroke of 1940 - an attack through theArdennes
forest.
By mid-December 1944 the main bulk of the
A-llied forces were concentrated (as were the
attentions of the Allled hlgh command) towards
both ends of the battlefront, In the north the
Anglo-Canadian armies had at iast cleared
-l,ntwerp and opened the Scheldt estuary, and
re US lst and 9th Armres were set to close up
:: the Neder Rhine and threaten the vttal Roer
:ams, In the south Lieutenant-General George
:ation's US 3rd Army, after iis spectacular
jrive across France, was poised to sweep
rrough the equally important Saar region to-
-,'.'ards
the Rhrne at Mannheim,
Between the two powerful groupings were
:.runQt out some 80,000 American troops along
-=5 km (90 miles) of front, the bulk of them
::nsistrng of Major-General Troy Mrddleton's
-.-ilI
Corps which had been brought across
::m Brittany, backed by one armoured divi-
--:n, the 9th, whlch had but lately arnved in the
-:ea and had not yet seen actton, They were
:-ere because thrs part of the front, the Arden-
--:s section, was a quiet part, covered in front
:-.-the sparsely settled German Schnee Etfel,
--C behind by the steep wooded hrlls and
,:aming trout streams which had always been
::spite the events ol 1940, regarded as ursuit-
country for open warfare. Moreover the
-le winter snows had fallen and hear,ry clouds
-st
:-.'erhead had lately kept the Alhed and Ger-
::an air forces on the ground; both green and
.::eran troops crouched in thetr foxholes, lis-
::ned to reports of bitter fighttng to north and
.- rth with thoughts of thankfulness that they
,';ere not there, and dreamed ol Christmas.
They were thus considerably shaken when
=. t5.30 on the morninq of i6 December they
lere suddenly deluged by the heaviest artil-
-:ry bombardment even the veterans among
::em had experienced, and when after periods
varying from 20 to 90 minutes they peered out
into the pre-dawn murk, they found themselves
overrun by German shock troops surging for-
ward through their posrttons, followed shortly
by powerful Panzer and Panzergrenadier
units, many of them bearing the;agged double
streak ol the Waffen-SS,
It had all been Hrtler's idea, as usual at this
penod of the war, in drrect contradiction to the
advice tendered to him by the army's generals,
Even as the fightrng in the Falarse Gap was
ending, Hitler had announced that by Novem-
ber a force of some 25 drvisions must be pre-
pared to launch a huge counteroffensive
against the Anglo-American armies; and to the
astonishment of the German htgh command
that force had come into existence, conjured
from every corner of German lifer rear-area
administrative echelons, 16-year-old boys,
civil servants, small shopkeepers, university
students and the scourinqs of the prisons, all
had been swept into the armed services, some-
times to jorn the new formations themselves,
and sometimes just to release experienced
men to bulk them out,
Thus had been formed three German
armies. and they were by mid-December mar-
shalled under an exemplary cioak of secrecy
and subterfuge opposite that thinly occupied
145-kn (9O-mrle) strip oiltne, so tenuously held
by the US VIII Corps, In the north were poised
the units of the 6th SS Panzer Army under
Generaloberst Sepp Dietrtch, erstwhile com-
mander of Hrtler's personal bodyguard tn the
street-fightrng days and later of the crack'Lteb-
standarte Adolf Hrtler' lst SS Panzer Division, In
the middle section olthe attack front waited the
Sth Panzer Army under the trusted army
General Hasso von Manteuffel, And on the
southern flank of the attack to form the 'hard
.
This frame from a German propaganda film
purports to show German infantry moving up past
a burningAlliedvehicle. Despite thet initial
successes lfiat caught the Allies off guard in late
December 1944, Allied air supremacy was
instrumental ingaining theupper hand once the
weather cleared to allow air operations.
shoulder' against any possible northward coui-
termove by formaticns of the US 3rd Army u'e
the 7th Army under the dogged but unimagina-
tive General Errch Brandenburger.
Altogether some 200,000 men would take
part in Operalion'Wacht am Rhetn', equippeci
with more tanks, more artillery and more
ammunition than had been granted to any sirn--
larly assembled German force for man;,'
months past; and in addrtion to those more cr
less conventional fightrng divisions, there
warted in the rear 1,250 paratroops under
Oberst von der Heydte, a veteran of Crete. :c
drop rn front of the main assault, seize bridges
and crossroads, and attack any headquarter
organizations they could find, Moreover :c
help them spread alarm and despondency, ihe
famous raiding commander Otto Skorzenl'
commanded a special force of volunteers dri;-
ing American vehicles and wearing America:-
unrforms, a ploy which would result in the:
berng shot if they fell into Allied hands
The objectrve for this surreptitiously asse=-
bled force was Antwerp, plus the splrttLng ::
the Allied armres threatemng the German fron-
An M 1 in the Ardennes. This vehicle is from the
0
lstArmy and by that stage of thewatthe Ml0s
were used,less as tank destroyers and more as
assa ulf Eruns, fo r which they were not ideally suited
due to their relatively thin armour. This vehicle is
carrying extra passengers and is armed with a
I 2.7 -mm (0.50-in) machine-gun.
Battle of the Bulge

i-.:

-:

Above: This picturewas long believed to be Oberst

Peiper, the SS officer who executed US prisoners in
cold blood at Malmedy. In fact it is a still from the
newsreel produced by aGermanfilm unit to
document the advance. The vehicle, inappropriate
to the surroundings. is aSchwimmwagen
amphibious scoutcar.

\,
"ef,
st* i-..::::. l

..is

N E'" -.

-G

tier, the annihilation of the Anglo-Canadian
armies and lhe US lst and 9th Armies alongside
them by starvation as their maln supplli-port
was captured, and an immense morale boost
:or the German pubtic together with such a
shock to the Allies that the consequent bicker-
ing between them would wreck their future
sttategic planning lor weeks and possibly
nonths.
It was not regarded in thls light by all the
lerman commanders. Generalfeldmarschall
ierd von Rundstedt, whom Hitler had piaced
-:, overall command of the front, was scathing:
-:,ntwerp?' he cried. 'lfwe reach the Meuse we
.rould go down on our knees and thank Godl'
Sepp Dietrich, who would seem by now to have
-:st hrs original admiration icr the Firhrer, later
::marked:'A11 I had to do was to cross the river,
:apture Brussels, and then go on to take the
::rt of Antwerp. The snow was waist deep and
.ere wasn't room to deploy four tanks abreast,
-:: alone six armoured drvisrons, It dldn't qet
-,;nt untrl eight and was dark again at four, and
:,_r tanks can't fight at night, And all thts at
lrristmas timel'
- eff;SS-Sturmbahnfiihrer Otto Skorzeny was
:t s trumental in organizing the behind- the- line s
rfiltration force that used captured vehicles and
equipment in an attempt to create havoc in the
.lllied lines. The operationwas notvery successful;
Germans captured in Americanuniforms
=any
;,rere sfiol as spies.
J
Nevertheless, aided by that essential factor
of surprise, some of them drd very well at the
beqinning, Leading elements of the lst SS Pan-
zer Drvision under their ruthless commander.
Obersl Peiper, swept rhrough a gap in Amer-
ican lines to Honsfeld in the north, captured a
large pelrol dump at Bullingen and then caught
American lroops on the move at Malmedy
crossroads before racing on towards Stavelot.
Unfortunately for all parties concerned, his
men, inured to the bitter fighting on the Eastern
Front, shot down 19 American prisoners at
Honsfeld, 50 at Bullinqen and nearly 100 at
Malmedy, a prece of barbarism which defe-
ated rtself when i:iimour oi the massacres
F' li
* ': ::l::
I :
l'
t-
i._
Tank Destroyers of World War II
swept ihrough the embattled American pcs:-
tions it produced feelings of both fury and des-
peration and caused even the greenest ulr:s
sometrmes commanded by only junror NCCs
to fight with a committed ferocrty lvhrcr
baulked the important German thrusi to :he
south.
It also spelied the almost immediate death c-
any of Skorzeny's men discovered at their clan-
destine tasks
One of von Manteuffel's spearheads had suc-
cess similar to Peiper's, but without that ruirr-
lessness, and reached the villaqe of Auw just il
front of the vital road junction of St Vrth, bu:
here it ran into the tank destroyers and mairr
artrllery of an American infantry dlvlsron whlcr
held them, lorcing the main drive ol von Man
teuffel's army southwards into the gap betweer,
St Vlth and the other vitai road junction, Bas-
togne,
j-'
..
The initial shock to Americanforces caused by the
powerful German armoured thrust was quickly
replaced by stiffening resistance and resolve. The
decisive engagement occurred between St Vith
and Bastogne, where von Manteuffel's spearhead
was forced south by.divisional artillery and tank
destroyers, allowingGeneral Bradley time to move
his I2th Army Group into positions llanking the
German drive.The concentration of armour,
artillery and tankdestroyers was towreak havoc
on the over-extended German line.
Battle of the Bulge
An M I 0 of the American 90 th I nfantry Division
moves through the wreckage of Berle in
Luxembourg, the crew readywith their machine'
guns to counter any German nests of resistance
that might be around. The weather during the
Ardennes campaignwas bitter, andMl0 crews
had little cover.
And it was here that the attenttons of both
attackers and defenders became concen-
trated. It was Lreutenant-General Omar Brad-
1ey's iZth Army Group which caught the offen-
sive in its centrai sectton, and at flrst Bradley
wrote it off as merely a spoihng attack to disrupt
the lst Army's threat to the Roer in the north
and the 3rd Army's to the Saar rn the south; but
he soon realized that it was more than that, On
19 December he ordered Lieutenant-General
Courtney Hodges in the north to swing some of
his lst Army divisions back to hold a flank and
then drive down to St Vlth and Patton to do the
same in the south and send his crack 4th
Armoured Division up to relieve Bastogne.
Being Patton, ol course, he objected, but then
suddenly cheered up. 'What the hell,'he said,
'we'li still be killing Krautsl', and with an
efflciency which compels the greatest admira-
tion he swung the bulk of his army through 90'
in 48 hours.
In the meantime, Generai Dwiqht Eisenhow-
er had released his reserves and they sped to
the two vital points in every truck and ieep they
could find: the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divi-
sions, recently recovered from their battles at
Nrlmegen and Eindhoven, raced north from
Patton's lines, the I01st dropping off to begin its
famous stand at Bastogne and the 82nd passing
on io St Vith, The battle now was becoming one
A.bove: M 10s move up to the tighting in the
Ardennes and are used tocarry forward infantry
riding on the turrets andhulls. ?ftese same M I1s
would later havebeen used fo support the infantry
in action, as by the time of theArdennes campaign
the Ml1swere littleused intheir intendedrole of
tank destroyers.
Right : The ultimate obj ective of H itler's Ardennes
offensivewas the capture otAntwetp, but despite
all the German efforts this was to prove hopelessly
unrealistic.
3?B
Crews from M IOs belonging to the 3rd Armoured
Division have a brew-up during a short lull in the
late 1944 operations in the Ardennes. The fire is
formed from scrap timber, as American troops in
the field were not as well supplied as other Allied
armies.
of mobrlity, and that game the Americans
how to play,
As von Manteuffel's spearheads probed
farther and farther west (they never crossed
the Meuse, though the I lth Panzer Division did
reach nearly to Dinant) American tank des-
troyers and artillery shored up the flanks ofthe
penetration whrle their rnfantry fought dogged-
ly forward rnto the gaps or held on grimly in
isolated positions, For most of the time,
moreover, they fought without air cover, for the
weather favoured the Germans lirr days on
end. But by Christmas Day, after some of the
bitterest f,ghtrng in Europe, the sting had been
drawn from the German onslaught; although
von Manteuffel mounted a last desperate attack
on Bastogne, it was beaten off and on the fol-
lowing day Patton's tanks arrived to break the
Meanwhile, Field Marshal Montgomery had
taken command of the northern flank and tn
]x?vff
*=F-1lil:ffi
--r tntaFrortLne * * * border
rrr
Limtol Gema. advance
<<1 cermanaftacr. A
N
6t atd-tr
>:' A lied counlerattacks
-----E--J"-
M4 Sherman crews of the 3rd US Armoured
Division of the I st Army stand by to await
developments during a lullin theArdennes
fighting.These tankies had much todo duringthe
late 1944 fighting as it was often their mobility and
firepower that halted many of the German
advances and later threw them back.
knew order to 'tldy up the battlefield' he authorized a
withdrawal from the St Vith salient, and he
brought the Britrsh 29th Armoured Brigade
down on the Americans right flank to hold the
deepest penetration; when on the following
day the whole of the US ZndArmoured Division
came down to join them, Hitler's last offensive
in the west was brought to a halt,
It had undoubtedly given the Ailied leaders
a nasty jolt, and it would be many more days
before the Ardennes salient was entirely flat-
tened, but in fact the offenslve had used up a
great deal of the rapldly-diminishlng German
war materiel and it caused Httler the loss of
manpower whrch he could better have used on
the other side of the Rhine. it had been de-
feated by the abiilty olAmerican leadership to
deploy guns and armour with supreme
effrciency, and by the dogged courage of the
American infantryman.
It was, indeed, a great American victory
MANNHEIM
-
1 91m 146km --+,
(
l u.s.S2ndAbnDiv. x
- u.s {thArmd Div l.* ' '^""n'*" /
ffi Slin cun Motor Carriase MIo
During the late 1930s and early 1940s
the US Army formulated a novel tactic-
al doctrine, whereby fast-moving
armoured formations were to be coun-
tered by a new tank destroyer force
comprisinq towed and self-propelled
high-velocity antl-tank quns, This tank
destroyer force was to be used en
masse and was to be armed with
powerful guns, and one of the first
operational results of this doctrine was
the Gun Motor Carriage MIO self-
propelled mountingT armed with a
76.2 mm (3-in) gun known as the M7, a
development of an anti-aircraft
weapon, The secondary armament
,vas one 12,7-mm (0,5-in) Browning
machine-gmn.
The MtO used the main chassis of
he M4A2 medium tank (the Sherman)
alhed to a new thinly-armoured upper
:u11 and an open{opped turret, The
:elatively thin armour of the hull was
-nproved by the use of sloping armour
"Dlates to increase protection, and
sloped armour was also used on the
:.rret. Unlike many other tank des-
:oyers of the time the M10 had a turret
',';ith 360" traverse, for althouqh the
\410 was intended for use as a tank
iestroyer it was seen by the US Army
3s a Cun carrier and was not intended
-cr close-order combat, hence the re-
latively thin armour, The gun was quite
powerful for the perrod it was intro-
Cuced. Production commenced dur-
-ng September 1942, and such was the
-ootential of American industry that
,'rhen production ceased in December
-942 4,993 had been produced.
The bulk of this total went to US
.Vmy tank destroyer battalions, and in
:arly 1943 there were 106 actlve batta-
lions. But as the war continued their
:umber gradually decreased when rt
,vas realized that the tank destroyer
:cncept as an arm separate from the
:est of the American armoured forces
,';as wrong and as it emerged that the
ilest counter to a tank was another
:enk, But the tank destroyer force re-
::ained in being until the war ended,
:::ost of the batta[ons being used in
=:rope, By the end of the war many of
:e Ml0s and their associated equip-
:::ents and towed guns were being
Above : The American M I 0 was
designed to be the main weapon oI
the T ank D es troye r C omm and's
mobile units, and mounted a 3-in
(76.2-mm) gun in an open-topped
turret. The armour protectionwas
rclatively thin, as the weight of better
armourwas sacrificed for all-round
performance and speed once in
action.
used more as assault forces than tank
destroyers. The M10 was lhe primary
equipment of these battalions and was
used not only by the US Army but by
the British (who knew the M10 as the
Wolverine) and Iater by the French
and ltaltan armies, In combat the M10
proved to be less than a complete suc-
cess, for despite its thrn armour it was a aircraft elements, By early 1945 most of Late in thewar the M10 (left)was
large and bulky vehicle and as time the tank destroyer battalions were dis- suppJemenfed by the M36 (right),
went on the gun lost much of its anti- trrbuted among the more conventional whichused a90-mm (3.54-in) gun.
armour effectiveness, But the MiOs armoured formations, and were then still in an open-topped turret. The
were still in use when the war ended. used exactly as other armoured forma- M36 was desigmed as early as I 942
By then the British had re-gunned tiors and the exclusive tank destroyer but took a long time to get into
many of their Mlos with 17-pdr gmns concept died. production, so that it was late I I 44
and re-named the type Achilles. The before the first of them reached
MlO had in the meantime been joined Specification Europe. By then they were mainly
by the Ml0Al, whrch was the same MIO used as assa uJl Sruns.
vehicle but using the chassis of the Crew:5
M4A3 medium tank wrth its different Weight 29937 ks (66,000 lb) (B ft 5 in)
enqine installation and some other Powerplant: two General Motors 6- Performance: maximum road speei
changtes, cylinder dresel engines each 51 kn/h(32 mph); roadrangre3Z?kr
The M10s were used in battalions, developing276,6 kW (375 hp) (200 miles); grradient 25"; vertical
each with around 36 M10s and with Dimensions: length overall6,83 m (22 ft obstacle 0,46 m (18 in); trench 2.26r:
strong reconnaissance and anti- 5 in); width 3,05 m (10 ft); height 2,57 m (7 ft5 in); fording0.9l m(3 ft)

5iir, cun Motor.Carriage MI8

=,',trereas the MIO was produced for
:e tank destroyer battalions by con-
';ertinq an existing tank chassis (the
l,i4A2), the Gun Motor Carriaqe Ml8
r;as desiqned from the outset for the
:alk destroyer role. Development be-
::ar during 1942, and the first examples
,';ere ready during 1943.
in service the MIB proved to be one
:i the best examples of the American
:ank destroyer concept, It was much
:maller than the M10 and weighed
:n-ly about half as much, but it carried a
:ore powerful gun and was much fas-
.er. Indeed, the MIB was the fastest
:acked vehicle to be used in action
iuringr World War IL The gun was the
16,2-mm (3-in) MlAl or MlA2, the lat-
:er havinq a mrrzzle brake, The MlAl
lun was a development of the gun pected in a tank and the MIB relied with excellent acceleration and agtlity, The M 18 Hellcat had the distinction
.:sed in the M10, but had a better all- upon its mobrlrty and striking power to Internal stowage was such that as well of being the fastest of all AFVs used
lound performance and it was defend rtself, The engine was posr- as carrying the crew of five men there duringWorldWar IL Armedwith a
nounted in an open{opped turet, In tioned to the rear of the hull and was a was space for 45 76.2-mm rounds and a long 7 6-mm ( 3-in) gun, it was an ideal
appearance the MlB resembled a radial air-cooled petrol engine with 12.7-mm (0,5-in) healry machrne-gun tank-hunting vehicle, but as with
:ank, and it dld indeed have a 360' aviation origins that was powerful for local and anti-aircraft defence, other vehicles of its type it generally
:raverse turet, but its armour protec- enougrh to give the MlB a good power- in sewice with the tank destroyer lacked armour andwas fittedwith an
:on was much less than would be ex- to-werght ratro to provrde the vehicle battahons the MlB was given the name open-topped turret.
3-in Gun Motor Carriage M18 (continued)
Hellcat, Despite their success in actton
the MlBs were gradually switched
from the tank destroyer battalions as
the enthusiasm for the exclusive tank
destroyer concept dwindled, and bY
1945 many MlBs were used bY con-
ventional armoured formations within
the US Army. By then theywere belngt
used more and more as assault guns
and conventional self-propelled artil-
lery,
The production runof the MIB lasted
from July 1943 to October 1944, when it
was obvious that the war was not going
to last much longer. Between those
dates 2,507 MIBs were produced,
some being completed wtthout tufiets
as the M39 for use as high-speed troop
or supply carners, There was also a 2,87 m (9 ft 5 in); heisht 2.58 m (B ft
T65 Flame Tank basedonthe MIB with
a much revised upper hull mounting a
flame gmn tn front. The T8B Howitzer
Motor Carriage was an attempt to
mount a 105-mm (4, 13-in) howrtzer on
the basic MlB and there were other
ffi Arcte,
Although the Bntrsh army tended to lag
behind the Germans in upgn-mninq its
tanks as World War II prognessed, an
early decision by Brltish planners to
make a quantum leap tn anti-tank gnrn
calibres from the 57mm (2,244in) of
the 6-pdr to 76,2 mm (3 in) was a bold
one, for rt was made at a time when the
6-pdr was only just gettinq into produc-
tion. It was realtzed that the new 76.2-
mm gun, soon to be known as the 17-
pdr, would be a very large and hearry
weapon on its towed carriage. so it was
decided to flnd some means of making
it mobile, Ideally the 17-pdr was to be
used as a tank gnrn, but the tanks large
enougth to cary such a larqte weapon
were still a long way off (indeed had
not even left the drawing boards) so a
short{erm alternative had to be found.
After investigating such in-
production means as the Crusader
tank chassis it was decided to mount
the 17-pdr on the Valentine infantry
tank chassis, The Valentine was tn pro-
duction and could be rapidly adapted
for its new gun-carryinq role bY
adding a sloping superstructure, open
at the top, on the forward part oi the
hull. To ensure the gmn/chassis com-
binatron would not be nose-heavy and
unwieldy, it was decided to place the
gun in a hmited-traverse-mounting
facing over the rear of the chassis. This
vehicle was obviously meant to be a
tank destroyer and it was placed in
production in late 1943,
It was March 1943 before the first SP
l?-pdr Valentine rolled offthe produc-
BO0 that
tion lines, the initial example of
had been ordered. The troops looked
at the new vehicle with some trepida-
tron, for the idea of havinq a gun that
faced to the rear only was agratnst
established practice, Drivers were
also less than enchanted, for they were
positioned at the centre front of the
fiqhting compartment and the gun
breech was directly behind their
heads; on flring the breech block
came to within a short distance of the
back of the driver's head, The rest of
the crew was made up of the gnrn layer,
the commander and the loader. Pro-
tective flre could be supplied by one
7.7-mm (0,303-tn) Bren gun.
It was October 1944 before the first
of these Valentrne/17-pdr combina-
I 880
attempts to mount a 90-mm (3,54-in)
gnrn and turret on the chassis, None of
these versions qot past the ex-
perimental stage, a fate shared bY
many other trial versions of the basic
MIB including a mobrle command
post, a utitity carrier and an amphi-
bious variant.
Specification
M18
Crew:5
Weisht: 17036 ks (37,557 1b)
Powerplant: one Continental R-975 Cl
radral petrol engine developing
253,5 kW (340 hp)
Dimensions: lenqthoverall6.65 m (21 ft
10 in) and hull 5 .44 n(17 ft 10 in); width
5,5 in)
Performance: maximum road speed
BB,5 kr/h (55 mph); road ranete 169 lrn M18 Hellcats went out of production Army's tank destroyer role, andwas
(105 miles); Eradient 60 per cent; inOctober 1944 after 2,507 had been amosf successfu I com b at vehic Ie
vertical obstacle 0.91 m (36 in); trench built. The M I8 was the only vehicle capable of tackling all but the very
1,BB m (6 ft 2 in); fordins L22 m(4 ft) specifically designed for the US heaviestGerman tanks.
tions reached the fighting in Europe, The British Archerwas a conversion The first of them were used in action
By then the type had become known of theValentine infantry tank to in late 1944 and proved to be very
as the Archer, and in action the mount a 17-pdr (3-in/76.2-mm) anti- useful weapons with a |ow silhouette.
Archer's tank-killing capabilities were tank gan that fired over the rear hull. They were used by the Royal Artillery.
soon demonstrated, The rearward-
facinqt gnrn was soon seen to be no
problem, but rather a virtue. The
Archer was soon. in use as an ambush
weapon where its low silhouette made
it easy to conceal in a hide. As enemy
tanks approached a few shots could be
flred to kill a tank and then the Archer
was facrng the riqht way to make a
qurck getaway before enemy retalia-
tion arrived, The Archers were used
by the anti-tank companies of the
Royal Artillery, and they were de-
finitely preferred to the weight and
bulk ofthe towed 17-pdr gnrns used by
the same companies,
The end of the war brought about a
halt in Archer production at a point
where 655 of the original order for 800
had been produced, The Archers
went on to equip British army anti-tank
units until the mid-1950s,
Specification
Archer
Crew:4
Weight: 16257 kg(35,840 lb)
Powerplant: one General Motors 6-71
6-cyhnder diesel developing 143, 2 kW
(192 hp)
Dimensions: length overall6.68 m (21 ft
I I in) and hull 5.54 m (18 ft 6 in); width
2,76 m (9 ft 0 5 in); heiqht 2.25 m (7 ft
4.5 in)
Performance: maximum road sPeed
32 2 km/h (20 mph); road range 225 km Although the rear-facing main gun of ambush position and then driving
(140 miles); gradient 32"; verttcal the Archer could have been a tactical away after the actionwith the gun
obstacle 0.84 m (33 in); trench 2.36 m liability, the users put it to advantage barrel still pointing to the rear.
(7 ft 9 in); fordins0,9l m (3 ft) by using the Archers from an
Armed Forces of the World
SovietAir Forces
Part 3
Of the three major elements comprsing
a r force (Voyenno-Vozdushnyye S lv, or
appears recently to have suffered a demot
:trategic bomber force r.e
-ong-Range Av at on \',,s a ao-r:ld
-ght until the reorga- zz-.:- '-' '?3'
:.;sets were appare-- ' ..^'- .=. -'
-rCer ultimate comrra-r :- -. ::. :.
.- r r ario.rs DA compo
' .'e Air Armres wh ch :-: . .= -- - .-:,
, SSR's five continenia --=. ':. ,' '
. -.. They n-ay lrus . -
- ,-
-:rbv units of Fronta -. ,
: nmand wrthin a s no : - -: .-:
, ''ordirg to the de'ra' .- '
;trat've of th s freec
'o'Trpolev-l-6I:-'
-" bombing of A'g-" . -
le new chain of cor -- . -
cse by the ICBM ic':: =.
-: ear deterrence Hcr',:.
:rance ground Jaunc.e: =ll'.'
-.
of the air 'o'ce, rl. - : : =
.-l'taryarrr'o'lhsr-..
--ee chestovo Nazn"c-t
:,-:es, or RVSN). Operatec:.
RVSN has 1,398 sio a--,-:
-
-:<et Armies, including Bi 8
. and hardened since 1972
i:spite this impress ve arn-:-
srbmarine-launched m ss -.s
rs for the bombers o'lre I -
-sentrates on carriage of cr- s=
raval air forces, the USSR ^a:
Myasishchev M-4'Bisons', '1 15 Tupolev Tu-142
'Bears', 315 Tu-.1 6 'Badgers', 140 Tu-22 'Blinders'
and 1 40 fu-22M 'Backfires'.
Most capable of these is the 'Backfire', whrch can
Da 'nVava cover the whole of North America when operating
subsonically at high level f rom bases in the Sovret
Arct c with the aid of rnflightrefuelling. On shorter
a'ss ons against targets in Europe and Asla, it can
-se ts supersonic dash capabilitiesto good effect. A
..'r33porl load of up to 12000 kg (26,455 lb) may be
:a" ed by the 'Backfire' (some stores on external
'::<s be ow the air intake trunks) and in addition to
''e: 'al nuclear weapons, this includes an AS 4
(::ren' cruise missile semi-recessed in the belly.
, -:er- oevelopment is the AS-X-1 5, a far more cap
, -:: r ssr e which will take its place on the'Back-
' -= :s rn;ell as the 'Bear' and forthcoming 'Black-
.1:. the near future.
,,..,,r{f 11
--- 5 crurse mrssile s believed to have a
AS-X-'1
: '- ' , '.-2= t'3000 km (1,865 miles) and, as such, wrll
::-- :erab y mprove the Soviet potential for low-
:.: :-d siand-off attack in both theatre and inter-
- :, -: ^:-iar operations. lt is expected to be followed
-
:. ,.-ar weapons having an even greater range
. = -: .'. in tne hrgh accuracyachieved in US counter-
.: l\ tire use of terrarn-comparison guidance.
:: :: : -:.ge ls a useful asset, but not as essential
.: .-= ,SSl as it is to the USA: 55 American cities
-- :- :' lre 1OOjathom rne ln the Atlantic and
:.- ' : lceans, whereas the USSR has only s x
, :: :-r 2 2 m llion people n the same exposed
).,..' '= oroduction continues at an alleged rate
,' :: z':'z:I per year (ln contravention of tnterna-
: .:::i:::::::: _!i€:i::
.
tional agreements), and is expected to continue at
this tempo untll the end of the 19BOs. Remarkably,
manufacture is also under way (at Taganrog) of the
Tu-95, some 20 years after main production was
completed. The new variant, which entered servlce
late in '1 984, is the 'Bear-H' dedicated launcher f or
the AS-X-15.
Re-working of earller 'Bears' rs also in hand tc
produce the 'Bear-G' carrier for AS-4'Kitchen' m s-
siles. The su bjects for this prograrn me are the 'Bea r-
B' and 'Bear-C', which have been armed with AS-3
'Kangaroo' cruise missiles since the early 1960s. t
therefore seerns that the giant, swept-wing turbo
prop will remain as a useful component of the Sov et
front-line inventory for many more years to come
The 'Badger', though dating back to a 1952 pro-
totype, is an equally valuable asset to DA for theatre
attack (that rs to say, medium-range nuclear strike c'
a non-strategic nature). ln rts 'Badger-G' form it car-
ries two 45-6 'Kingfrsh' cruise missile or a pair c'
shorter-range AS-5 'Kelts' for the tactical role, wh j s:
specialrzed ECM/jamming variants are ava lab e t:
accompany other bombers. The latest vafant, th3
'Badger-K', is assigned to electronic intel igenc:
gathering
AS-4 Kitchens a re addltionally carried by the Tu-2 2
'Blinder-B' which, with the'Badger', constitutes tr:
Aremarkable aircraft by anyone's standards, the
Tupolev Tu- 142 still lumbers around the world's
oceans for hours at a time, collecting data from
ground defences, naval exercises and anything it
can fly near.The'Bear-D'is the most common
version, and is intercepted frequently by RAF
fighters over thelVorfh Sea.
Armed Forces of the World
DA's medium-range element. The'Blinder' was the
USSR's first operational supersonic bomber. and is
now assigned by the DA entirely to cruise-missile
carrying, with the exception of a few reconnaiss-
ance models.
Apart from 170 aircraft (including 40 'Backfires')
based in the Far East Theatre of Military Operations,
the DA's assets are concentrated in the western
sections of the USSR. lt should be noted that in
addition to the above, 530 tankers, electronic war-
fare and reconnaissance aircraft are operated by the
DA, mostly as conversions of the older bombers.
Looking to the future, the DA will be considerably
revitalized from 1987 when the Tupolev bomber
known to NATO as 'Blackjack' attains operational
status. As the Soviet Union's first truly intercon-
tinental bomber, the'Blackjack' is similar in appear-
ance to the variable-geometry Rockwell B-1 in pros-
pect for the USAF, but 25 per cent larger and with a
gross weight of 267625 ks (590,000 lb). lts high-
altitude dash speed is Mach 2.1 , and with a range
doublethatof the'Backfire' itwill beableto mounta
hi-lo-hi mission against any target in the USA with-
out inflight-refuelling. The conventional bombload of
the 'Blackjack' is in the region of 13600 kg
(30,000 lb), although it will also act as a carrier for
the AS-X-1 5 and later Soviet cruise missiles.
A ammon sight around a US Navy carriet batue
group is an escorting Tu- I 42 . This 'Bear-C' is
arcompanied by a Grumman F- I 4A Tomcat from
W- 1 I 1 'Sundowners' . Both aircraft share one
thing: they are both many miles from their home.
Soiet long-range aircraft have been an ever-
inqeasing sight over the world's oceans.
Soviet Air Forces
-
Having dealt with the might of the DA, lt may 4600 km (2,860 miles) or up to 200 paratroops. lts
appear to be an anti-climax to consider the equip- internal volume is sufficient for .the largest main
ment of the Voyenno-Transportnaya Aviatsiya battle tanks and all the elements of an SS-20 mobile
(Transport Aviation, or WA). But thls is not so. for intermediate-range missile system.
this component of the V-VS is a vital element in Remembering the role played by USAF heavy
Soviet defensive and offensive strategy, as evi- transporters in the seizure of Grenada and their use
denced by the massive airlift of troops and their in reinforcement exercises to Europe and the Mid-
equipment into Afghanistan during December 1 979. dle East, it is not dlfficult to deduce that the Soviet
The WA operates some 600 four-engine aircraft Union is seeking a similar ability io act rapidly on a
and many more smaller types, but has call on global scale. With the service entry in a few years'
another 1,400 medium and heavy aircraft of the time of the 'Blackjack' intercontinental bomber and
airline, Aeroflot. Modernization of the force is main- 'Condor' carry-all strategic transport, the USSR will
tained from annual productio.n of over 300 transport have drawn parallel to Western capability in a further
aircraft in all categories, of which 75 go to WA. two areas.
Forming the backbone of Transport Aviation is the
Antonov An-12 'Cub' turboprop, of which some 375
are being replaced by the four-jet llyushin ll-76'Can-
T he early MiG-25'Foxbat-As' have recenily been
did'. 'Cubs' will carry 100 paratroops or 20000 kg updated to 'Foxbat-E' standard with some
144,090 lb), but thelr substitute has been designed capability against low-flying targets. Main
to transport twice the payload over five times the differences include an infra-red sensor under the
range (and in the rigours of the Siberian winter, if nose and strengthened sttucturc. It is likely that
required), Some 250 'Candids' have been delivered more powedul engines have been fitted.
so far.
Presently, the heavy-lift element of WA consists
of 50 Antonov An-22 'Cocks' shared with Aeroflot.
Powered by four contra-rotating turboprops. the
'Cock' will lift up to 80000 kg (176,365 lb), including
missiles such as the SA-4'Ganef'on its transporter,
and is the only WA aircraft able to carry a T-62 tank.
This distinction will be lost in 1987 or 1988,
however, when the gigantic Antonov An-400 'Con-
dor' enters setuice. Similar to the Lockheed C-5
Galaxy, but larger, the 'Condor' prototype is current-
ly the biggest flying aircraft in the world. With the
WA, it will carry a load of 1 20000 kg (254,550 lb) for