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Marder IIs or IIIs in the Africa Korps?


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I know for absolute cirtainty that the 5th Leichte Division orrigionally arrived with a number of PanzerJagar Is with their 47mm L/43 guns, but I am wondering about wheither or when they might have been replaced with Marders in NA.

I'm also positive that Rommell requested better ATGs, ie captured Russian 76.2mm ATGs and therefore; did they actually come on top of either Pz II or T-38 chasis especially for the 21st Panzer Division during 1942? OTOH it could have been the later 75mm Pak 40 mounted Marder IIs &/or IIIs that replaced the PZJgr Is in the Anti-Tank Abteilung of the 21st Panzer Division?

I'm not sure but I don't think that neither the 15th Panzer or the 90th Leichte 'Africa' Divisions had any such equipment but then again I might be wrong on that for the whole of the North African campaigne. While on the subject I might as well ask if anyone knows if the 10th Panzer Division or other German formations brought any Marders with them to Tunisia?

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Marder III 76.2 mm PaK 36®: Used captured Russian Model 36 76.2 mm L/54.8 gun. By May 1942 120 had been built and all but 3 went to North Africa to serve in the 33rd & 39th Panzerjägerabteilung of the 15th Panzer Division.

Marder III Ausf H: Could penetrate 76 mm at 2,300 meters. Deployed in Russia, Tunisia, and Italy with Panzerjäger units of the Luftwaffe, SS, and Wehrmacht.

From WWII Vehicles

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Both Marder IIs and IIIs found their way into the Desert, where the 76.2 version of the III made the German supply situation just that much more complicated.

The Russian 76.2 also was mounted on a Buessing-NAG 5-ton halftrack in two prototypes made specifically for the desert. The muzzle brake was removed from the gun, and a light armor shield provided for the crew.

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On a somewhat related note, I was reading up on the StuGs and StuHs from the website I posted above, and was surprised to see that several StuG Ausf A models fought at Gazala and Tobruk. All this time I was under the impression that the only StuGs to have seen service in NA were the 3 Ausf D's issued to the Sonderverband.

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Google throws this up. It's a gaming website, so can't be accurate. ;)

Assault Guns

Assault guns were extremely rare in Africa. The only two (the third was dropped into Athen harbour while loading!) StuG D assault guns to serve in the desert were with 288 zbV Afrika infantry regiment in 90. leichte Afrikadivision. These were lost at Gazala and El Alamein. Later in Tunisia 90. leichte and 10. Panzer divisions both received a battery of long-barrelled StuG F assault guns.

Battlefront Article

All the best

Andreas

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Originally posted by Michael Emrys:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by jbertles:

Both Marder IIs and IIIs found their way into the Desert, where the 76.2 version of the III made the German supply situation just that much more complicated.

I thought they were rechambered to take the German 75mm round.

:confused:

Michael </font>

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Originally posted by John Kettler:

Claus B,

If you're the same one I'm thinking of from my Panzer Elite days, why not put your site link in a sig? I'm sure many here would be interested.

I've never played Panzer Elite, so perhaps not. I used to have a site running ("On Armour"), but that has been down for years.

I was just checking something in an old thread here and saw Michaels post on the 7,62cm gun and thought I'd chip in smile.gif

Claus B

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Originally posted by John Kettler:

Claus B,

Yes, that was the one. We PE types used it in tweaking the penetration model for the game.

Regards,

John Kettler

So that would be the collection of penetration data, you were looking at?

I worked a bit with David Honner back then and he incorporated some of my data on his "Gun vs Armour" site. That died, but there is a mirror here: http://gva.freeweb.hu/

Claus B

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