Strange StuG

[Shadow 1st Hussars]

Last night the History channel(CDN) was showing a documentary with colour film footage from WWII Germany. In one section they showed a platoon of StuG's from April '45. At first glance I though they were the G model, but as the camera panned around I noticed one of them had an odd looking gun. The gun mantlet was the same trapezoid shape as the G, but the gun was shorter than the long 75mm, but longer than the short 75mm. It looked almost as if someone had cut the long 75mm in half! Does anyone have any info on what this could've been?

[tracer]

sounds like a stug model III3B.

[Shadow 1st Hussars]

Originally posted by tracer:

sounds like a stug model III3B.

The gun was longer than the L/24, and it had the mantlet of the G

[Pzman]

I saw that as well, most likely its the StuH 42 with a 105 mm infantry support gun.

This is the Late Modle StuH 42 in CMBB.

[ December 27, 2002, 01:54 PM: Message edited by: Panzerman ]

[tracer]

cool, always thought that the stug was built more as a tank destroyer, never thought about it being used as a rolling howitzer

[SgtMuhammed]

The Stugs fall into the category of assault guns. They were intended to give infantry units the muscle to take out enemy implacements. It was only later that they began to see action as tank killers, especially after Germany began searching for cheap chassis to mount effective at guns for the Eastern Front.

[tracer]

got this quote from a panzer site I found,

'Anti-tank defence will devolve more and more on the assault guns, since all our other anti-tank weapons are becoming increasingly ineffective against the new enemy equipment. All divisions on the main battlefronts, therefore, need to be supplied with a certain complement of these weapons; the secondary fronts will have to make do with a higher command reserve of assault guns. In order to economise on personnel and material, a gradual amalgamation of the assault gun battalions and tank destroyer battalions is necessary.'

General Heinz Guderian, in his book Panzer Leade

[tracer]

Of the short-barreled StuG III Ausf. B, C, D and E, 320, 50, 150 and 272 were made, respectively. The StuG III was the most common Sturmgeschütz design, being little more than a tank with a fixed gun of limited traverse instead of a turret. It was slower and less maneuverable than a tank but was suited particularly well for attacking enemy infantry, heavy weapons and main points of restistance. The vehicle was found to be easier to use from concealed positions because of its lower silhouette. It was less complex, less expensive to build and had almost the same performance as a tank, and for this reason the manufacture of assault guns increased until more were being made than tanks. For the hard-fighting infantry, the Sturmgeschütz were often the last rescue in an emergency while confronting increasing numbers of enemy units. (Got this off the same site)http://www.militarygameronline.com/Panzer/panzerpage.html

[Shadow 1st Hussars]

Originally posted by Panzerman:

I saw that as well, most likely its the StuH 42 with a 105 mm infantry support gun.

This is the Late Modle StuH 42 in CMBB.

Ah, I had totally forgotten about the StuH . Strange, I always thought it had a muzzle brake.

[Pzman]

Maybe that's because in CMBO it did, I don't think it ever had one though.

[Nolloff]

No, it did. Actually for me this is the first time i´ve seen it without muzzle brake ..

Cheers

Nolloff

See here...

Achtung Panzer Sturmgeschütze

Jagdtiger.de - StuH 42

[ December 27, 2002, 07:03 PM: Message edited by: Nolloff ]

[The_Fur]

I just bumped into this whilst reading achtung panzer:

Finns modified their Stugs during the battles of 1944. Modifications included the addition of three wooden logs to both sides of the superstructure, armor around the gun mantlet was reinforced with concrete, tracks were mounted on the lower front hull and both sides of the hull along with stowage bins. The original German MG-34 machine gun was replaced with Soviet 7.62mm DT machine gun, which was in Finnish opinion more reliable.

yet the finnish stugsIII's in CMBB have no MG's at all (IIRC), is that an error or was there a reason for excluding the MG?

[tracer]

Hey Mike T has been working on a mod like that, and he sent me some of the BMPs and wanted me to help, it's hard modding logs on a stug

[SaTyR]

Originally posted by The_Fur:

I just bumped into this whilst reading achtung panzer:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Finns modified their Stugs during the battles of 1944. Modifications included the addition of three wooden logs to both sides of the superstructure, armor around the gun mantlet was reinforced with concrete, tracks were mounted on the lower front hull and both sides of the hull along with stowage bins. The original German MG-34 machine gun was replaced with Soviet 7.62mm DT machine gun, which was in Finnish opinion more reliable.

yet the finnish stugsIII's in CMBB have no MG's at all (IIRC), is that an error or was there a reason for excluding the MG?</font>

[Hans]

Interesting quote from the Stug site about adding concrete as additional armour!

[Pzman]

Originally posted by Nolloff:

No, it did. Actually for me this is the first time i´ve seen it without muzzle brake ..

Cheers

Nolloff

See here...

Achtung Panzer Sturmgeschütze

Jagdtiger.de - StuH 42

I have done some checking and it seems that most late model StuH42s didn't have them, where as the early and mid models do. This also occurs in CM:BB if you look at the models.