Sturmgeschütz is a German word for "assault gun", usually abbreviated StuG. The vehicle was a leading weapon of the Sturmartillerie, a branch of the German artillery tasked with close fire support of infantry in infantry, panzer, and panzergrenadier units. StuGs were very successful in their intended support role and destroyed, among others, many bunkers, pillboxes and other defenses. Destruction of enemy tanks eventually became its main priority as the Wehrmacht (German Defense Force) in the Soviet Union did not have sufficient gun power in many of its 1941–42 era tanks (Czech panzer 38(t), Panzer III) to take on the increased numbers of Soviet T-34 and KV-1 tanks. It is estimated that by 1944 StuG battalions had destroyed 20,000 enemy tanks, mostly T-34s.
Contents |
After defeat in World War I, German military commanders required mobile armored artillery units able to provide close infantry support. Colonel Erich von Manstein recommended the concept of infantry Begleitbatterien (escort batteries) to General Beck, Chief of the General Staff in 1935. He described how it should not be used as one uses a tank, rather as a unit directly involved with infantry advance to destroy fortified objectives through direct fire.[1] Its primary mission is to strike and destroy enemy machine gun nests and tanks and then move out before it can become a target for enemy tanks.
Daimler-Benz AG was given the order to develop and produce just such a weapon on June 15, 1936. They created five prototypes, based on the chassis of the Panzer III, which were not useful for combat operations but did prove valuable for training.[2]
The first production units, the Sturmgeschütz III Ausf A, arrived in 1940 mounted with the 75 mm StuK 37L/24 gun and increased frontal hull armor (from 30 mm to 50 mm).[2] Most assault guns were mounted on the chassis of a Panzer III or Panzer IV, with the resultant model being called either a StuG III or StuG IV respectively.
The StuG is not generally considered to be a true tank because it lacks a turret. The gun was mounted directly in the hull, in a casemate-style fashion, with as low a profile as was possible to reduce vehicle height, and had a limited lateral traverse of a few degrees in either direction. Thus, the entire vehicle had to be turned in order to acquire targets. Omitting the turret made production much simpler and less costly, enabling greater numbers to be built. The lower vehicle height was meant to give a "StuG" designated vehicle a significantly shorter vertical profile as compared to contemporary tanks, making the StuG more difficult to hit and easier to protect in hull defilade.
In 1942 and 1943, the StuG was one of the most effective tracked vehicles of World War II in terms of opposition vehicles destroyed, and over 10,000 of them were eventually produced. The Germans were so excited by the initial StuG success that they turned to folly by producing the near useless Elefant "StuG" on obsolescent Porsche tank hulls (the Porsche had been beaten out by the Henschel Tiger I, using the same Krupp-designed turret as the Porsche hull design, for heavy tank production). These Elefants proved completely unwieldy and did not even have the regular StuG III and IV advantage of a low profile.
By late 1943, improved Allied tanks and tank destroyers (US) with improved guns, rotating turrets, and superior mobility (brought on not only by technology, but also improved tactics) forced the StuG III and IVs into the corner of being primarily an ambush weapon. While the ambush tactic still took a steady, but nonetheless sustainable toll of opposition tanks, improved air ground coordination by Allied forces—due to near complete air superiority—led to elevated StuG losses.
In a defensive position, many Soviet T-34/85 tanks, US Sherman, M10 and M18 Tank destroyers and British Cromwell tanks occasionally "impaled" themselves on StuGs while engaging in offensive tactics. Eventually it was the StuGs that were being ambushed, both by aircraft and tanks/tank destroyers that had been warned by aircraft. The inability to traverse the gun became an acute weakness.
The StuGs quickly became more of a liability in terms of resource utilization than an asset as the Germans had initially increased StuG production to replace standard tank losses. Despite this they continued to be used as the German losses of all types of armored vehicles now exceeded production. Having long been used not as originally intended, the StuGs increasingly proved a poor substitute for conventional tanks except in a very narrow envelope that became even smaller as the war progressed. By 1944, Germany was in a downward spiraling arms race with the Allies.
The Red Army suffered greatly from the StuGs, more due to crude (but effective) tactics than StuG technical superiority. In response, the Soviets produced their own form of StuGs based on the T-34 tank, the SU-85. These Soviet "StuGs", for a brief time, helped supplement T-34 tanks. T-34s were still armed with 76 mm guns in 1943-1944, a period in which the Germans had a distinct edge in gun power over 76 mm T-34s and KV-1s, and SU-85s were used very aggressively as they were hard to see on the steppe. In 1944 the SU-85 was quickly made obsolete by the arrival of the new T-34/85, but the Soviets, still stung by StuGs and by hard-hitting German tanks, created the SU-100 and ISU-152 which offered more firepower to deal with heavier German tanks.
A number of captured StuGs were refurbished in the Soviet Union and given to Syria, along with Panzer IVs, which used them briefly against Israel. Both a captured Panzer IV and a StuG III are on display in the Armor Museum in Israel. The Swedes attempted to carry on the StuG concept with their radical "S" tank, but it proved a design dead end, although it served the Swedes well in peacetime.