The StuG III

I thought I would make a topic on this tank, as it is not often discussed. This is a German AFV that does not get as much attention as the big cats. It was not large, intimidating, or especially good looking - but it was a great machine, and perfectly suited to the German needs of the time. From autumn 1942 on it was fitted with the great 75 mm L/48 , which was adequate to counter the most numerous enemy tanks untill the last days of the war.

It had all the well-known pros of assault guns/turretless tank destroyers. For such a lightweight, cheap, and reliable vehicle, it had a fantastic gun and armor package, coupled with a low profile.

 

A point of interest: The Germans usually abbreviated i Stu.-Gesch. III in corrospondance and reports. I've only seen the abbreviation StuG used in official documents in regards to an auxillary vehicle to the Sturmgeschütze, but not the Sturmgeschütze themself.

 

Point duly noted... anybody know what the soldiers referred it as? Full name, just "StuG", or official title?

 

It's my favorite German AFV of WW2.

 

My immediate guess would be 'Sturmgeschütz'

 

Actually in my opinion one of the most unappreciated tanks in the German arsenal. Brings me to my first point, tank or assaultgun?

 

Assault gun/tank destroyer/self propelled gun. the PzKfWg. III and IV are tanks in the strict sense of the word.

 

It is my favourite German vehicle too, actually. In my opinion, while the StuG III does not have the best stats in any particular field, it has by far the best average of all different factors of any armoured fighting vehicle of the war. One of the only vehicles that managed to mate a powerful gun and decent armour with small size, good speed and reliability, and an increase in maintainability as the war progressed (the Panzer III's parts were gradually standardized during the war). In addition it was crew-friendly and allowed vast ammunition storage despite its size and low profile.

Another plus for the late versions was the remote-controlled external MG, but it was a pretty rare extra.

 

How would you guys rate it against the Hetzer?

The latter is lighter if I am not very much mistaken, has sloped armor, and carries the same gun. It has less ammo stowage capacity and crewspace, though. I would rate the Sturmgeschütz as a better allround vehicle.

 

I beleive the crews hater the hetzer as it's interior was awful

FNG

 

I seen a video of the Hetzer and the inside seemed pretty cramped.

 

the hetzer was a pretty good tank destroyer but it had it's flaws.\
1. frontal armour was good but the side and rear armor was to thin and could be easily pierced

2. the gun was located to the right of the vehicle as was most of the vehicles ammo. the loader , in the process of reloading the gun , had to lean over the gun to get to the ammo and to load the gun. because the gun was designed for a tank wit the loader on the right side of the gun insted of the left. all of this made a quick reload nearly impossible.

3 Visibility for the crew and commander was poor at best. . because of the commanders hatch being at the sloped rear of the vehicle he had to look over the top of the vehicle which in effect limited his field of sight.
The crew had it even worse with the only means of looking outside where the drivers vision slits and the gunners scope.

 

The german infantery's nickname for the STUG was : Geschnauze
Which means in english : horse nose. I've you like i'll explain why they called it that but's it's a pretty long story

 

Please do!

 

pffffffffffff............oke

But first i have to rectify something : geschnauze doesn't mean horse nose but horse drawn


When it was decided to implement the stug in the army , They had to decide who was going to crew to stug ( infantry , artillery or cavalry ( panzer )).
Pretty early into discussion the infantry dropped out ( for obvious reasons )
So it was between the artillery and the cavalry. the artillery said it was a artillery weapon because it didn't have a turret ( like th tanks of the cavalry ) and the cavalry said it was a cavalry weapon because it had tracks.
Somewhere in the middle of this heated discussion a old artillery general (who hadn't been paying attention to the whole discussion , some even say has was sleeping ) suddenly stood up and asked the other officers why this new weapon couldn't be horse - drawn ( probably he was thinking that they were talking about some new ( artillery ) gun )
Everybody in the room fell silent. quickly the other artillery officers brought the general up to speed. After been brought up to speed , the general liked the idea of the stug so much ( and probably saw a great opportunity for his artillery men to rake in some serious medals ( which they did through out the war. )) that he overruled everybody in the room .
And so it was decide that the artillery would crew the Stug.
The whole story leaked and was soon known through out the army.
After that the stug was nicknamed the "Geschnauze " ( the Horse-Drawn )

 

Nice story, Nashorn, but "Geschnauze" doesn't mean anything at all. "Schnauze" is indeed German, but it means "mouth" (of an animal).

 

oke ????
could be the book is wrong.
:evil: :evil: :evil:
but i can't look it up. i'm not at home right now
Won't be for a another 4 months .

but geschnauze was the nickname for the stug. I know that for a fact.
the story is correct to , you only have to leave the word "geschnauze" out of it :lol: :lol: :lol:
Probably horse drawn ( can't come up with the german word for it ) would be a second nickname for the stug because the story i wrote , i encounterd the same story multiple books from different writers

 

I thought you were just kidding, actually, but you got it from a book?

That author definitely didn't bother to check a German dictionary!

 

indeed. But the story , as far as i know , is 100 percent correct

 

You have to translate the whole word if not that you might get mistakes. For example pomme de terre translated means apple of earth but its really apple.