"Combat buses". German half-track armored personnel carrier Sd. Kfz. 251 is the most recognizable armored personnel carrier of World War II, although more American M3 half-track armored personnel carriers were produced during the war years. The Sd. Kfz combat vehicle created by German designers. 251 throughout the Second World War was the main armored personnel carrier of the Wehrmacht, taking part in all significant battles. We can say that it was the Wehrmacht that was the first in the world to adopt a specialized armored personnel carrier and learned how to use it effectively. Already during the war, the Allies were forced to start creating such armored vehicles, having adopted the tactics of using it from the Germans.
The history of the German half-track armored personnel carrier Sd. Kfz. 251 also entered under the name "Hanomag", after the name of the manufacturing company: the Hanomag engineering plant from Hanover. In total, over the years of World War II, Germany managed to produce more than 15 thousand of such armored personnel carriers in various versions. The successful chassis was actively used to create various combat vehicles, including ambulances, artillery reconnaissance vehicles, mobile command posts, and also as a carrier of various weapons: from anti-aircraft automatic cannons to 75-mm anti-tank guns. At the same time, the main purpose of the "Ganomag" armored personnel carrier throughout the war was the transportation of motorized infantry (panzergrenadiers). The armored personnel carriers performed especially well on the Eastern Front and in North Africa, since, thanks to the half-track propulsion unit, they had good cross-country maneuverability and could operate in off-road conditions.
From artillery tractor to armored personnel carrier
The appearance in the German army of a full-fledged armored personnel carrier by the beginning of World War II is inextricably linked with the appearance in Germany of half-track artillery tractors. They worked on the creation of half-track vehicles in Germany during the First World War. Work in this direction led to the fact that in the 1930s Germany firmly held the palm in the production of vehicles for various purposes on wheel-caterpillar tracks. This industrial development was ideally suited to the doctrine of the German military, who understood that a future war would be a war of machines and deep offensive operations. Such a strategy required the availability of specialized transport, which became numerous wheeled-tracked transporters, which ensured greater mobility of the Wehrmacht artillery. It was the wheeled-tracked tractors that became the shadow trump card of the German army in the first half of World War II, providing the Nazi troops with a serious advantage over the armies of the opposing states.
German-made semi-tracked tractors were also an ideal chassis for the creation of various specialized equipment, including vehicles such as ARVs, which could even be used to evacuate tanks from the battlefield. Sooner or later, the idea of creating an armored personnel carrier on a similar chassis was to be born in the heads of the German military, it was only a matter of time. An armored personnel carrier on a wheeled-tracked chassis with an armored body was much preferable to conventional wheeled trucks, which in a modern war were an extremely unreliable vehicle, they did not provide the crew with protection from enemy fire, did not have weapons, differed in insufficient cross-country maneuverability and could be withdrawn out of action even with small arms fire.
Already in 1933, the German company Hansa-Lloyd-Goliath developed a lightweight 3-ton half-track artillery tractor. Serial production of the machine under the designation HLkl 5 began in 1936. At the same time, the company could not cope with the mass production of such equipment and could not satisfy the ever-growing demands of the Wehrmacht; by the end of the year, Hansa-Lloyd-Goliath had produced 505 such artillery tractors. In 1938 this company changed its owner and was renamed Borgward. In the same time period, the company began assembling the modernized 3-ton artillery tractors HLkl 6, equipped with a new 90 hp Maybach HL38 engine. This time, soberly assessing the production capabilities of the Bogvard company, the leadership of the armed forces immediately chose the second manufacturer of these tractors - the Hanomag company from Hanover. The latter presented its version of the Hkl 6 half-track tractor, which practically did not differ from the model of the Bogvard company.
This artillery tractor was adopted by the Wehrmacht under the designation Sd. Kfz. 11 is an abbreviation for Sonderkraftfahrzeug 11, where “Sonderkraftfahrzeug” translates as “special purpose vehicle” and Arabic numerals indicate the model of the car. Half-track artillery tractor Sd. Kfz. 11 was mass-produced in Germany from 1938 to 1945, during which time more than 9 thousand machines of this type were assembled. The tractor could carry up to 8 soldiers, a load of 1550 kg in the back and tow a trailer weighing up to 3 tons. In the Wehrmacht, this half-track transporter was often used as a standard vehicle for towing light 10.5 cm leFH 18 field howitzers.
It was this chassis that became the basis for the creation of the Sd. Kfz armored personnel carrier. 251 and various special-purpose vehicles based on it. At the same time, the German industry until the end of the war produced more than 15 thousand of such armored personnel carriers in various versions. Serial production of the new armored personnel carrier began in 1939 and did not stop almost until the very end of the war.
Technical features of the Sd. Kfz. 251
The new German armored personnel carrier was a classic vehicle. The engine compartment was located in the front of the hull, followed by the control compartment, combined with the troop compartment (or combat when installing various types of weapons). The crew of the armored personnel carrier consisted of two people: the driver and the vehicle commander, up to 10 infantrymen could freely accommodate in the troop compartment.
The armored hull on the first models was riveted, later it became fully welded. It was assembled from rolled armor plates located at rational angles of inclination. The thickness of the armor ranged from 15 mm at the front of the hull, to 8 mm along the sides and at the rear of the combat vehicle. Additional protection from the sides could be boxes with spare parts and various equipment. The hull was open, the car did not have a roof, in case of bad weather, it was easy to pull a tarpaulin from above. The landing and disembarkation of the assault force was carried out from the stern of the hull, where a double-leaf door was placed. Thus, leaving the combat vehicle, the panzergrenadiers were covered from frontal fire by the body of the combat vehicle. Loopholes for firing in the sides of the corps were not provided, but if necessary, soldiers could fire from personal weapons over the sides. The standard armament of the armored personnel carriers was one, in some cases two single 7, 92-mm MG34 machine guns or later MG42. The front one was installed on the roof of the control compartment and was covered with an armored shield. The rear machine gun was mounted on a swivel, which was attached to the aft armor plate, this machine gun could be used to fire at air targets.
The chassis of the armored personnel carrier was similar to the Sd. Kfz.11 artillery tractor. The armored personnel carrier received a half-track chassis with a staggered arrangement of road wheels, while the front wheels of the combat vehicle were controllable, and the presence of tracks significantly increased cross-country ability. The armored personnel carrier was controlled by turning the steering wheel of an automobile type. When turning at a small angle (in different sources from 6 to 15 degrees), the turn was carried out only through the use of the front wheels. For a tighter turn, the driver used tracks when one of them was braked, and up to 100 percent of the engine's power was transferred to the other.
The heart of the Sd. Kfz.251 armored vehicle was the Maybach HL 42 TURKM liquid-cooled six-cylinder carburetor engine. This engine with a displacement of just over 4.1 liters provided a maximum power of 100 hp. at 2800 rpm. The engine power was enough to accelerate the armored personnel carrier, the combat weight of which reached 9, 5 tons, to a speed of 53 km / h while driving on the highway. The cruising range on the highway was estimated at 300 km. In addition, a half-track propulsion system in a twin-track with the specified engine provided the car with the ability to climb up to 24 degrees, overcome ditches up to two meters wide and fords up to half a meter without any preparation.
For each armored vehicle, the German industry spent about 6,076 kilograms of steel. At the same time, the cost of the Sd. Kfz.251 / 1 Ausf. C infantry armored personnel carrier was estimated at 22,560 Reichmarks. For comparison, the cost of producing one tank in Hitler's Germany ranged from 80,000 to 300,000 Reichsmarks.
Models and classification of armored personnel carriers "Ganomag"
All German armored personnel carriers Sd Kfz. 251 were serially produced in four main modifications of the Ausf. A, B, C and D and in 23 different specialized versions, which could differ from each other not only in the presence of special equipment, but also in the composition of weapons. The most widespread of all was the Ausf. D, 10,602 such vehicles were produced, and 4,650 armored personnel carriers of the three previous modifications. The most common was the Sd. Kfz.251 / 1 model, which itself was a full-fledged armored personnel carrier designed to transport a full infantry squad (10 people). For example, other variants of the vehicle were designated as Sd. Kfz. 251/3 (communication vehicle, distinguished by the presence of mast, whip or loop antennas and various radio stations) or Sd. Kfz. 251/16, a flamethrower version released in the amount of several hundred with two MG34 machine guns and two 14mm flamethrowers with a flamethrowing range of up to 35 meters.
Armored personnel carriers Sd. Kfz. 251/1 during the offensive at Stalingrad, 1942, photo: waralbum.ru
The first serial Sd. Kfz. 251 entered service with the Wehrmacht units in the summer of 1939, the Polish campaign was the debut for these combat vehicles on the battlefield. The first to receive new equipment was the elite 1st Panzer Division. Already in the second half of 1939, Germany began assembling the Sd. Kfz.251 Ausf. B. The main difference from the Ausf. A modification was the absence of viewing slots for paratroopers in the sides of the hull (on the Ausf. A modification, such slots were covered with armored glass). In addition, the radio antenna moved from the wing of the armored personnel carrier to the side of the fighting compartment. Another notable difference was the appearance of an armored shield, which covered the front single 7, 92 mm MG34 machine gun. The appearance of an armored shield is a generalization of the experience of the real combat use of armored personnel carriers in Poland. Also, the model was distinguished by the appearance of armored air intake covers. This modification of the armored personnel carrier was mass-produced until the end of 1940.
The next mass modification was the Sd. Kfz.251 Ausf. С. Compared to the two previous versions of the armored personnel carrier, the new car boasted a large number of changes that externally remain invisible. All changes were aimed at simplifying the technology for the production of an armored personnel carrier, and the real experience of combat use was also taken into account. A noticeable difference between this modification was the modified front part of the case. A straight monolithic armor plate appeared in front, placed at a rational angle of inclination, such a plate better protected the power compartment of the machine. Separate boxes for transporting spare parts and various military equipment appeared on the wings of the armored personnel carrier, the sapper tools moved further to the stern of the vehicle. Armored personnel carriers of the Ausf. C modification were produced until 1943.
In the same 1943, the last and most massive modification of the Ausf. D. By this time, the production of armored personnel carriers in Nazi Germany had reached its peak. In 1943, the German industry produced 4258 armored personnel carriers, in 1944 - 7785. The main feature of the new Sd. Kfz.251 Ausf. D armored personnel carrier was the changed shape of the hull and sides of the troop compartment. On this model, the spare parts boxes were integrated into the sides of the hull, and the stern got a shape that was easier to manufacture, now it was a single straight part installed at an angle. The main difference of this version was that the body became welded and more technologically advanced, the Germans completely abandoned the use of riveting. On the first three models, the landing sites along the sides of the hull were covered with leatherette, on the Ausf. D modification it was replaced with a simple tarpaulin, there were also options with wooden benches. All technical simplifications of the model were aimed at increasing the production of armored personnel carriers in wartime conditions.
