During preparations for the invasion of Great Britain - Operation Sea Lion - the German command took into account the possibility of a collision with heavy British tanks. First of all, the concern was caused by the Mk IV Churchill tanks, a number of modifications of which were equipped with serious 76 mm cannons. These armored vehicles posed a serious threat to most of the German armored vehicles of the first years of World War II. In addition, the Churchillies had solid armor - up to 100 millimeters on the forehead. To fight such a serious enemy, appropriate equipment was required.
ACS "Sturer Emil" at the test site in Kummersdorf
At the beginning of 1940, similar requirements resulted in work to determine the appearance of a promising anti-tank self-propelled artillery installation. The country's command demanded the creation of two self-propelled guns, armed with 105-mm and 128-mm cannons. Such armament was supposed to ensure the guaranteed defeat of all existing tanks in service with European countries, as well as have a certain groundwork in the direction of the destruction of tanks in the near future. Nevertheless, after a few months it was decided that one self-propelled gun was enough. The program of work on the topic of the 128-mm self-propelled gun was closed, and as a result of the second program, the Dicker Max self-propelled gun was created. In the first months of the next 1941, the German command stopped actively preparing for war with Great Britain. The current target was the Soviet Union. A few days before the attack, both produced experienced self-propelled guns Dicker Max went to the troops for trial operation. The project of a self-propelled gun with a 128-mm cannon was no longer mentioned.
But then the day came for the start of Operation Barbarossa. Wehrmacht tanks went on the offensive and met with very uncomfortable opponents. These were Soviet T-34 and KV tanks. The armament and protection of the German PzKpfw III and PzKpfw IV tanks made it possible to fight medium T-34s. But against heavy KVs with appropriate armor, their guns were powerless. It was necessary to involve aviation and anti-aircraft gunners with their 88-mm FlaK 18 guns. In addition, self-propelled guns with 105-mm guns showed their combat effectiveness. It was necessary to urgently strengthen the self-propelled anti-tank artillery.
It was then that the almost forgotten developments on the self-propelled guns with a 128 mm cannon came in handy. Just a few weeks after the start of the war, Rheinmetall and Henschel were tasked with developing a full-fledged self-propelled gun. It should be noted that the development of the Dicker Max was relatively simple - the gun of the required caliber was installed on the almost unchanged chassis of the PzKpfw IV tank. The situation with the new ACS was worse. First of all, the weight of the gun affected. The PaK 40 cannon weighed over seven tons. Not every German-made armored chassis could pull such a "load", not to mention recoil. I had to go back to old projects again. The experimental tank VK3001 (H), which at one time could become the main medium tank in Germany, was made the basis for the new self-propelled gun.
The suspension of the VK3001 (H) chassis calmly withstood the design loads when firing from a 128 mm cannon. However, the experimental tank had insufficient dimensions. An armored wheelhouse with a gun could be installed on it, but in this case there was almost no room for the crew. There was no question of any ergonomics, even bearable. I had to urgently lengthen the original chassis. For this, the stern of the car was increased and, as a result, the transmission was rearranged. The engine was left unchanged - Maybach HL116 with 300 hp. The chassis had to include two additional road wheels on each side. In view of the Knipkamp system used on the VK3001 (H) tank, this did not give a particularly large gain in the length of the supporting surface, although it helped to correct the centering of the entire self-propelled gun.
The first (they, as it turns out, the last) copies of the 128-mm self-propelled gun, which received the official name 12, 8 cm PaK 40 L / 61 Henschel Selbstfahrlafette auf VK3001 (H) and the unofficial nickname Sturer Emil ("Stubborn Emil"), it was planned to remodel from the manufactured chassis of the VK3001 (H) tank. Therefore, the self-propelled gun's booking remained the same: the forehead and sides of the hull were 50 and 30 millimeters thick, respectively. In the rear of the hull, right on its upper plate, an armored wheelhouse was mounted. It was assembled from steel sheets of the same thickness as the hull sheets - 50 and 30 mm. The front panels of the hull and deckhouse were only five centimeters thick. For this reason, at the front, the Stubborn Emil self-propelled guns received additional protection in the form of track sections suspended on the foreheads of the hull and wheelhouse. For a number of reasons, it was not possible to assess the effectiveness of such an impromptu booking.
A 128-mm PaK 40 cannon with a barrel length of 61 caliber was installed along the central axis of the vehicle. The system of its mounts allowed for horizontal guidance within seven degrees from the axis. The vertical guidance sector, in turn, was much larger - from -15 ° to + 10 °. This discrepancy in the vertical guidance angles had a simple and understandable basis. Raising the barrel of the gun above ten degrees was not allowed by its large breech, which rested against the floor of the fighting compartment. As for the lowering of the barrel, it was limited only by the front of the machine body and expediency. The cannon's ammunition load was 18 rounds. It is sometimes mentioned that, due to the long range of confident destruction of most Soviet tanks, the Sturer Emil could work in tandem with a truck carrying shells. However, it is unlikely that such a "tactical scheme" was used in practice - unlike the somehow armored self-propelled guns, the truck with ammunition is not protected in any way and is a very attractive target.
The crew of the 128-mm self-propelled gun consisted of five people: a driver mechanic, a commander, a gunner and two loaders. Four of them had jobs in the wheelhouse, so an increase in the size of the chassis was more than necessary. In case of unforeseen circumstances, as well as to deal with enemy infantry, the crew had at their disposal an MG 34 machine gun, several MP 38/40 submachine guns and grenades.
Six VK3001 (H) tank chassis stood idle at the Henschel plant. Two of them became platforms for the manufacture of new self-propelled guns. So even with some major body redesigns, it didn't take long to build the Sturer Emil. The first copy was ready by the fall of 1941, and the second had to wait until the spring of next year. First of all, the two prototypes went to the test site. There they showed good fire performance. However, the large caliber and excellent armor penetration rates were offset by the low engine power and the resulting lack of mobility. Even on the highway, the Stubborn Emilies, as if to justify their nickname, did not accelerate faster than twenty kilometers per hour.
After field tests, both Sturer Emil self-propelled guns were sent to the front to be tested in real combat conditions. The fighters of the 521th battalion of anti-tank self-propelled guns became the test artillerymen. Almost immediately after the arrival of the ACS, they received another nickname, this time "personal". The soldiers nicknamed them "Max" and "Moritz" after two hooligan friends from a poem by Wilhelm Bush. Probably, the reason for the emergence of such nicknames were constant breakdowns, which annoyed both "Stubborn Emils". However, these self-propelled guns ruined the lives of not only mechanics. The 128-mm gun really reliably hit all Soviet tanks, including heavy ones. The only difference was in the range of the shot. According to reports, "Max" and "Moritz" destroyed at least 35-40 Soviet tanks.
In V. Bush's poem, the fate of the hooligans was not at all rosy: they were ground at a mill and fed to the ducks, which no one was upset about. With the self-propelled "Max" and "Moritz" something similar happened, but adjusted for the peculiarities of the war. One of the self-propelled guns was destroyed by the Red Army in mid-1942. The second reached Stalingrad, where it became a trophy for Soviet soldiers. Since 1943, one of the "Stubborn Emiles" has participated in exhibitions of captured German equipment. On the barrel of his cannon, 22 white rings were counted - according to the number of destroyed armored vehicles. One can imagine the reaction of the Red Army to a trophy with such a combat history.
Perhaps the soldiers of the Red Army, and especially the tankers, would only be delighted to know the further fate of the project 12, 8 cm PaK 40 L / 61 Henschel Selbstfahrlafette auf VK3001 (H). A weak engine, overweight design, small ammunition, as well as insufficient gun aiming angles caused doubts about the feasibility of serial production of the ACS. In addition, it was already 42 years in the yard - it was necessary to decide the fate of the heavy tank PzKpfw VI Tiger. Since the company "Henschel" could not simultaneously assemble both a tank and a self-propelled gun, its leadership, together with the command of the Wehrmacht, decided to begin mass production of the "Tiger". The Sturer Emil project was closed and no longer resumed, but this did not cancel the need for an anti-tank self-propelled gun.
