From the very beginning of the North African campaign of the Wehrmacht, complaints began to come from the soldiers-artillerymen. The soldiers were dissatisfied with the natural conditions of the theater of military operations. Often they had to fight on the sandy plains. For tanks and self-propelled guns, it was not scary. But for the towed guns, the sandy fields were a real problem. Cannons and wheeled howitzers had insufficient maneuverability, because of which the banal transfer of the battery sometimes turned into a serious and difficult operation.
Until a certain time, the command did not pay attention to this problem. Then the situation changed, which in 1942 led to the appearance of an interesting armored vehicle. In May 1942, the military-political leadership of Nazi Germany demanded the creation of a new self-propelled gun mount with a 150 mm gun. The purpose of the order was to provide the Africa corps with a self-propelled gun capable of working normally in the difficult conditions of the northern part of the Black Continent. Soon they decided on the chassis, weapons and contractors for the project.
The French armored personnel carrier Lorraine 37L was taken as the basis for the new self-propelled gun. Before the occupation of France, more than six hundred of these light armored vehicles were produced, about half of which fell into the hands of the Germans. The Lorraine armored personnel carrier was equipped with a 70 horsepower Dale Haye 103 TT gasoline engine. With a combat weight of the original vehicle of 5.2 tons, this engine provided a tolerable power density, although not particularly high running performance. So, the maximum speed on the highway did not even reach 40 kilometers per hour. The range of the French armored personnel carrier was also small - 130-140 kilometers. The armored hull of the Lorraine 37L did not provide a high level of protection. The front plate is 16 millimeters thick and the sides are nine each can only be considered bulletproof armor.
May 1940 Broken column of French armored vehicles. In the foreground is the Lorraine 38L armored personnel carrier, on the right in the ditch its trailer
Obviously, the Lorraine armored personnel carrier could only perform auxiliary functions. An alternative to them could be the use as a weapon designed for firing from closed positions. In fact, the weak protection of the Lorraine 37L undercarriage was the reason that they decided to equip the new self-propelled gun with a howitzer-type weapon. The 15 cm schwere Feldhaubitze 1913 (15 cm heavy field howitzer of the 1913 model) or, for short, 15 cm sFH 13 managed to fight back in the First World War. After its completion, part of the 15 cm sFH 13 howitzers were transferred to the Netherlands and Belgium as reparations. Nevertheless, several hundred guns remained with Germany. Until 1933, they were carefully hidden. With the coming to power of Hitler, the development of a new howitzer of the same caliber began, and the 15 cm sFH 13 itself was sent to warehouses. The howitzer had a barrel with a length of 14 calibers, which, in combination with a large caliber, made it possible to fire at a distance of up to 8600 meters. The gun guidance system installed on the native carriage provided a barrel declination of up to -4 ° and an elevation of up to + 45 °. In addition, there was the possibility of horizontal guidance within a sector with a width of nine degrees. The reason for choosing this particular howitzer was the large number of copies preserved in warehouses. It was considered inexpedient to send them to the Eastern Front, therefore they were used to create an experimental combat self-propelled gun.
Battery sFH 13 howitzers at the Battle of Arras in 1917
Alkett was instructed to develop an armored cabin for the new self-propelled guns and the entire technology for the production of the machine. An armored wheelhouse without a roof was installed on the Lorraine 37L cargo platform. It was assembled from rectilinear rolled armor panels 10 mm thick (forehead and gun shield), 9 mm (sides) and 7 mm (stern). When developing an armored jacket, a lot of things had to be taken into account. Its minimum size was limited by the length of the howitzer's recoil. The maximum, in turn, influenced the total mass of the self-propelled gun and its centering. As a result, a metal box was assembled, the rear of which extended beyond the rear of the chassis. It was not possible to combine the technical limitations and convenience of the three crewmen in any other way. Despite all the efforts of the Alkett designers, the ammunition load was seriously "damaged". Only eight shells were placed in the SPG's wheelhouse. The rest was supposed to be transported by auxiliary vehicles. The Lorraine chassis was equipped with more than just a wheelhouse and a gun. On the roof of the undercarriage, in front of the wheelhouse, a support for the barrel was installed, on which it was lowered in the stowed position. The consequence of the installation of the support was the inability to lower the barrel below the horizontal position. In addition, the combat mass of the self-propelled gun, which had grown to eight and a half tons, did not provide effective damping of the recoil of the shot. Because of this, a special folding stop had to be installed at the rear of the chassis. Before firing, the crew lowered it and rested it on the ground. This feature of firing led to the fact that the self-propelled gun with a 150-mm howitzer, despite the ability to aim the gun, could not fire on the move.
The German plant Alkett quickly coped with the task and sent three dozen cabinets with howitzers ordered by the Wehrmacht to Paris. There they were installed on the Lorraine 37L chassis. In July 42, all 30 self-propelled guns, designated 15 cm sFH 13/1 (Sf) auf Geschuetzwagen Lorraine Schlepper (f) or SdKfz 135/1, were sent to Africa. A month later, Rommel's corps received seven more new SPGs. On the front, SdKfz 135/1 showed all the ambiguity of the project. The fact is that the good firepower of the 150-mm howitzer was fully compensated for by the low speed, weak protection and low weight of the self-propelled gun. For example, as a result of the "rebound" of the ACS due to recoil, the tracks of the vehicle or its suspension were often damaged. Nevertheless, the SdKfz 135/1 self-propelled guns were considered more successful than not. In connection with this, in the following months, several more batches of self-propelled howitzers were collected. A total of 94 such machines were made.
Sd. Kfz. 135/1 French Lorraine 37L. 15 cm sFH 13/1 auf Lorraine Schlepper (f)
Heavy German 15-cm self-propelled gun Sd Kfz 135/1 based on the French Laurent tractor, captured by the allies in North Africa. Time taken: March 27, 1943
During the North African campaign, the 15 cm sFH 13/1 (Sf) auf Geschuetzwagen Lorraine Schlepper (f) self-propelled guns served as part of the 21st Panzer Division, in its armored artillery battalion. By the nature of the use of howitzers, one can imagine the features of the combat work of self-propelled guns. In addition, the SdKfz 135/1 did not become famous due to the small number of copies produced. All the months remaining before the defeat of Germany in Africa, the artillerymen of the 21st Panzer Division were engaged in entering a given area, firing at the enemy "like howitzer" and going home. Some of the self-propelled guns were destroyed by aircraft and tanks of the allies, some went to the British as trophies. Those SdKfz 135/1 self-propelled guns that did not make it to Africa were later used by the Germans for defense in Normandy. During the Allied offensive, most of the remaining self-propelled guns were destroyed, and the rest suffered the fate of trophies. There were no remarkable cases in the combat biography of the SdKfz 135/1, so this SPG is better known not for victories, but for its interesting appearance with a characteristic "box" of an armored cabin.
Abandoned SdKfz 135-1 near El Alamein 1942
