After the development of a number of improvised and not always successful light tank destroyers, German designers in 1943 managed to develop a very successful machine that combined a low silhouette and light weight, fairly strong armor and effective weapons. The new tank destroyer, named Hetzer (German gamekeeper), was created by the Henschel company. The vehicle was developed on the basis of the light Czech TNHP tank, known as the Pz. Kpfw.38 (t) or "Prague".
Combat practice dictated to the Germans the need to develop a single anti-tank vehicle instead of the accumulated various self-propelled guns with an infinite number of modifications. The variety of the fleet of self-propelled guns more and more often left the Germans sideways: confusion arose in the tactical use of various vehicles, which was aggravated by constant difficulties with the supply of spare parts and training of tankers. There was a need to unify the existing ACS.
Heinz Guderian was the first to put forward such an idea in March 1943. After that, the Panzerjager program was launched. The new tank destroyer was supposed to be as easy to manufacture as possible, cheap, mobile, efficient and suitable for mass production. At this time, the tank building of Germany was chronically unable to cope with the production of armored vehicles for the needs of the Wehrmacht. That is why, in order not to slow down the production of German tanks, it was decided to produce an SPG based on the light Czech PzKpfw 38 (t) tank. The medium tank "Panther" was adopted as the standard of manufacturability. For the same man-hours that were needed to assemble 1 "Panther", it was necessary to assemble 3 new machines with comparable firepower.
The bold idea of creating a fairly powerful tank destroyer based on the Pzkpfw 38 (t) tank did not arouse much enthusiasm among the developers. Perhaps this idea would have remained gathering dust on the shelves if the Allied aviation had not intervened in the matter. On November 26, allied aviation dropped 1,424 tons of bombs on Berlin. This air raid seriously damaged the workshops of the Alket company, which was engaged in the production of assault guns. At the same time, the airstrike shook off the dust from the project of a new self-propelled gun, and the German command began to look for alternative production facilities that could make up for the staggering production of the StuG III. On December 6, 1943, OKN reported to Hitler that the Czech company VMM would not be able to produce a 24-ton StuG, but was able to master the production of a light tank destroyer.
The new ACS was created with amazing speed. Already on December 17, 1943, the drawings were shown to Hitler, which he approved. Against the backdrop of the flourishing gigantomania in German tank building, the Fuhrer would have preferred a heavier vehicle more willingly, but he had no choice.
On January 24, 1944, a wooden mock-up of the self-propelled guns was made, and on January 26, it was demonstrated to the Department of Armaments of the Ground Forces. The military liked the project, and by March 3 vehicles were to be produced in metal for military trials. On January 28, 1944, Hitler pointed out the importance of the early launch into the series of the Hetzer self-propelled guns, as the most important vehicle for the Wehrmacht in 1944.
Hetzer was ready for release in less than four months. A number of pre-production tests of the vehicle were simply ignored, since on the one hand, the creators were running out of time, on the other, the self-propelled gun base - the Pzkpfw 38 (t) tank was already well known to the military. By January 18, 1944, it was determined that by March 1945, the production of self-propelled guns should reach 1,000 units per month. By German standards, these were very impressive figures; 2 enterprises were to be responsible for the production of Hetzer: BMM and Skoda.
Description of construction
The new tank destroyer had a low hull with rational slopes of the frontal and upper side armor plates. The vehicle received a 75 mm gun with a barrel length of 48 calibers. The gun was covered with a cast armored mask known as the "pig's snout". On the roof of the hull was a 7, 92-mm machine gun with shield cover. The engine was located at the rear of the car, the drive wheels and transmission were at the front. The chassis consisted of 4 rollers. Some of the machines were made in the form of self-propelled flamethrowers, in this case the flamethrower was installed instead of the weapon. In total, from 1944 until the end of the war, about 2,600 Hetzer self-propelled guns were manufactured, which were used in the anti-tank divisions of the Wehrmacht's motorized and infantry divisions.
In the ACS, many fundamentally new technical and design solutions were implemented, although the designers tried to achieve maximum unification with the Marder III light tank destroyer and the Prague tank. The body of armor plates of a fairly large thickness was made by welding, not bolts. This technology was used for the first time in Czechoslovakia.
Hetzer's welded hull, in addition to the roof of the engine and fighting compartments, was sealed and monolithic. After mastering the welding, the labor intensity of its manufacture in comparison with the riveted method was reduced by almost 2 times. The nose of the self-propelled gun consisted of 2 armor plates 60 mm thick, which were installed at large angles of inclination - 40 degrees lower and 60 degrees upper. Hetzer's sides had 20 mm armor. and were also installed at sufficiently large angles of inclination, well protecting the crew from large fragments, bullets of anti-tank rifles and small-caliber artillery (up to 45 mm).
The layout of the Hetzer was also new, for the first time the driver was located to the left of the longitudinal axis (before the war in Czechoslovakia, a right-hand landing in the tank was adopted). Behind the driver, to the left of the gun, were the gunner and loader, the place of the unit commander was on the right behind the gun guard.
For the landing and exit of the crew, 2 hatches were provided. At the same time, the left one was intended for embarkation / disembarkation of the loader, gunner and driver, and the right one was intended for the commander. In order to reduce the cost of the design, serial self-propelled guns were originally equipped with a very small set of observation equipment. The ACS driver had two periscopes (often only one was installed) for viewing the road, the gunner could monitor the terrain only with the help of the Sfl. Zfla , which has a small field of view. The loader could follow the terrain only with the sight of a defensive machine gun, which had the ability to rotate around a vertical axis.
The commander of the self-propelled guns, opening the hatch, could use an external periscope or a stereo tube for observation. In the event that the hatches of the car were closed, the crew could not inspect the surroundings from the starboard and stern, observation of them was possible only with the help of a machine gun sight.
The 75-mm anti-tank gun PaK39 / 2 with a barrel length of 48 calibers was mounted in a narrow embrasure of the frontal hull sheet just to the right of the longitudinal axis of the ACS. The gun pointing angles to the right and left did not coincide (11 degrees to the right and 5 degrees to the left). This was due to the large breech of the gun with the small size of the fighting compartment, as well as the asymmetry of the installation of the gun. For the first time in the history of Czechoslovak and German tank building, it was possible to fit such a large gun into such a modest fighting compartment. This was achieved through the use of a special gimbal frame, which was used instead of the traditional machine tool.
Hetzer was powered by the Praga AE engine, which was a further development of the Swedish Scania-Vabis 1664 engine, which was produced in Czechoslovakia under license. The engine consisted of 6 cylinders, was unpretentious and had good performance characteristics. This engine modification had a 2nd carburetor, with the help of which the speed was raised from 2100 to 2500, and the power from 130 to 160 hp. (later they managed to force it up to 176 hp). On the highway and on good ground, the tank destroyer could reach speeds of up to 40 km / h. The capacity of two fuel tanks was 320 liters, these fuel reserves were enough to overcome 185-195 km.
Initially, the chassis of the ACS contained elements of the PzKpfw 38 (t) tank with the use of reinforced springs, but with the start of mass production, the diameter of the road wheels was raised from 775 to 810 mm. To increase the maneuverability, the track of the tank destroyer was increased from 2,140 mm. up to 2630 mm.
Combat use
It was too late in Germany that they realized that in order to fight the tanks of the allies, they needed not "all-crushing" capricious and expensive-to-manufacture monsters, but small and reliable tank destroyers. The Hetzer tank destroyer has become a masterpiece of German tank building in its own way. An inconspicuous, and most importantly, cheap-to-manufacture machine, managed to inflict tangible damage on the armored units of the Red Army and the allies.
The first Hetzers began to enter combat units in July 1944. The vehicles were distributed among battalions of tank destroyers. According to the state, each battalion was supposed to consist of 45 tank destroyers. The battalion consisted of 3 companies of 14 vehicles, 3 more self-propelled guns were located at the battalion headquarters. In addition to separately created battalions, Hetzers entered service with anti-tank divisions of infantry divisions and units of the SS troops. From the beginning of 1945, even separate anti-tank companies armed with these self-propelled guns began to form in Germany. Individual Hetzer platoons were part of various improvised formations that were created from Volkssturm and sailors. Often the Hetzers replaced the missing Tigers in separate battalions of heavy tanks.
The Hetzer tank destroyers were actively used during the battles for East Prussia and in Pomerania and Silesia, and they were also used by the Germans during the Ardennes offensive. Thanks to the rational angles of inclination of the armor, the very low silhouette, which was borrowed from the Soviet self-propelled guns, this small tank destroyer perfectly fulfilled its role, acting from ambushes and quickly changing position after an attack. At the same time, his gun was inferior to the guns of the Soviet tanks IS-2 and T-34-85, which excluded duels with them at long distances. The Hetzer was an ideal self-propelled gun, but only in close combat, attacking from an ambush.
At the same time, the tankers themselves noted a number of serious shortcomings of the vehicle. The former commander of Hetzer, Armin Zons, does not at all consider Hetzer an outstanding tank destroyer of the past war. According to him, the main advantage of the ACS was that with its appearance the infantry units of the Wehrmacht began to feel more confident. A good gun and the entire design of the self-propelled gun spoiled its location. The gun had the lowest horizontal aiming angles (16 degrees) among all German self-propelled guns. This was one of the main drawbacks of the machine. Displacement of the gun to the right led to poor crew placement. The commander of the self-propelled guns sat apart, which also negatively affected the interaction of the crew during the battle. Among other things, the commander's view of the battlefield was very limited, and the smoke of the shots from the cannon located directly in front of him made the view even worse.
5 degrees for pointing the gun to the left was clearly not enough, and the driver was often forced to turn the tank destroyer, exposing the enemy to a weakly protected 20-mm side. Hetzer's side armor was the weakest of all German tank destroyers. At the same time, any turn of the gun to the right pushed the loader away from the main source of shells, which was on the wall opposite the loader below the cannon.
Despite the shortcomings, Hetzer was actively used on all fronts of the Second World War. On April 10, 1945, there were 915 Hetzer tank destroyers in combat units of the SS and the Wehrmacht, of which 726 were on the Eastern Front, 101 on the Western Front. Also on the basis of Hetzer were produced 30 self-propelled guns with a 150-mm infantry gun sIG.33, 20 flamethrower tanks and 170 armored vehicles.
The performance characteristics of Hetzer:
Weight: 16 tons.
Dimensions:
Length 6, 38 m, width 2, 63 m, height 2, 17 m.
Crew: 4 people.
Reservation: from 8 to 60 mm.
Armament: 75-mm cannon StuK 39 L / 48, 7, 92-mm machine gun MG-34 or MG-42
Ammunition: 41 rounds, 1200 rounds.
Engine: 6-cylinder liquid-cooled carburetor engine Praga AE, 160 hp
Maximum speed: on the highway - 40 km / h
Progress in store: 180 km.
