Tag Archives: howitzer

German Sturmgeschütz III, Ausf. G (Early version) (Tamiya)

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This is the Tamiya, 35 197-2600 kit in 1/35 scale, of the ‘German Sturmgeschütz III, Ausf. G – Early version’.

German Sturmgeschütz III, Ausf. G - Early version

History

Originally intended for infantry support duties, Germany’s Sturmgeschutz (assault gun) and abbreviated “StuG” III first appeared in combat during 1940. It had the durable Panzer III chassis with a completely new superstructure. To keep the vehicles profile as low as possible, the revolving turret was eliminated and the short barreled 75mm L/24 gun was mounted directly onto the hull.

As it was mainly intended for close fire support for the Wehrmacht, it was used as self-propelled artillery against the opposing enemy’s strategic points. However, when the German forces encountered the Russian KV and T-34 tanks on the Eastern front, the situation abruptly changed. To cope with this Russian tank threat, the Germans were forced to upgrade their existing weapons systems. The G-type StuG III built from late 1942 onwards, used a more powerful, long barrel 75mm L/48 gun. The early G-type had a square shaped gun mantlet.

The superstructure was redesigned and an MG42 machine gun with shield, commander’s vision cupola and smoke dischargers were added. The thin steel plates, known as Schurzen (skirts) were attached to the sides of the hull beginning in the spring of 1943. The type-42 assault gun mounted a 105mm howitzer on the StugG III chassis and was developed to fulfill the StuG III’s original role of infantry support. Incorporating several minor changes, about 7,800 G-type StuG III’s were produced.

Source: Tamiya website

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Russian Heavy Tank, KV-2 model 1939, big turret (Trumpeter)

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This is the Trumpeter 00311 kit in 1/35 scale, of the ‘Russian Heavy Tank, KV-2 model 1939, big turret’.

Russian Heavy Tank, KV-2 model 1939, big turret

History

The KV heavy tank was designed and used as heavy break-through tank. To a tank of this task, the shortcomings of its L-11 main gun, which is not good at dealing with enemies’ bunkers and fortifications, could be fatal! So a heavy tank carrying a much bigger gun to better do the job was created along side the 76.2mm gun tanks.

The first of this type uses a new big high turret of 7 sides that mounting the 152mm M-10 howitzer. This version, which had many detail differences to the later standard type was usually dubbed KV ‘Big Turret’ or KV-2 Model 1939. As such a big turret on the usual KV hull proved to be very un-maneuverable it soon earned a funny nickname of “Mobile washroom”!

Source: Trumpeter website

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Russian Tank Destroyer, SU-122 (Tamiya)

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This is the Tamiya 35 093-1600 kit in 1/35 scale, of the ‘Russian Tank Destroyer, SU-122’.

Russian Tank Destroyer, SU-122

History

Victorious At Kursk – The Russian T34 tank is known as a masterpiece. Based on the same chassis, the SU-122 featured a secured, wedge-shape fighting compartment, and was armed with a massive 122mm howitzer. The designation of SU-122 comes from the following; “SU” stands for Samokhodnaya Ustanovka (in Russian) meaning self propelled and “122” stands for the armament.

As Russian forces were forced to retreat from the relentless German blitzkrieg, large quantities of T34 and other tanks were produced in preparation of a counter attack. At the same time, Russian army urgently developed a new self-propelled gun, the SU-122. This tank featured a newly designed 122mm self-propelled howitzer and its production began in October 1942 at Tankograd in the Ural mountains. As the T34’s chassis and its mass production system was applied to SU-122, the first test models were amazingly completed with great speed taking approximately one month.

From there, the first lot of SU-122s were sent straight to the Leningrad front in January 1943. From July 1943, they saw action in the Battle of Kursk. The SU-122 with its 23 caliber 122mm howitzer fought with all its might against Panther and Tiger tanks and went on to superbly win a glorious victory. In following the success at Kursk, the SU-122 set the foundation on where other tanks such as the SU-85, SU-100, JSU-122, and JSU-152 were built upon.

Source: Tamiya website

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German Geschützwagen, 39H 10,5 cm LeFHI8 (Sf) (Trumpeter)

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This is the Trumpeter 00353 kit in 1/35 scale, of the ‘German Geschützwagen, 39H 10,5 cm LeFHI8’.

German Geschützwagen, 39H 10,5 cm LeFHI8

History

During the invasion of France, hundreds of French Tanks were captured including the Hotchkiss H-39 Tanks. These vehicles were converted to Anti-tank and Self-propelled artillery vehicles. Between 1942 and 1943, 48 Hotchkiss H-39 tanks were converted to artillery platforms.

These vehicles mounted 10.5cm howitzers. Most of these conversions used the leFH 18 howitzer, but a few were converted using the leFH 16 howitzers.The only known surviving vehicle is located at the Saumur Museum in France.

Source: Trumpeter website

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