StuG III Thread (and also other German vehicles I guess)

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Leopard 1 tank assembly in 1970.

[EnsignExpendable]

Leopard 1A5 tank duel

 

 

[EnsignExpendable]

 

http://imgur.com/a/WrcAr

 

The last one keeps showing up as only having two images for some reason, so just click the link (it's a Kettenkrad).

 

 

 

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

Man that Panzer IV hull looks rickety and poorly made. 

[EnsignExpendable]

Yeah, my favourite parts are the non-interchangeable road wheels and the godawful splinting on the track pins. You can't even blame that on last-ditch effort since it's covered in Zimmerit, so it must be a mid-war vehicle.

[EnsignExpendable]

My article on the Panther was finally published on Warspot: http://warspot.ru/8537-nemetskie-koshki-pri-dvore-korolya-georga Please upvote it, tia.

 

Thanks to @Walter_Sobchak since a good half of the materials I used came from him.

 

Edit: this image was posted in the comments, which I think sums it up:

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The ADS active protection system has been successfully tested again. This time it was tested against three PG-7VLT rounds fired by a RPG-7 from a distance between 25 and 50 metres, after 9 mm and 7.62 mm bullets were fired against the simulated vehicle in order to demonstrate threat rejection (supposedly the sensors are capable of recognizing and tracking bullets). The test was a full success.

[Scolopax]

[EnsignExpendable]

 

A staggering 21 Tigers lost in one battle during the Proskurovskaya-Chernovitskaya offensive, mysteriously absent from Tiger battalion records.

[Donward]

Lindy plays with the best German made Kraut box tank of World War 2.

 

 

[EnsignExpendable]

"Where is a good position for our storage box, Hans?"
"I don't know, Fritz, perhaps directly across the evacuation hatch?"

"Good idea, but let's put it low so it sweeps all the shit off the engine deck when the turret turns"

 

[Walter_Sobchak]

On 6/9/2017 at 10:38 AM, Donward said:

Lindy plays with the best German made Kraut box tank of World War 2.

 

 

I am going to play devils advocate and say the Pz IV was better.  I do this in part just to irritate Sturgeon who seems to have a hate boner for the Pz IV.  

 

 

[Legiondude]

3 hours ago, Walter_Sobchak said:

I am going to play devils advocate and say the Pz IV was better.  I do this in part just to irritate Sturgeon who seems to have a hate boner for the Pz IV.  

Well damn, now I'm curious why

 

EDIT - Referencing Sturgeon's opinion

Edited June 16, 2017 by Legiondude

[Collimatrix]

2 hours ago, Legiondude said:

Well damn, now I'm curious why

 

EDIT - Referencing Sturgeon's opinion

 

The Pz III's turret layout certainly did not lend itself to up-gunning.  The commander's position was centerline, so stuffing in a larger gun would have meant that the loader didn't have enough access to the breech and the gun would have smacked the commander in the balls during recoil.  Pz IV seems to have had more growth potential, but besides the turret design issue I'm not sure why this was.

 

I would be curious to see suspension bound/rebound figures for both tanks.  In theory the Pz III's independent torsion bar suspension should have given it an edge in cross-country performance, but early torsion bar suspensions all fell far short of the system's potential, so the edge might have been small.  It's noteworthy, I think, that Daimler Benz's next design proposal was initially intended to have leaf springs (the T-34 look-alike).

[EnsignExpendable]

The PzIV was supposed to have torsion bars too, except Krupp's engineers fucked it up colossally and decided to go back to leaf springs.

[Walter_Sobchak]

It's worth noting that early models of the Pz III (Ausf B,C and D) used eight roadwheels and leaf springs.  Unlike the leafspring suspension of the Pz IV, Daimler never got their leaf spring system to work well.  While the leaf spring system of the Pz IV was nothing revolutionary, it was relatively simple and it worked.  Much like the US HVSS suspension, it had the advantage of being completely outside the hull.  The torsion bar suspension of the Pz III was a somewhat more complicated affair to repair, and it relied on shock absorbers on the #1 and #6 road wheel which were known for failing in harsh cold weather conditions.  

 

The hull of the Panzer IV was of a simpler design than the Panzer III and required less welding, making it quicker to produce.  Also, the Pz IV had overhead hatches for the driver and hull machine gunner, the Pz III did not.  Both vehicles used the same engine, transmission and tracks, so mobility was fairly similar.  Armor protection was fairly similar as well, although comparisons are tricky as both vehicles were up-armored throughout their production run.

 

The biggest issue though is firepower.  The Pz IV could mount the high velocity 75mm KwK 40 while the Pz III could not.  Even the short barreled 75mm KwK 37 was more useful than the 37mm and short barreled 50mm guns of the Pz III.  

 

The Pz III and Pz IV were designed at the same time and were contemporary to each other.  Therefore, we can't give the PzIII a "handicap" for being the earlier design.   

[EnsignExpendable]

Well aware of who has the superior tactics, the Germans try to steal Soviet tankodesantniki, Soviet SMGs, and most importantly, Soviet LOG

 

[Walter_Sobchak]

Is that a PPD-40?  Interesting to see it in use this late in the war.

[Collimatrix]

On 6/16/2017 at 11:35 AM, Walter_Sobchak said:

Is that a PPD-40?  Interesting to see it in use this late in the war.

 

Sure looks like it.

[EnsignExpendable]

Yeah, that's a PPD.

[Walter_Sobchak]

 

4 hours ago, EnsignExpendable said:

Yeah, that's a PPD.

 

I think it's time for me to go to bed.  In my head I just started singing "PPD, yeah, you know me."

 

 

[EnsignExpendable]

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[Walter_Sobchak]

Opps. 

 

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I *think* that's a Panther.  KTs have an escape hatch on the underside of the front of the hull:

 

 

Ike is standing near the front of the hull, the ass end of the overturned tigger is pointed at the camera.