WWII German Sturmgeschütz III
American Heritage Museum
Last month I had the pleasure of my brother David visiting me in NH for a week. We played a number of games, chatted a lot about wargames. Then “The Brothers Parker”, not to be confused with the “Parker Brothers” visited the American Heritage Museum in Hudson Mass. This museum is just packed with military equipment with a high percentage from the Second World War. I took pictures of nearly every exhibit and plan on uploading them soon.
I have created a small slide show of the images of the STG III.
I fell in love with this class of AFV when I was writing D-Day to Berlin. While researching the history of WWII for the game I struggled with the difference in tactical doctrine between the STG class AFV and the US Tank Destroyer class including such vehicles as the M10 and M36 Tank Destroyer. Being a big fan of YouTube I have collected some interesting videos on the subject and am presenting three of them here. First a little bit about the AFV and its doctrine.
The Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III) assault gun was Germany’s and Wehrmacht most-produced fully tracked armoured fighting vehicle during World War II, and second-most produced German armored combat vehicle of any type after the Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track. It was built on a slightly modified Panzer III chassis, replacing the turret with an armored, fixed superstructure mounting a more powerful gun. Initially intended as a mobile assault gun for direct-fire support for infantry, the StuG III was continually modified, and much like the later Jagdpanzer vehicles, was employed as a tank destroyer.
Interesting Facts
- The German army produced over 11,000 STG III and STG 4 vehicles. Second only to the SDG 251 Infantry Halftrack
- The STG IV was produced only after the Allies had bombed and destroyed the STG III factories
- Originally designed and controlled by the Artillery branch of the German Army it was later split into two wings. One for the Artillery and one for the Armored forces
- The video I present here on Tactics is a big help differentiating between the two uses
Note: Color footage is all AI colorized by computers and actual color footage was extremely rare in 1940-45.
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