Even before the start of World War II, the Wehrmacht under construction paid much attention not only to tanks, but also to self-propelled artillery mounts. Numerous assault guns were a separate category among the German self-propelled guns. The most formidable and brilliant representative of this family was born in 1943 at the height of the Great Patriotic War. Figures of the gloomy Teutonic genius christened the new "kitten" for the Wehrmacht "Sturmpanzer VI". Soldiers and officers called him "Sturmtiger".
In the official documentation, this ACS received the designation "38 cm RW61 auf Sturmmörser Tiger". The designers classified the vehicle as an assault weapon. The name of the self-propelled gun directly indicates that it was created on the basis of the Tiger tank, which appeared in Germany in 1942. On the assembly line from scratch, "Sturmtigers" have never been produced. They were used to re-equip already created tanks. In total, from 1943 to 1945, 18 vehicles were converted for the needs of the Wehrmacht, including the first demonstration prototype.
An imposing monster was needed by the Germans to storm cities and destroy the enemy's concrete fortifications. The experience of using the StuG III, StuG IV and StuH 42 assault guns has shown that their guns are often insufficient to effectively and quickly destroy fortifications and buildings. Even 150-mm howitzer systems were not always enough, and therefore it was decided to create something more powerful than the existing self-propelled guns, but weaker than railroad artillery. At the first stage, the Reich designers simply suggested that a 210-mm howitzer gun, created from scratch, be installed on the Sturmtiger. However, the development of the latter was delayed and then the engineering team drew attention to the already existing "Raketenwerfer 61" bomber.
The 380 mm Raketenwerfer 61 rocket launcher was originally developed for the needs of the German Kriegsmarine fleet. As the name implies, this installation did not fire with projectiles, but with rocket missiles. By the end of the summer of 1943, the first prototype was ready. An armored compartment instead of a turret and the same bomb launcher were installed on the Tiger tank. On August 5, the novelty was shown to Adolf Hitler, who highly appreciated the novelty. The green light was given to the car. The first order of the Wehrmacht was 20 "Sturmtigers", but even with them the German industry could not cope. The reason for this will be the workload of production lines and the need to repair the Tiger tanks returning from the front. Therefore, the implementation of the series will be constantly delayed.
With a mass of 66 tons, "Sturmtiger" had dimensions of 6280x3705x2850 mm. The ground clearance of the assault weapon was 485 mm. The conning tower received rolled steel armor with a thickness of 62 to 100 mm. In addition to the coveted rocket launcher with 14 missiles ammunition, the assault gun was equipped with a 7.92 mm MG 34 machine gun. The crew had to aim with the Pak ZF 3x8 sight. The Teutonic monster was driven by a 12-cylinder Maybach HL 210 P30 engine with a capacity of 650 horsepower. The cruising range of the self-propelled guns was only 100 km, and the speed on the highway did not exceed 38 km / h.
The combat path of the "Sturmtigers" cannot be called "glorious". The machine, created to crush concrete walls, was used for its intended purpose only once - during the suppression of the uprising in Warsaw. However, the effectiveness of the rocket launcher was extremely low. Often, the bombs simply did not explode, since their fuse simply did not cause detonation upon contact with the thin and fragile walls of residential buildings (relative to the walls of long-term fortifications). A few cases of the use of "Sturmtigers" in the field were noted on the second front in late 1944 and early 1945.
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Despite the simply monstrous explosion power of 380-mm missiles, the self-propelled guns suffered from very low accuracy of the main gun. The deflection of the rocket when fired reached 5% of the length of the maximum firing range of 5,700 meters. There were also problems with the production of ammunition for the "city destroyer". Only once did the Sturmtigers achieve relative success in shelling the Allied Siegfried Line. According to some reports, one of the self-propelled guns managed to blow up three Sherman tanks with one shot. As a result, they all somehow fell into the hands of the coalition forces. The last "Sturmtiger" was captured by the Americans on April 14, 1945 in the Reichswald area. The formidable car was simply abandoned by the Germans without ammunition.
Today there are only two Sturmpanzer VIs left in the world. The first one stands in the city of Munster in Germany in the German Tank Museum. The second is kept in Russia, you can see it in the Armored Museum in Kubinka.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about Pz. Kpfw V: what was the crushing power of the Panther tank.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/030821/60022/
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