“ferdinand” and Other

“Ferdinand”

In September 1942, pursuant to the direction of Hitler, work began on the modification of the plant produced 90 Nibelungenwerke chassis VK 4501 (P) in the assault guns, armed with 88-mm gun Pak 43 / 2, and from the frontal armor of 200 mm. Design was carried out by Porsche with the designers of the Berlin plant Alkett. As the armored conning tower was placed in the rear part, the layout of the chassis had to be changed by placing the engines and generators in the middle of the shell. Originally it was planned to assemble the new autopilot in Berlin, but this was abandoned because of the complexities associated with the transport by rail, and because of the unwillingness to suspend the release assault gun StuG III – the main production plant Alkett. As a result, build self-propelled guns, was named a 8,8 cm Pak 43 / 2 Sfl L/71 Panzerjager Tiger (P) Sd.Kfz. 184 and the name of Ferdinand (balm to the soul of Dr. Ferdinand Porsche), performed at the factory Nibelungenwerke.

Frontal 100-mm tank shell lists Tiger (P) were also amplified a 100-mm armor plate, attached to the shell bolts with bulletproof head. Thus, the frontal armor of the case brought to 200 mm. The same thickness and had a front leaf cuttings.

In front of the case located jobs driver and radio operator. Behind them, in the center of the machine, parallel to each other established two 12-cylinder gasoline V-twin engine with liquid cooling Maybach ML 120TRM power of 265 hp at 2600 rpm each. Drive motor to rotate the rotors of two generators Siemens Tour aGV, which, in turn, supplies electricity to two traction motors Siemens D1495aAC power of 230 kW each, installed in the stern of the vehicle under the fighting compartment. The torque of electric motors with special electromechanical final drives on the driving wheels aft location. In emergency mode, or in case of battle damage one of the branches of power provided overlap another.

Chassis “Ferdinand” in relation to a board consisting of a support roller, semi-detached pair of three trucks from the original, it is very difficult, but highly porshevskoy scheme with longitudinal torsion suspension, tested at the prototype chassis has VK 3001 (P). Driving wheel was removable toothed crowns of 19 teeth each. the idler gear and had crowns, which excluded a bachelor rewind tracks. Each track consisted of 109 trucks a width of 640 mm.

In a fully armored cabin of a rectangular, clamped to the stern of the hull with bolts, was installed 88-mm gun Pak 43 / 2 with 71-caliber long, designed on the basis of anti-aircraft gun Flak 41. Horizontal angle pointing was possible in the sector 28 °. Elevation +14 °, declination -8. Weight of gun 2,200 kg. Ammunition consisted of 50 unitary gun shots, placed on the walls of the cabin. In the aft cabin hatch is a round designed to remove the gun.

According to German figures, armor-piercing shell PzGr 39/43 weighing 10,16 kg and muzzle velocity of 1000 m / s pierced at a distance of 1000 meters 165-mm armor (at an angle of meetings 90 °), and Subcaliber shell PzGr 40/43 weight 7,5 kg and initial velocity of 1130 m / s – 193 mm, which ensured “Ferdinand” unconditionally defeat any of the then existing tanks.
Layout SAY “Elephant”

Layout ACS “Elephant”:

1 – 88 mm gun: 2 – armor panel on the mask, 3 – periscope sight, 4 – commander’s cupola: 5 – Fan: 6 – hatch periscopic unit of observation: 7-laying of 88-mm rounds at the wall of the crew compartment, 8-electric , 9-drive wheel, 10 – truck suspension, 11-engine, 12 – generator; 13 – a gunner’s seat, 14 – seat driver, 15 – guiding wheel; 16 – machine gun course. Track chain conditionally not shown.

Compiling the first cars began Feb. 16, 1943, and the last – the ninetieth – “Ferdinand left the factory shops on May 8. In April, first production machine was tested at Kummersdorfskom range.

Combat baptized “Ferdinand took during Operation Citadel in the 656-th regiment tank destroyers, which included the 653rd and 654 th battalions (schwere Panzerjager Abteilung – sPz.Jager Abt.). By the beginning of the battle there in the first 45, and the second – 44 “Ferdinand. Both battalions were operational control of 41 Panzer Corps, took part in heavy fighting on the northern fase Kursk Bulge in the Station area Ponyri and suffered heavy losses, mainly in the minefields. In place of the battle left 21 “Ferdinand” – all with a damaged chassis. Many of them were set on fire by their crews or by our advancing infantry. Only one self-propelled guns of this type, which shelled from different directions seven T-34, had a hole in the board, in the vicinity of the driving wheel. The only worthy opponent of German heavy self-propelled guns turned out to be self-propelled artillery unit SU-152. July 8, 1943 a regiment of SU-152 fired at the attackers Ferdinand 653rd Division, hit with 4 enemy vehicles. Total in July – August 1943 was lost 39 “Ferdinand.

In late August, 654 th Division was taken to the rear and sent to France for the reorganization and rearming. At the same time their self-propelled guns, he gave in the 653rd Division, who in October – November took part in defensive battles in the region of Nikopol, and Dnipropetrovsk. December 16th Division left front edge and was sent to Austria. From the information filed with the General Command of the Army, that up to November 5, 1943 656 th regiment destroyed 582 Soviet tanks, 344 anti-tank guns, 133 other guns, 103 anti-tank guns, 3 planes, 3 armored vehicles and 3 ACS.

In the period from January to March 1944 at Nibelungenwerke factory was modernized 47 remaining by the time Ferdinand. In the frontal hull armor was mounted on the right ball setting machine gun MG 34. On the roof of the cabin came a commander’s cupola with 7 vision devices. At the gun barrel put an armored shield, and ammunition brought to 55 shots. Name of the machine was changed to Elefant (elephant).

In late February, 1 st company division was sent to Italy, where she participated in the battles at Anzio, and in May – June 1944 – near Rome. In late June the company, in which there were two serviceable “Elephanta”, was transferred to Austria.

In April 1944 the 653rd battalion of two companies was sent to the Eastern Front, in the Ternopil region. In July the division, already retreating from the territory of Poland, there were 33 healthy self-propelled guns. In August, he suffered heavy losses in fighting in the region of Sandomierz, and in September was placed in the rear, where, after upgrading to ACS Jagdtiger handed Elephant “in the 614-S heavy antitank Roth.

At the end of March 1945 the Wehrmacht still has 28 combat-ready machines, 12 units were under repair.

Exist to this day, two self-propelled guns of this type. The Museum of armored vehicles in Kubinka exhibited “Ferdinand”, captured by the Red Army during the Battle of Kursk, and in the museum at Aberdeen proving ground in the U.S. – “Elephant”, which got the Americans in Italy for Anzio.
“Sturmtiger”

August 5, 1943, Hitler gave the order to start developing a heavy assault gun designed to destroy heavily fortified strongholds of the enemy.

Originally planned to equip the new self-propelled 210-mm gun, but the final version of the developers decided on a jet ship’s 380-mm mortar – Gerat 562, he’s Raketenwerfer 61, which is the most interesting part of the ACS.

Mortar produced by the plant firm Rheinmetall-Borsig in Dusseldorf, is charged with breech. Castle Mortar is a steel plate with thickness 65 mm, in horizontal plane with rack mechanism. After loading between the projectile and the plate of the castle remained a gap of 12 cm This situation is explained by characteristics of the shell structure trigger group.

Ball plant, which was mounted mortar, allowed his guidance in the horizontal plane to 10 ° to the side, and in the vertical from 0 to 85 °.

For firing Raketenwerfer 61 used high-explosive projectiles weighing 351 kg and cumulative – a mass of 345 kg. The firing range is high-explosive shell with an air temperature of +15 ° C and wind speed not exceeding 4 m / s reaching 5600 m. The shell was composed of combat (up to 135 kg of explosives), and propelling charges and sustainer rocket motor. In the bottom of the projectile had 32 oblique outlet gases from the rocket engine, by which he reported a rotation around its axis, improves stability in flight. The projectile left the barrel with a muzzle velocity of 40 m / s, and after the operation sustainer engine accelerates to 250 m / sec. Fuse located in the bow of the shell and was placed directly before loading. Delay fuzing can be fixed in the range from 0,5 to 12s.

In order to minimize the impact force when fired (mortar had no recoil devices) of the gases formed during combustion of propellant charge, is sent into a gap between itself and the barrel 13-mm jacket, worn on the trunk. To exit gases in the face-end ring at the muzzle had 31 hole. Such a construction barrel, and contributed to its better cooling.

The loading was carried out with a tray with rollers with special rammer. Loaded shells into the machine by crane, through a rectangular hatch in the roof of the cabin. On the walls of the crew compartment has 12 grabs (to 6 per side) for the shells. 13th bomb could be on the tray, and 14 th – directly in the barrel, lifted by an angle 16 °. Inside the crew compartment shells moved with Hoist.

Scheme 380-mm mortar

Mortar was placed in front of the compartment simple welded rectangular cutting, fastened to the hull of the tank bolts. The forward leaf cuttings was located at an angle of 47 °. The right of the mortar was placed in a ball setting machine gun MG 34. His ammunition consisted of 1500 rounds. For pointing mortar was used sight Pak ZF 3х8, and machine gun – KZF 2. On the roof of the compartment is not installed “device melee” (Nahkampfgerat).

The crew included a car driver, needle-radio operator, commander, to act as a gunner and two loaders.

Engine, transmission, chassis, and almost all elements of the body have been borrowed from linear tank Tiger Ausf.E later releases. The latter is understandable, since all of ACS are not made again, and altered from linear tanks.

Prototype self-propelled guns, known as 38 cm Panzermorser Sturmtiger Ausf.E, released in September 1943. Oct. 20 car with the felling of nebronevoy were demonstrated to Hitler.

The first serial “Sturmtiger left the factory shops Alkett September 15, 1944. For several months it was followed by another 17 cars.

Prototype “Sturmtiger was used for bombardment of Warsaw by the Germans during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944. From production cars at the end of that year, two companies formed a mortar assault (Panzer Sturmmorser Kompanie) – 1000-S and 1001-S, four in each set. Both companies operate on the Western Front. First went into action in December 1944 in the Trier area, and participated in the battles, only one installation, the rest are out of order for technical reasons and were abandoned. Second outbreak of hostilities in November 1944, and in January 1945 quite successfully fought near Bonn. When crossing the Rhine, one plant was hit by fire “Sherman”. Later, others formed a 1002-S company, which had six plants. She also participated in the fighting east of Bonn. In March 1945 the four remaining in the ranks of the company vehicles were deployed on the Eastern Front.

Rocket Mortar performed well in the destruction of strong points in the “Siegfried Line”, captured by the Americans, and for firing on group goals. The main means of allies in the fight against “Sturmtiger” became heavy artillery and aviation. In early March 1945 in the ranks was still 13 “Sturmtiger.