Stug III & Stug IV

German Army, Waffen-SS and Luftwaffe: Western Front, 1944–1945

Dennis Oliver

• Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781526755872
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History

A guide that blends the history behind this German World War II tank with resources for military vehicle modeling enthusiasts.
 
In the last years of the Second World War the Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III) and Sturmgeschütz IV (StuG IV) played a vital role as assault guns during the German army's struggle to block the Allied advance on the Western Front. As the Wehrmacht's tank forces declined, these armored vehicles were thrown into every defensive operation. They are not as well-known as the Tigers and Panthers, but German resistance would have been much weaker without them. They were also among the most frequently encountered German armored vehicles on the battlefields, which is why they are such a fascinating subject for Dennis Oliver in this volume in the TankCraft series
 
He uses archive photos and extensively researched color illustrations to examine the StuG III and StuG IV deployed by the German army and the Waffen-SS during these doomed campaigns. A key section of his book displays available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented by a gallery of beautifully constructed and painted models in various scales. Technical details as well as modifications introduced during production and in the field are also examined providing everything the modeler needs to recreate an accurate representation of these historic armored vehicles.

Assault Gun Units of the Heer

Initially organised into six-gun batteries, the first Sturmgeschütz units saw action during the French Campaign of 1940 and were so successful that by August of the same year the batteries had been expanded into full battalions referred to as Sturmartillerie-Abteilungen. These units were composed of three batteries each and many formations retained this establishment until the end of the war. In June 1944, a number of battalions were reorganised and renamed Heeres-Sturmartillerie-Brigade and these organisational changes are described in the accompanying charts and diagrams.

The independent Sturmgeschütz units of the Heer that operated on the Western Front from the Normandy invasion until the end of the war are listed below. Although they are of course correctly described as Abteilungen or Brigaden I have used the English term battalion as a matter of convenience. As formations controlled by the artillery inspectorate, their vehicles were referred to as guns and their companies as batteries.

As the names of most of these formations were changed several times, I have endeavoured to use the official title in use in June 1944 when the campaign in the West began.

Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 200. Formed in the summer of 1943, the battalion was renamed Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 200 in early 1944 and attached to 21.Panzer-Division. The battalion fought in Normandy, equipped with self-propelled guns mounted on the chassis of captured tanks, losing most of its equipment. Reformed and re-equipped, the battalion was attached to the Führer-Begleit-Brigade for the Ardennes Offensive, reporting that twenty-two Sturmgeschütz III and nine Sturmhaubitze 42 were on hand. When the Führer-Begleit-Brigade was upgraded to divisional status, the battalion became I.Abteilung, Panzer-Regiment 102 and served briefly in the East in February 1945 but was soon afterwards disbanded, with the remnants of the battalion forming 5.Kompanie, Panzeijäger-Abteilung 673 in February 1945.

Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 243. Formed in February 1944, after the original unit had been destroyed at Stalingrad, the battalion served in the East until August when its personnel were transferred to Altengrabow in Germany. Rebuilt with a total of nineteen Sturmgeschütz III and twelve Sturmhaubitze 42, the battalion was ordered to join Panzer-Lehr-Division for the Ardennes Offensive but was still at Altengrabow when the attack began on 16 December 1944. In fact, the battalion may not have reached the front until the last days of December at which time it was subordinated to 6.Panzerarmee, reporting that just eighteen Sturmgeschütz III assault guns were on hand (1).

In February the battalion was withdrawn from the front and in the following month was again rebuilt, also receiving a fourth Begleitgrenadier-Batterie, and was renamed Heeres-Sturmartillerie-Brigade 243. The battalion fought against the Russians in the defence of Berlin, initially without the fourth battery which took part in the defence of Westerhüsen, north of Leipzig, and joined the battalion on 21 April 1945.

This Sturmgeschütz III ausf G displays several features that Were indicative of the vehicles of 2. Batterie, Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 341 that took part in the Normandy battles including the large rain guard over the gun mantlet and the bent upper edges of the hull Schürzen. The use of fencing wire, visible here on the barrel of the 7.5cm gun, was commonly employed in Normandy as a means of holding foliage camouflage.

Photographed in the centre of Arnhem on 20 September 1944, this vehicle is one of the seven assault guns of 3.Batterie, Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 280 that took part in the defence of the city. The officer standing in the cupola is Major Kurt Kühme, the battalion commander

Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 244. Rebuilt in March 1943 after the original battalion had been destroyed at Stalingrad the battalion was completely wiped out during the summer of 1944 in the battles around Bobriusk, south-east of Minsk in modern-day Belarus.

In October 1944 the battalion was rebuilt at Truppenübungsplatz Altengrabow, near Magdeburg in Germany, and sent to the Netherlands. In mid-December the battalion took part in the Ardennes Offensive as part of 5.Panzerarmee, reporting that fourteen Sturmgeschütz III were on hand, slightly more than a single battery. Supporting the infantry of 18.Volksgrenadier-Division, the battalion claimed to have destroyed fifty-four Allied tanks for the loss of two assault guns, although just seven were listed as serviceable at the end of December 1944.

The battalion was engaged in the defence of Cologne and ended the war fighting in the Ruhr Pocket.

Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 280. Formed in August 1943 as Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 280, the battalion served in the East and was renamed Sturmgeschütz-Brigade on 14 February 1944. Withdrawn to Denmark after the fighting around Tarnopol, now Ternopil in modern-day Ukraine, the battalion was completely rebuilt.

When British paratroop units landed at Arnhem, Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 280 had not received its full complement of vehicles and just 3.Batterie, with the brigade commander Major Kurt Kühme, rushed to the front on 19 September 1944 with seven Sturmgeschütz III assault guns and three Sturmhaubitze 42 (1). This group remained in the area until the end of the month and Major Kühme and Oberwachtmeister Josef Mathes, the leader of the battery’s second platoon, were later awarded the Ritterkreuz for their efforts in the defence of Arnhem. During the first week of October the assault guns were supporting Fallschirm-jäger-Regiment 6 near Eschen, in northern Liechtenstein, and on the first day of November 1944 received five Sturmhaubitze 42 to replace the assault guns that had been lost. The battalion fought in the battles for the Moerdijk Bridgehead and by the end of November had been transferred to Alsace where it remained until February 1945. While the assault guns were being unloaded from railway cars at Hermeskeil, south-east of Trier, they were caught in an air raid and several vehicles were destroyed.

In March 1945 the battalion received three Panzer IV/70(V) to partially offset these losses and this is the last allocation I can find for Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 280. On 26 April 1945, Hauptmann Wilhelm Lechens, who had taken command of the battalion, ordered his men to separate and make their own way home.

Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 341. Formed in early 1943, the battalion was stationed in southern France when the Normandy landings began but did not move towards the front until 25 July 1944 when it had its full complement of thirty-three Sturmgeschütz III assault guns and twelve Sturmhaubitze. Earlier, in May 1944, the battalion had been renamed as Heeres-Sturmartillerie-Brigade 341. The battalion suffered heavily in its first actions with 1 .Batterie reporting the loss of twelve of its fourteen guns together with Hauptmann Gerd Pazur, the battery commander, Leutnant Otto Ebling, his adjutant, and Oberwachmeister Kurt Kirchner, a platoon commander and veteran of the Russian campaign. By 20 August, despite the arrival of some replacements, the battalion could report that only twenty vehicles were on hand and within five days this number was reduced to twelve. In September the battalion was withdrawn to Aachen and rebuilt and took part in the fighting in the Hürtgenwald.

In February 1945 the battalion reported that three Panzer IV/70(A) tank destroyers were on hand and these may have been the unit’s last serviceable vehicles. The battalion remained in the Sauerland region into the early months of 1945 but managed to escape the Ruhr Pocket, retreating towards Kassel and the area around Magdeburg where most of the battalion surrendered to the Americans on 20 April 1945.

Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 394. Formed in May 1944 as Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 394 for the proposed 18. Artillerie-Division, the battalion was renamed on 10 June 1944. The battalion took part in the Normandy battles, most notably at Vire in early August, and was later trapped in the Falaise Pocket. The remnants were withdrawn to Aachen and the battalion was rebuilt, reporting that twenty Sturmgeschütz III were on hand on 15 December 1944, the day before the commencement of Operation Wacht am Rhine (3). The battalion took part in the Ardennes Offensive, initially as part of 6. Panzerarmee reserve, and later under LXXIV. Armeekorps.

As part of XXXIX. Panzerkorps the battalion was engaged in the battles in Alsace and Lorraine in January 1945, reporting that twenty-three assault guns were on hand, and remained in the West when the corps was transferred to Pomerania.

In February the battalion supported 257.Volksgrenadier-Division in an assault on the Gambsheim bridgehead and it is possible that the three Panzer IV/70(A) tank destroyers received that month were used in the battle. In late March 1945, Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 394 supported 7. Fallschirmjager-Division which was opposing the Allied Rhine crossing operations near Wesel when the battalion was caught in an air raid and lost many of its remaining assault guns. Nevertheless, Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 394 continued to oppose the British advance north of Wesel and Hamminkeln, falling back through the Teutoburger Wald towards the Harz Mountains. By April the battalion had lost all its assault guns and the crews were incorporated into Infanterie-Division Ferdinand von Schill.

Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 667. Originally formed as Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 667 in June 1942, the battalion was renamed Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 667 in February 1944 and finally Heeres-Sturmartillerie-Brigade 667 sometime in the following June.

The battalion was almost completely destroyed in the summer 1944 battles on the Eastern Front and was withdrawn to Holland and rebuilt, partly from the remnants of Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 245. In September 1944 the battalion was attached to Kampfgruppe Chill, an ad-hoc formation scraped together from elements of 85.Infanterie-Division, and may have had as many as nineteen Sturmgeschütz III assault guns and twelve Sturmhaubitze 42 on hand.

The battalion took part in the Ardennes Offensive in December 1944 as part of 6.Panzerarmee, reporting that just five assault guns were operational. In March 1945 the battalion received three Panzer IV/70(A) tank destroyers.

Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 902. Formed in January 1944 as the Lehr-Abteilung of the Sturmgeschütz-Schule West at Tours, and renamed on 14 February 1944, the battalion took part in the Normandy campaign under the direct command of LXXXIV. Armeekorps.

The battalion’s initial losses were light, accounting for just three assault guns destroyed and seven crew members killed, but the battles of July would prove far more costly and by the beginning of August just three Sturmhaubitze and a single Sturmgeschütz were available for combat. In September 1944 the battalion was subordinated directly to 19.Armee and in the following October, as part of LXXXI.Armeekorps, the battalion was engaged in the fighting around Aachen reporting that seventeen Sturmgeschütz III and twelve Strumhaubitze 42 were on hand.

In early December 1944, Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 902 was attached to Korps Feldt, an ad-hoc unit of 1 .Fallschirm-Armee, and later that month took part in the Ardennes Offensive as part of 6.Panzerarmee.

During the first weeks of 1945 the battalion was engaged in the defensive battles south of Bonn and by the beginning of April the first battery was near Detmold, south-east of Bielefeld, with five assault guns, while the second and third batteries were supporting 176.Volksgrenadier-Division near Brilon, almost 50 kilometres to the south-west.

STURMGESCHÜTZ-ABTEILUNG, JUNE 1944

All units of the German Army were organised according to instructions issued by Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), the high command of the army. These were accompanied by detailed instructions called Kriegstärkenachweisung (KStN)which gave the authorised strength and composition of a unit listing the exact number of personnel, type of vehicle and weapons. They were not issued on a regular basis, as general orders were, but whenever an organisational change was required. Each KStN was numbered and dated, the latter being significant as some numbers were retained when an establishment was upgraded. The battalion shown here is based on KStN 416 Stab und Stabsbatterie (mot) einer Sturmgeschutzbrigade (mot) and KStN 446 Sturmgeschutzbatterie (mot) which came into force on 1 June 1944, just before the Normandy landings. Both allowed for batteries of ten or fourteen guns. The battalion depicted here is based around the ten-gun battery, or thirty-one-gun battalion, as many units were never able to carry out the reorganisation to a fourteen-gun establishment. The reasons for this are explained further in the chart on page 11.

KStN 446 of 1.6.1944 replaced Sturmgeschützbatterie (mot) zu 10 Geschützen KStN 446a of 1.11.1942 and Sturmgeschützbatterie (mot) zu 14 Geschützen KStN 446b of1.2.1944.

These two batteries were able to field eleven guns, perhaps more. All the batteries were caught in the Ruhr Pocket and by Sunday, 8 April 1945, the last Sturmgeschütz had been lost.

Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 905. Formed in December 1942 as Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 905, the battalion was badly depleted by the battles on the Eastern Front in June 1944, and withdrawn to Germany to be rebuilt. Renamed Heeres-Sturmartillerie-Brigade 905 in the autumn of 1944, the battalion was attached to 5.Panzerarmee in the Eifel in early 1945. At that time Heeres-Sturmartille...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Assault Gun Units of the Heer
• Camouflage & Markings
• Model Showcase
• Modelling Products
• Assault Gun Units of the Waffen-SS
• Assault Gun Units of the Luftwaffe
• Technical Details and Modifications
• Product Contact Details