Evolution of WW2 German Tank Destroyers
Used extensively by the German Army of World War Two, the “tank destroyer” was developed to counter the increasing dominance of the tank on the battlefield.
Germany would field a massive 18 different types of tank destroyer in World War Two - compared with the 7 or 8 different types used by US, British and Commonwealth forces. One of these in particular, Sturmgeschütz III, would destroy more tanks than any other AFV in the entire conflict.
In this video we look at the development, strengths and weaknesses of German tank destroyers: from the17 tonne Hetzer to the massive 70 tonne Jagdtiger - the heaviest tracked vehicle of the War.
00:00 | Introduction
00:59 | The First Tank Destroyers
04:14 | Avoiding Close Combat
06:59 | Jagdpanther
12:05 | Jagdtiger
15:31 | Hetzer
18:01 | Stug III
22:51 | Conclusion
This video features archive footage courtesy of British Pathé.
#tankmuseum #jagdpanther #stugiii #hetzer #jagdtiger
The quality of these videos is simply excellent, incredible work. Better than most WWII TV documentaries.
Another example of the British quest for the finest and I don’t know if you’ve visited the Tank Museum at Bovington yet but if not I strongly encourage you to make the trip. Best wishes.📚☘️
Meh
@@chpet1655 sure told them
No waffling or treating audience like children is a definitely a good thing. Discovery / History channel productions convey a fraction of information in an hour out of which a quarter is brain dead ads.
Sturmgeschutz is my favorite. The StuG always stayed to a good tank design, and never overdid it. It had reliable armor, a tried and tested chassis, and a gun that wasn’t too big, nor too small. Also had the highest kill rate of all German tanks. It’s a little diamond in the rough of Tigers, Panthers and such tanks like those.
Hello fellow stug fan!
Yes. I have a Stug Life tshirt
I totally agree 👍
I like the Stug also... reliable, easy to hide,nasty 75mm gun
The Stug isn’t a tank
I absolutely adore when engineers decide to take the biggest gun they can find and build a vehicle around it
Literally the A10 design philosophy lol
Or put it on a vehicle not designed for it.
Too bad there's a thing called air support
@@PantsofVance needs supremacy.
@@PantsofVancetoo bad FLAK fooks it over LOL
Love the clarity of Chris’s delivery. Another brilliant video.
really? i thought, there was, quite a lot, of, unnecessary, punctuation, in the delivery
Former British cavalry officer and instructor. I remember him speaking at Larkhill RA gunnery school as a guest speaker on use of armour, up from Bovington Armoured School back in the 80s.
The Jagdpanzer IV deserved at least a mention....
Definitely, especially since there were more of them made than the Nashorn, the Elefant, and the Jagdpanther combined. It's a very strange oversight in an otherwise great video.
It always gets ignored :(
Do they have one in the collection? If not, that might be why it's not mentioned.
@@ScrogginHausen There were several they *did* mention that they also don't have in the collection. I think they were just being their usual sloppy selves.
@@ScrogginHausen As far as I can tell, they don't have a Jagdpanzer IV, but they don't seem to have a Nashorn or Elefant either, so that excuse doesn't work. The video just blatantly ignores the 2nd (or 3rd if we count the StuG) most common German TD of WW2.
I just have to say I'm amazed by the production quality of these videos. Really well done.
Produced by the wonderful team at the Tank Museum. 👏👏👏
I’m literally 20 minutes away from the museum right now and I am heading there while watching this 😂. It is my absolute FAVORITE museum and I haven’t been in a while. So I can’t wait!
The design of the Stug was spot on. A excellent balance of armour, speed and fire power. I am also a fan of the Hetzer.
В основе Хетцер чешский танк. И он не удобен для команды.STUG штурмовое орудие и охотник. Hetzer jast a hunter.
@@spaseman6343 the czech chassis was very very good, it's why the germans kept fielding it so late
Jagdpanzer 4? 2000 built…
Guess they don't have one.
@@Chris.in.taiwan 😥
@@ConvetionalHeretic rip
Jagdpanzer iv actually evolved out of the StuG program. It was supposed to be called StuG IV neuerart (new art) . The name change was pushed by Guderian but resisted by the artillery arm that operated StuG. Guadarian wanted the for panzerwaffe.
Iv decided im calling hitler and telling him you have been being annoying.
German Language makes a distinction between “Tank Destroyers” (termed Panzerjaeger which literally means tank hunter) such as the Nashorn and “Hunter Tanks” (termed Jagdpanzer which literally means Hunter Tank). The Nashorn was a panzerjaeger with its open top and 30mm armour. The Jagdpanther was a Jagdpanzer with extra heavy armour and a bigger gun than the tank it was based on. The difference was mainly the armour but also crewing eg having a radio operator for tactical coordination
yeah this difference is massive, with panzerjaeger being built for long range engagement and jagdpanzer being more of a close range/ambush type vehicle
@@revan22 Broadly: Panzerjaeger for defensive operations (ambushes) using the long range guns and firing from cover such as the reverse slope of a hill. They had special long range optics and were crewed by artillery men with the training to survey ranges. Their light weight made them more mobile. The Jagdpanzer like the jagdpanther were more for offensive operations due to their heavier armour.
@@williamzk9083 aeh... stugs are crewed by artillery men. panzerjäger and jagdpanzer where crewed by the infantry or tank crews, depending on the type of organisation they were placed in. while tank crew makes sense to most of you, the infantry might need some explanation: german infantry regiment had a heavy company for anti tank duty mostly deploying towed pak guns. A pak is a gun sometimes very similar to what artillery can use too - german 7.5cm field gun based on pak40- the crew still is no artillery crew. same goes for the 2nd heavy company fielding infantry gun crewed by infantry men. yes, they received special training. in replacing the towed pak with spg pak like Marder doesn't change the organization and thus the crew type. stugs as a weapon class was not seen necessary by lots of infantry officers early on and the stug initially were planned as kind of special weapon not deployed in regular infantry as with heavy company using infantry guns. tank commanders didn't see the job as one of their task too. so the artillery branch was asked to take over the new guns - stugs - and this is how the stugs ended up as artillery weapon. as this, they artillery stugs only supported but never had been subordinate to infantry or tank regiments. this only happend up from kampfgruppen level which is a combined arms approach sometimes even below brigade level. kampfgruppen always had a ad hoc character compared to the organized company/battalion/regiment/divison/... structure. brigades where used but not on a regular basis as form of organization in german army in ww2
Panzerjäger is essentially just a self-propelled anti-tank gun.
I am not a military history fan in any way, but, I find these videos fascinating. I never miss one. It's a combination of interesting content and brilliant presentation with no gimmicks or unnecessary effects. Well done you !
So you are a military history fan.
@@osmacar5331he’s still in the closet but he does appear to be on the precipice of giving up his futile and miserable stance and I feel that a couple of good tank films such as Patton or Fury and he’s gonna join us in the forums and annual events across the channel..😂 seriously though best wishes.📚🎚️👏
@@DaveSCameron american propaganda is just as bad. Look at the overall situation. Paper stats is not working stats.
4:40 The pak 43 is astonishingly massive
How many men would it take to maneuver it into a position? Probably impossible.
Kruppstahl was centrifugally cast👍
Can’t wait to visit Bovington for my second time this summer! Me and my Father are coming down from Manchester, stopping by IWM Duxford , then straight to Bovington and finally wrapping things up at the Historic dockyard in Portsmouth…. Can’t wait , my most fond memories are at museums with my dad
I hope that you enjoy the Portsmouth dockyard. I worked for three years in my spare time to restore the Warrior in Hartlepool. Sadly there is nothing at all on board to tell the story of its keel up rebuild largely by local volunteers in the North East.
You will love Bovingtobn, not been sincelalst october so need to go again and see what has changed and also get into the Vehicle Conservation Hall as that has limited opening hours
Duxford is a massive must do. Allow plenty of time to see it all!
Sounds like a fun week.
If you are heading down to Portsmouth, you might also enjoy a visit to the Royal Armouries artillery museum at Fort Nelson.
One of the few channels I've got the notification bell on for. Even having been in this rabbithole for many years at this point, there's always some new tidbit you learn from these
Brilliant as always - excellent, enthusiastic and knowledgble presentation as we always get from Chris!
Hey Tanks Nuts! What did you think of our latest video? Which of these German Tank Destroyers do you think was the best - let us know below
stuh 42 has big boom stick
@@BlahajGaming200110.5 cm boom stick 😊
Great video,I still prefer the stug III
Hetzers gonna hetz
Great video, really interesting to see the wide range of tank destroyers used. I still like the Stug, simple effective and great looking.
Awesome video Chris, love your passion and insights. Keep up the great work
The Stug and Stug Life will always be the favorite.
👍🏻
I really enjoyed this - love the colour highlights to draw attention to hatches etc. Well done !
Thank you. I very interesting video and following in the footsteps of the 2 Davids is no easy task and yet you've done it and i enjoy your informative and authoritative style. You will always get your nit-pickers who want to draw attention to themselves and then you get those who add a thought,ask a directive question or offer a constructive criticism handed underarm. Very interesting and the Stugs massive kill rate shows how it was way more than an assualt gun and in fact became the most effective tank destroyer. The results and gun size sort of hint at that. Excellent video from every tankers favourite living museum. Keep up the good work!
Great video, I learned a lot, thanks very much Chris and team.
Another excellent video Tank Museum!
What a great piece of content!! Thanks Tank Museum ❤❤
Great video. Really well done
New Tank Museum content, yaaaaassssss! Also tank destroyers, one of my favourite subjects.
Fantastic video! Thank You! Much was learned here, and I’ve been a student of armor for most of my life! Thanks!
Great video! Jagdpanther and Jagdtiger were truly mighty beasts. 🙂
It would be interesting if the video included an analysis of the cost of the various AFV being discussed. A table with the quantities of materials needed to produce the vehicle as well as the number of hours to assemble and finally the actual financial cost. I think this would go a long way to put the "popularity" of niche vehicles like the Jagd Tiger into perspective. Another interesting comparison would be the frontal area of the different vehicles in square centimetres. Obviously the smaller vehicles will be much easier to hide - would be interesting to put a numerical ratio to their comparative sizes.
What I was thinking, thanks for spelling it out.
The Jagdpanther is by far the best looking armoured fighting vehicle.
Fond memories of my (long ago) childhood building Airfix model Jagdpanthers.
Sure is. Great lines to it.
By far
Close second for me, I think the StrV 103 is
... There not bad, but a bit high profile. I'm a stug fan very much so!.
New Chris Copson video? Happy days! Looking at German tank destroyers? Even better! Excellent video as always!!
Fantastic information as always
So glad Copson's back from Holiday and shifted it into high gear. Love this video. Keep them coming! :)
Great work. Thank you
Fantastic content!!
its quite amazing we get this professional Museum content for free
While some think the technology of tank destroyers made them successful, I'm more of the mind that technology will only be as good as how one uses it. What makes German tank destroyers like the Stug 3 so successful? Ambush tactics. And that's a no-brainer, when you're laying the ambush, you're likely to be the first to land a hit. The low profile does help though in making the ambush easier to do. Reminds me of a page in Ian V. Hogg's old Tanks book which compared German and British tactics. The British liked the cavalry traditions of dash and bravado, so they get chopped up in combat. The Germans use their tanks to draw enemy tanks to the anti-tank guns in ambush, so they do the chopping up.
ambush tactics, decent armor, decently powerful gun, also soviet doctrine helped
What a great video, as always.
Super quality content!
i have never been more excited to watch a video
Very, very interesting and informative material. Thank you :)
Regarding the decline of reliability of German tanks. A lot of that is the consequence of the way the war went. When Germany is on the offence, broken down tanks can easily be recuperated, repaired and pressed back into service. Obviously, this changes when Germany is pushed back. Even a broken track pin can now lead to loss of the tank. Add to that the loss of air superiority and dominance of allied artillery on both fronts . . .
Not to mention the constant air attacks on convoys, trains and factories. 👍🏻
Those are good points but you didn't mention the most important thing. That thing is the lack of properly trained drivers as a tank, especially one built on 30's and 40's technology, is only going to be as reliable as the man driving it. People fail to understand that most Germans didn't even know how to drive a car so in many cases they were starting from scratch with new recruits.
And the fact that to the end of the war those pesky allies just wouldn't stop lighting up the factories in which said tanks and their spare parts were produced also didn't help.
Great analysis and pictures. 👍🏻 And a fun to look at. 😊
Super video, thank you
Good video my friend sounds like you made some changes i like it!! 😉
Loved the video!
Great video
The Polish 7tp will always be my favorite tank of World War 2 but the Hetzer is by far my favorite tank destroyer. The thing just has something really aestheticially pleasing about it.
Sometimes the simplest design just looks “right”…
@@Rendell001 I guess that's why people like Glocks lol.
@@rc59191 You'll shoot your foot off!
Great video, thanks.
Just the fact that the Stug III alone destroyed more allied tanks ( Armour) than all Panzer models combined,shows how good this small,cheap and deadly vehicle really was. The Stug III main gun,the 7,5 cm KwK L/48 was a modified version of the most Successfull AT gun of WW2. The High Velocity 7,5cm L/46 Pak 40. A Simple but Remarkable weapon of war,the Stug III.
Great job 👍
Great video thanks for the tanks
A visit to the Tank Museum is long overdue to refresh my memory of these fighting machines.
Outstanding video
What a terrific little film. Thanks, chaps!
One of the Hetzel engineers went to Romania long before and saw sketches of a prototype tank destroyer Ro was considering to produce for the E front, called Maresal. It was never produced afaik but he took that idea back & applied it later, producing the Hetzel. Maresal looks very similar.
I never quite understood what a tank destroyer's mission was. Now I know! Thank you for an outstanding presentation.
Anothers brilliant video 📹 Tank Museum & thank you for sharing. Also, a big 'Hello' 👋 from Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. 🏴
I might already know a lot of what you talk about, but you guys make fantastic videos nonetheless. Love the work you're doing. Great scripts, great presenters, great historical footage, and real tanks to point to for everything! You guys give all the tanks a real fair shake as well. No editorializing and myths either. I really appreciate that.
Great optics helped a lot
Dang good history video 2 mega👍👍loved it
Well delivered.
Very well done video
Great video. Usual suspects around but also known. And yeah I usually think of the StuG as anti tank even with the StuH42 and such. The primary role was a very good tank killing vehicle that goes against what on paper seems less capable (and suffers in some games, but also those games lack real world inclusion of infantry and other factors (many at least)). Hetzer was also great. But one wonders if the energy and materials spent on the Death Stars of other failed things could have been spent on a sloped armoured StuG III (I know of the Panzer 4 Jagdpanzer but that disrupted both PzIV and StuG production).
Very informative and interesting, thanks. Amazing
Magnifico trabajo de historia...muchas gracias y saludos desde Chile. gracias
Fantastic video, would have been great if we could have seen them in chronological order, or in order of their production quantities. I think that would have given a really nice perspective on the progression and would have given more opportunity for discussion of the impacts of the wider war and Germany itself on the development of these vehicles. Nonetheless, a great watch.
Very nice video
Great stuff
Jagdpanzer is my favourite since I built a model of one 40 years ago. My mate got the T32 instead. Ah to be 12 years old again.
A great video! On my next visit to beautiful Great Britain, I will also visit you.
According to Jagtiger there are still some myths which get constantly repeaded. Its power to weight raito is not worse compared to other vehicles of the same type and role. Us T28/T95 was much slower, same goes fot the British Tortoise. Even the Churchills power to weight ratio is worse than the Jagtigers (8,7 hp/ton vs 9.7 hp/ ton). Jagtiger could maintain a roadspeed of 12.5 Miles (20 Km/h), well thats Churchill Mk IIIs top speed. The Jadtiger had a 8 Speed transmission, allowing it to make good use of its power (Chuchill just had 4 gears). The interleaved roadwheel system further reduced rolling resistance. US replaced the running gear of a M24 Chaffee with the interleaved running gear of a Sdkfz 9 for testing. The Results show that rolling resistance was up to 40% lower on most surfaces. If you watch original footage of Jagdtigers they actually move quite gently through terrain. The Bergepanthers had no issue in towing Jagtigers or recovering them. During tests the Bergepanthers +100 ton hydraulic winch could pull up a Tiger II a 35° inlcine. But of course because of the late war situation fully equipped bergepanthers were rare. But if those vehicles were in service with the allied, they probably could have provide more ARVs for sure. It was not technical issue to recover Jagtigers it was a resource issue of late war german production. Futhermore there were only 120 or 130 Jagdtigers ordered to replace the 90 Ferdinands, it was a special weapon for what if scenarios (like the russian fielding something like IS3 earlier) and creating strong points in the defensive or in the attack against heavily fortyfight positions. It was never planed to be mass produced. Relying mostly on parts which were already in prodcution, it was a far more practical solution than T95 or Tortoise which should served the same roles and followed the same concept. The success of the Ferdinand and the impression it left with the soviets can justyfy the realisation of those tanks, which did not even made up half a percent of germanies entire WWII tank production and are heavily over represented in the media today.
yes, the mobility of tigers, tiger2, jagdtiger and sometimes even panthers is often underestimated. this mostly is related to the impressive mobility a t-34 or a M18 hellcat can show on fitting surfaces (or even panzer3). still the mobility of the german big cats is adequate and sometimes surprising - i remember 2 things o this: first, n yt somewhere you can find a video where germanbig cats go up a steep slope where ussr t-34/85 and sherman struggle at second, in my hometown (germany, southern palatinate close to french border) an old man sometimes told us "young guys" about him as a boy, too young for war service, guiding a platoon of jagdtigers in early 1945 through some forrest on pathes where halftracks had troubles to follow. on telling the story he always admired the power of the machines and how easy they made their way.
The footage of the Jagdtigers at Iserlohn in April 1945 show them moving along pretty nicely. Much faster than the myth tells us.
@@lyndoncmp5751 there is even footage done by the British after war on a German testing ground of this particular Jagdtiger presented in this video. Even with some roadwheels missing it was traversing soft ground, does deep wading, crawling into out of the ditches with steep banks, nocking down trees....
@@HaVoC117X Yes I've seen that one. It was even filmed pivoting on the spot. Hardly the static monstrosity we are now lead to believe.
@@HaVoC117X If you can't stabilise the gun, stabilise the whole tank. All those interleaved roadwheels were excellent for keeping the crew and the armament steady.
The Jagdpanther just may be THE best mounting of the high velocity version of the 88 like was used in the Tiger II ... Admittedly, the Stug was the most useful
You think the Stug looks better than the Jagdpanther?
Thanks!
Great to watch,was hearing of the stripped out interiors,will we be able to see the full interiors as they were one day"?.the jagdpather was my favorite.
Thanks for a great Tiger day ❤
Awesome thanks 👍
It would be interesting to have a video comparing the American+British, German and USSR approaches to tank destroyers
I wouldn't have wanted to be in one of those poorly armoured open topped American ones.
US tank Destroyers on the defensive shut up German Armor in the Bulge
American tank destroyers were supposed to be a direct counter to 'blitzkrieg', small rapid reaction forces that would rush to whichever part of the line was threatened by a concentration of enemy armor to either prevent or contain the breakthrough long enough for other units to move in to plug the gap. Because of that the TD branch wanted vehicles that were fast, open topped for better spotting (they weren't supposed to stay in one position long enough for artillery to hone in on them), turreted for flexibility in firing position, and armed with a powerful gun. Or, in other words, they wanted the M18, even though lots of the units in theater preferred the interim M10 because it had armor resistant to more than small arms. The British, as I understand it, mostly treated their tank destroyers like like self towed AT guns and intended them to largely fight the same way, from ambush, just being less vulnerable to return fire and able to more quickly reposition. The exemplar here is Archer with is rear facing gun. Red Army doctrine was, again as I understand it, largely an extension of their existing artillery doctrine. All towed guns were expected to be able to be move forward behind the infantry to provide precise direct fire against point targets, including but not limited to enemy tanks, and to defend their own lines as anti tank guns if necessary (yes, even the large caliber howitzers). The various SUs just leaned harder into those direct fire roles, often at the expense of indirect fire capability, and were less vulnerable to enemy fure, to varying degrees, doing it.
@@issacfoster1113 The Americans lost nearly THREE TIMES as much armour as the Germans did in combat in the Ardennes. Approximately 50% of German armour losses in the Ardennes were due to running out of fuel, mechanical issues without the resources to maintain them, a thrown track or getting stuck in a ditch etc and no supporting vehicles or troops to sort them out. The Germans were basically running on empty in the Ardennes. Still, a LOT of American armour was taken out.
@@StacheMan26 Good, well explained post. 👍
Excellent video. I had a great time at Tiger Day.
貴重な写真が、沢山あるんですね！！有難うございました。
An excellent deep dive into the German assault guns OP! I have wondered what the inside of the Jagdpanther was like for years. And i can't imagine being on a Sherman or a Cromwell crew sometime after D-Day and finding yourself on the receiving end of one. Imagine your tank platoon furiously firing round after round at a Jagdpanther only to see every single shot shrugged off like so many flung rocks by that massive plate of sloped armor.
Thanks for the tanks
Really good video thank ypu ❤ You didnt really say what the bad was with any other TD than the ,jagdtiger
This guy seems to know what he is talking about ! Good stuff.
It's a good day when you can wake up with a strong cup of joe ☕️ while watching another awesome video by the great crew at the Tank Museum! 👍
Thanks
The Germans just thought: “oh let’s put the biggest gun there is on the tiger 2 chassis.”
Continuing the Tank Museum's excellent vidoes. Can you please give the speaker proper name credit or introduction like you did with David F and David W? I think he does a teriffic job stepping into some pretty impressive shoes and fully deserves the recognition.
I still want to see a video on "Evolutionary Dead-Ends". I've posted asking for one before but I love the idea so much I want to suggest it again.
Love to hear more, jagdpanzer iv and stug iv are the ones tobadd here. Also, can we expect an allied TD video? From M10s to su-100s?
They left SU-100 as the best last treat.
Great video! The evolution of Soviet tanks as well is something very impressive
this is great
Excellent video. Very informative. I had a German relative who was on the Stug III from 1942-1944 exclusively on the Russian front. His first vehicle had the 75mm cannon, but I remember him saying his battalion later had Stug III with the 88mm cannon with some suspension upgrades and took orders directly from OKW in Germany via a special communications section that had long range radio equipment to talk to them. In essence they were a fire brigade that moved about the southern front in late 1943 to fall of 1944 to hot spots in order to add their fire power with the 88's. By autumn 1944 the remainder of this special Stug BN was in Transylvania, and there the last ones ran out of fuel. My relative said he and his crew had to abandon theirs and blow it in place. They were on foot moving west but were captured sometime after losing their vehicle. Does The Tank Museum have any information on this special one of a kind Stug III BN variant that apparently mounted the 88mm anti-tank gun?
The comment about the Hetzer colour scheme made me smile. A Czech friend of mine published some books on the Hetzer and Marder in the '90s and 2000s which I helped with 😁 and I was thinking those colours on that Hetzer look very strange.
Fascinating.
German Tank Destroyers are a guilty pleasure of mine. There are lots of important details in this one, with a couple of minor errors. Nice work!
I was a conscript with the Panzerjäger when they were still part of the Bundeswehr. The Jaguar 1 and 2 vehicles were carrying guided missile systems like TOW and HOT, yet the history of the Sturmgeschütze was very much alive in the branch in the 80s.
What’s not to like??? Sitting in your vehicle,clean and dry snoring and farting. Surrounded by a screen of protective infantry who are dug into trenches, muddy,wet tired, rain snow or air burst. And they are happy to see you arrive. Jam tart job.
Thank you.
Imagine how loud one of those shells inside that steel box going off would be... I don't know how any of these men had any hearing left after the war to even be able to do interviews.
Jadgpanther was the first ever Airfix model I ever built and painted as a child in the ‘70s . Looked very sleek and powerful
Would be good to have a follow-up to place the Jagdpanzer IV into context with the others already discussed.