![]() Sturmtiger in the Deutsches Panzermuseum at Munster. ![]() This was not a success in battle, and was replaced with a very successful series of increasingly powerful turretless assault guns: the SU-76, SU-122, and the heavy SU-152, which were followed by the ISU-122 and ISU-152 on the new IS heavy tank chassis. Later in the war, both the Germans and the Soviets introduced fully armored purpose-built assault guns into their arsenals.Įarly on, the Soviets built the KV-2, a variant of the KV-1 heavy tank with a short-barreled 152 mm howitzer mounted in an oversized turret. Early in the war, the Germans began to create makeshift assault guns by mounting their infantry support weapons on the bed of a truck or on obsolete tanks with the turret removed. The Soviet SU-76 was easily constructed in small factories incapable of producing proper tanks.Īssault guns were primarily used during World War II by the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In most cases, these turretless vehicles also presented a lower profile as a target for the enemy. The use of a casemate instead of a gun turret limited these weapons field of fire, but allowed a larger gun to be fitted relative to the chassis, more armor to be fitted for the same weight, and provided a cheaper construction. Historically the custom-built fully armored assault guns usually mounted the gun or howitzer in a fully enclosed casemate on a tank chassis. Germany introduced the first purpose-built assault gun, the Stug III, in the late 1930s thus establishing this category of armoured vehicles. The term is a literal translation of the German word "Sturmgeschütz". StuG III with 75 mm gun, first in service for the Syrian army, now in an Israeli museum.Īn assault gun is a gun or howitzer mounted on a motor vehicle or armored chassis, designed for use in the direct fire role in support of infantry when attacking other infantry or fortified positions.
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