Armored vehicles of Germany in the Second World War. Assault gun "Ferdinand"
The managers took advantage of Hitler's instructions to create an assault gun based on the PZ.IV and VK 4501 tanks, armed with the latest 88-mm anti-tank gun Pak 43 / 2 with a barrel in 71 caliber. With the submission of the Arms Directorate, it was decided to convert all 92 ready-made and being assembled in the workshops of the Nibelungenwerke plant of the VK 4501 (P) chassis into assault guns.
In September 1942, work began. The design was carried out by Porsche together with the designers of the Alkett plant in Berlin. Since the wheelhouse was to be located aft, the layout of the chassis had to be changed by placing the engines and generators in the middle of the hull. Initially it was planned to assemble new ACSs in Berlin, but this had to be abandoned due to difficulties associated with transportation by rail, and because of the unwillingness to suspend the release of StuG III assault guns, the main product of Alkett. As a result, the assembly of the ACS, which received the official designation 8,8 cm Pak 43 / 2 Sfl L / 71 Panzerjager Tiger (P) Sd.Kfz. 184 and the name Ferdinand (assigned personally by Hitler in February 1943, in deference to Dr. Ferdinand Porsche), was produced at the Nibelungenwerke plant.
The frontal 100-mm hulls of the Tiger (P) tank hull were also reinforced with 100-mm armor plates fixed to the hull with bolts with a bullet-proof head. Thus, the frontal armor of the case was brought to 200 mm. The frontal heading sheet had a similar thickness. The thickness of the side and stern sheets reached 80 mm (according to other data 85 mm). The armor plates of the cabin were joined “in a thorn” and strengthened with dowels, and then scalded. The cabin was attached to the body with brackets and bolts with a bullet-proof head.
In front of the hull located seats driver and radio operator. Behind them, in the center of the machine, two 12-cylinder carburetor V-shaped liquid-cooled engines Maybach HL 120TRM hp 265 hp were installed parallel to each other. (at 2600 rpm) each. The engines rotated two Siemens Tour aGV generators, which, in turn, supplied electric power to two Siemens D1495aAC traction electric motors with 230 kW each installed in the rear part of the vehicle under the fighting compartment. The torque from the electric motors was transmitted by electromechanical onboard gears to the driving wheels of the aft layout. In emergency mode or in the case of combat damage to one of the branches of the power supply, it was provided for duplication.
The chassis "Ferdinand" in relation to one board consisted of six road wheels with internal depreciation interlocked in pairs in three trucks with the original, very complex, but highly effective Porshevskoy suspension scheme with longitudinal torsions, tested even on an experienced VK 3001 (P) chassis. The drive wheel had removable gear rims with 19 teeth each. The guide wheel also had toothed rims, which excluded idle rewind of the tracks.
Each track consisted of 109 tracks 640 mm wide.
The 88-mm Pak 43 / 2 gun (self-propelled version StuK 43) with a barrel length 71 caliber, developed on the basis of the Flak 41 anti-aircraft gun, was installed in the wheelhouse, in the axles of the special machine. The horizontal pointing angle did not exceed the 28 ° sector. Elevation angle + 14 °, declination -8 °. 2200 gun weight kg. The embrasure in the frontal cutting room was covered with a massive, pear-shaped cast mask connected to the machine. However, the design of the mask was not very successful and did not provide complete protection against lead bullet sprays and small fragments that penetrated into the body through the gaps between the mask and the front sheet. Therefore, on the masks of most of the "Ferdinands" reinforced armor shields. The gun ammunition included 50 unitary shots placed on the walls of the cabin. In the stern of the cabin there was a round hatch intended for dismantling the gun.
According to German data, an PzGr 39 / 43 armor-piercing mass of 10,16 kg and an initial speed of 1000 m / s was punched at a distance of 1000 m 165-mm armor (at a meeting angle of 90 °), and a sabot PzGr 40 / 43 mass of 7,5 and X 1130 m / s - 193-mm, which provided "Ferdinand" the unconditional defeat of any of the then existing tanks.
The assembly of the first car began on February 16, and the last, the ninetieth Ferdinand, left the factory workshops 8 of May 1943. In April, the first production vehicle was tested at the Kummersdorf test site.
The baptism of Ferdinand was accepted during Operation Citadel as part of the 656 Tank Regiment, which included 653 and 654 Divisions (schwere Panzerjager Abteilung - sPz.Jager Abt.). By the beginning of the battle in the first there was 45, and in the second - 44 "Ferdinand". Both divisions were under the operational control of the 41 tank corps, participated in heavy battles on the northern face of the Kursk Bulge in the area of Ponyri station (654 division) and the village of Teploe (653 division).
The 654 division suffered especially heavy losses mainly in minefields. On the battlefield remained 21 "Ferdinand". The German equipment, shot down and destroyed in the area of the Ponyri station, was examined by 15 on July 1943 by representatives of the GAU and the NIBTPygon of the Red Army. Most of the "Ferdinands" was on a minefield filled with land mines from captured large-caliber shells and aerial bombs. More than half of the cars had damage to the chassis: broken tracks, broken track rollers, etc. In the five Ferdinands, damage to the undercarriage was caused by hits of projectiles of caliber 76-mm and more. In two German self-propelled guns, the gun barrels were shot through with shells and bullets of anti-tank guns. One car was destroyed by a direct hit of an aerial bomb, and another was hit by a 203-mm howitzer projectile hit the deckhouse roof.
Only one ACS of this type, which was fired from different directions with seven T-34 tanks and a battery of 76-mm guns, had a hole in the board, in the area of the drive wheel. Another Ferdinand, without any damage to the hull and chassis, was set on fire by an incendiary bottle thrown by our infantrymen.
The Soviet SS-152 turned out to be the only worthy opponent of the heavy German self-propelled guns. The regiment SU-152 fired at 8 on July 1943 of the year attacking the “Ferdinands” of the 653-division, killing four enemy vehicles. In total, in July - August 1943, the Germans lost the 39 "Ferdinands". The last trophies went to the Red Army on the outskirts of Orel - at the railway station several damaged assault guns prepared for evacuation were captured.
The first battles of the “Ferdinands” at the Kursk Bulge became, in essence, the last, where these SAUs were used in large quantities. From a tactical point of view, their use left much to be desired. Created for the destruction of Soviet medium and heavy tanks at long distances, they were used as an advanced "armor shield", blindly ramming engineering barriers and anti-tank defenses, while suffering heavy losses. However, the moral effect of the appearance on the Soviet-German front in many ways invulnerable German self-propelled guns was very large. Appeared "Ferdinandomania" and "Ferdinand-Fear." Judging by the memoirs of literature, there was no fighter in the Red Army who did not knock out or, in extreme cases, did not participate in the battle with Ferdinands. They crawled into our positions on all fronts, beginning with the 1943 year (and sometimes even earlier) and up to the end of the war. The number of "wrecked" "Ferdinands" is approaching several thousand. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the majority of Red Army soldiers had little understanding of Marder, Bison and Naschorn there, and called any German self-propelled gun Ferdinand, which shows how great his "popularity" was among our fighters. Well, in addition, for the padded "Ferdinand" without talking gave the order.
After the infamous completion of Operation Citadel, the Ferdinands remaining in the ranks were transferred to Zhytomyr and Dnepropetrovsk, where their current repair and replacement of tools began, caused by a strong peak of the barrels. At the end of August, the personnel of the 654 division were sent to France for re-formation and rearmament. At the same time, he transferred his ACS to the 653 Division, which in October - November took part in defensive battles in the area of Nikopol and Dnepropetrovsk. In December, the division left the front line and was sent to Austria.
From July 5 (the beginning of Operation Citadel) through November 5 of the Ferdinand 1943 regiment knocked out 656 Soviet tanks, 582 anti-tank guns, 344 guns, 133 anti-tank guns, three aircraft, three armored vehicles and three SAUs, three SAUs, three aircraft, three SAUs, and three SAU planes. .Ledwoch.Ferdinand / Elefant. - Warszawa, 103).
Between January and March 1944, the Nibelungenwerke plant underwent an 47 upgrade of the remaining Ferdinands. In the frontal hull armor on the right, a ball mount of the MG 34 machine gun was mounted. A commander's turret, borrowed from the StuG 40 assault gun, appeared on the cabin roof. The shield on the barrel of the gun was turned "backwards" for better fastening, and also equipped with SPGs that did not have it. Ammunition brought to 55 shots. The name of the car was changed to Elefant (elephant). However, until the end of the war, self-propelled guns were often called by the familiar name "Ferdinand".
At the end of February 1944, the 1 th company of the 653 Division, was sent to Italy, where she participated in the battles at Anzio, and in May-June 1944 of the year - near Rome. In late June, the company, in which there were two serviceable "Elephanta", was transferred to Austria.
In April 1944, the 653 Division, consisting of two companies, was sent to the Eastern Front, in the Ternopil region. There, during the battles, the division lost 14 machines, but 11 of them managed to be repaired and re-commissioned. In July, in the division, already retreating through the territory of Poland, there were 33 serviceable self-propelled guns. However, 18 July 653-th division without intelligence and training was thrown into battle to the rescue of the SS Hohenstaufen 9 Panzer Division and within a day the number of combat vehicles in its ranks more than doubled. The Soviet troops very successfully used their heavy SPG and 57-mm anti-tank guns against the "eleants". Some of the German cars were only damaged and could be fully restored, but due to the impossibility of evacuation, they were blown up or set on fire by their own crews. The remnants of the division-12 combat-capable machines - 3 August was taken to Krakow. In October, the Jagdtiger self-propelled guns began to enter the division, and the remaining "elefants" were consolidated into the 1944 heavy anti-tank company.
Before the start of 1945, the company was in the reserve of the 4 tank army, and on February 25 it was transferred to the Wünsdorf area to strengthen the anti-tank defense. At the end of April, the "elephants" held the last battles in Wünsdorf and Zossen as part of the so-called Ritter group (captain Ritter was the commander of the 614 battery).
In Berlin, surrounded by the last two self-propelled guns "Elephant" were hit in the area of Karl-August Square and the Church of Holy Trinity.
To this day, two SAUs of this type have been preserved. The Museum of armored weapons and equipment in Kubinka displays Ferdinand captured by the Red Army during the Battle of Kursk, and the Museum of the Aberdeen Proving Ground in the USA is Elephant, which went to the Americans in Italy, under Anzio.
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