Light tank destroyer: about the shortcomings of the German self-propelled guns Jagdpanzer 38 "Hetzer"
About the German self-propelled guns Jagdpanzer 38, also known as the "Hetzer", you can find a variety of reviews. Someone considers this self-propelled artillery installation "a formidable fighter tanks". Others call it not the best combat vehicle of the Wehrmacht.
Whatever it was, but from April 1944 to April 1945, 2612 Hetsers were produced at Czech factories, which is quite a lot. However, the car did have a number of drawbacks, which will be discussed below.
It’s worth starting with the fact that, according to the terms of reference, the self-propelled guns, created on the chassis of the Czech light tank PzKpfw 38 (t), should have weighed 13 tons. However, the first cars, released in April 44th, had a mass of 16 tons, which created an overload of the front rollers.
Later, the weight of the car was reduced by reducing the reservation, but it did not "fit" into the above requirements.
Speaking of armor, for a light self-propelled gun, it was quite good in the Jagdpanzer 38. The forehead armor had a thickness of 60 mm and angles of inclination of 50 (bottom) and 30 (top) degrees. According to some reports, due to the angles of inclination, the armor plates sometimes even withstood a hit from a 76-mm Soviet ZIS-3.
However, the Czech steel was so brittle that after being hit inside the machine, chips formed and fasteners flew off.
- one of the German soldiers wrote in his memoirs.
The Hetsera's 75mm cannon was able to take on any medium tank without any problems. At the same time, it never reached the declared rate of fire of 12-15 rounds per minute, since the loader in this vehicle was on the left, and reloading the gun was another task.
There were flaws in the machine gun. Despite the fact that he had a remote control, there were only 50 rounds in the drum. At the same time, to reload the machine gun, the loader still had to get out of the combat vehicle.
Finally, the Jagdpanzer 38 self-propelled guns are often called a “blind machine” due to the small number of viewing devices. The commander of the vehicle did not even have an observation tower.
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