Tank destroyers

Tank destroyer cannon 90 mm (prototype)

A tank destroyer is a tank designed for anti - tank defense . This tank class originally emerged from the vehicle class of assault guns in the middle of the Second World War . Originally it was equipped with a cannon, from the middle of the 20th century also with anti-tank guided missiles. After the massive deployments during the Second World War , large numbers of these vehicles were also kept ready for use during the Cold War . In the meantime, however, they have almost completely disappeared. Armored personnel carriers , which are additionally equipped with anti-tank missile systems, or anti-tank / combat helicopters have taken on their task .

variants

Tank destroyers are available in the following versions:

• turretless casemate armor
• Rare as turret armor with modified equipment
• Missile destroyer

history

Tank fighters in the First World War can be seen as the forerunners of the tank destroyers . These were guns (mostly field guns , but also anti-aircraft guns ) that were mounted on motor vehicles in order to fight tanks with direct fire from short distances.

One of the first vehicles that can be addressed as a tank destroyer was the Marder tank destroyer (albeit more of a self-propelled gun than a real tank), which was created during the Russian campaign during World War II . These were captured Russian 7.62 cm Pak 36 (r) or PaK 40 , which were mounted on the chassis of captured tanks, such as the Hotchkiss H-35 or Hotchkiss H-39 , or those of decommissioned tanks. The successor models developed from this, such as the Jagdpanzer 38 (t) "Hetzer" (on a modified chassis of the outdated ČKD-Praga TNH ) and the Jagdpanther. For the sake of simplicity, the tank destroyers were often built on the chassis of battle tanks. The turretless, so-called casemate structure was also cheaper and easier to manufacture than a battle tank; In addition, chassis of outdated types could continue to be used. One example of this is the Marder III tank destroyer . Tank destroyers usually carried significantly larger and stronger cannons than the corresponding battle tanks from which they emerged (e.g. Panther : 75 mm → Jagdpanther : 88 mm / T-34/85 : 85 mm → SU-100 : 100 mm). This led to greater impact and reach. The vehicle was roughly aimed at the target while the gunner did the fine-tuning. Due to the design, he could only point the on- board cannon a few degrees to the side. The lower silhouette as well as a higher specific power corresponded to the preferred combat tactics: the tank destroyer lay in wait for enemy tanks in camouflage, then suddenly opened fire and withdrew as soon as the defensive fire became too strong to be camouflaged again. A bow machine gun was often installed to ward off infantry attacks.

During the Second World War, tank destroyers like the Jagdpanther with its 8.8 cm anti-tank gun were very successful in anti-tank defense.

The battle tank-like version was only available in the US Army , which used the M18 Hellcat and the M10 Wolverine , while the latter was then replaced by the more powerful M36 Jackson . The latter two vehicles differed not only in a completely different purpose from the battle tanks used, but also in their stronger armament. For example, B. the M36 over a 90 mm anti-aircraft gun , which was also used in the heavy battle tank M26 Pershing . Another striking difference between the M10 and the M36 and the US main battle tanks of World War II is an open-top turret, which is particularly untypical for main battle tanks. Both tank destroyers were built on a battle tank chassis, while the M18 consisted of a specially developed vehicle. These vehicles were also equipped with at least one machine gun to ward off infantry.

Most recently, tank destroyers were often built on the chassis of lighter tanks such as armored personnel carriers or reconnaissance tanks . Although they were only lightly armored, they were very fast and armed with long-range anti-tank guided missiles, such as. B. the Jaguar , which could fight enemy tanks up to a distance of 3750 m.

The tasks of the tank destroyers are now in most cases taken over by attack helicopters and by infantry armed with anti-tank missiles .

literature

• Peter Chamberlain, Hilary Doyle, Thomas L. Jentz : Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two , ISBN 978-0-668-04565-0 .
• Robert Jackson: tanks: models from around the world from 1915 to today. PaRRagon Verlag, Bath 2009, ISBN 978-1-4075-7742-5 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Jagdpanzer  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Overview of German tank destroyers at www.panzer-archiv.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Swedish Stridsvagn 103 executed in this way is, however, classified as a battle tank
2. ↑ By doing without a tower, this type of tower could be built with an extremely low silhouette.
3. ^ Otto Lueger : Lexicon of the entire technology and its auxiliary sciences . 2nd Edition. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart and Leipzig 1920 ( zeno.org [accessed on May 22, 2019] lexicon entry "Tankjäger").
4. ↑ Visually, the American tank destroyers hardly differed from main battle tanks (e.g. in the case of the Sherman Firefly one can only distinguish whether it was a tank destroyer or a main battle tank by the purpose).