Tank destroyers

Tank destroyers
Tank destroyer cannon on the Munster military training area
General properties
crew	4 (commander, driver, gunner, loader)
length	8.75 m (with cannon), 6.24 m (tub only)
width	2.98 m
height	2.00 m
Dimensions	25.7 tons
Armor and armament
Armor	8–50 mm armor steel
Main armament	1 × 90 mm Rheinmetall cannon L / 40.4 (51 rounds)
Secondary armament	1 × MG3 as aperture MG 1 × MG3 as Fla-MG
agility
drive	Eight cylinders - multi-fuel engine Daimler-Benz MB 837 Aa-500; Displacement: 29.9 l 500 hp (368 kW)
suspension	Torsion bar
Top speed	70 km / h (road)
Power / weight	19.5 hp / ton
Range	approx. 390 km

Prototype of the Henschel tank destroyer with six rollers in the Munster tank museum

The Kanonenjagdpanzer , also known as Jagdpanzer, Kanone 90 mm or Kanonenjagdpanzer 4–5 , abbreviated to KanJPz , was the second tank destroyer of the German Bundeswehr , but the only one with barrel armament.

background

After the war, the Bundeswehr relied on a "mobile defense" which, among other things, provided for the use of tank destroyers . These should support the infantry in defending against enemy tanks . For this purpose, the Bundeswehr procured the Raketenjagdpanzer 1 from 1961 and then from 1965 the Kanonenjagdpanzer, which until 1968 replaced the US-American models M41 , M47 and M48 used in the tank hunter companies and the tank destroyer platoons of the tank infantry battalions .

development

The development of the Kanonenjagdpanzer began in 1960 and was based on the experience of the Wehrmacht in World War II - the Kanonenjagdpanzer represented a further development of the Jagdpanzer IV . The order for production was given to the armaments companies Henschel and Ruhrstahl (later Rheinstahl - Hanomag ), each of which produced twelve prototypes which only differed in the number of rollers. Henschel preferred six rollers per side for its HK 3/1 prototype, whereas Rheinstahl-Hanomag opted for five rollers for the RU 332 prototype.

At least one prototype called Gepard was also made by the MOWAG company and is now in the Swiss Military Museum Full . Two different two-stroke diesel engines were available for the Gepard, a five-cylinder type M5 DU MOWAG engine with 6.7 liters displacement and 270 PS (199 kW) at 2100 rpm and an engine with 13.5 liters displacement and 540 PS (397 kW ).

After extensive troop tests by the German army , the tests were completed in 1963. The Rheinstahl-Hanomag version was selected, of which 770 tank destroyers were manufactured by both companies between 1965 and 1967.

Structure and use

construction

It is a turretless full-track vehicle in casemate design with a 90 mm L / 40.4 cannon from Rheinmetall, from which (theoretically) all 90 mm NATO cartridge ammunition could be fired. The armor of the Kanonenjagdpanzers consisted - apart from the cast cover for the on-board cannon (BK) - of alloyed rolled sheet and was bevelled. The on-board cannon, together with the shutter machine gun, could be swiveled 15 ° to both sides, 15 ° upwards and 8 ° downwards. The main types of ammunition provided were shaped charges and squeeze heads ; there was also fog (WP) - and later also light ammunition. The crew consisted of a commander , gunner , loader and driver . The principle of operation was the fight from positions at combat distances of up to 1800 m with shaped charge projectiles against armored and up to 2000 m with squeeze-head projectiles against light and unarmored targets.

commitment

The vehicles were used in the army in the tank hunter companies of the tank grenadier brigades, in the heavy companies of the tank grenadier , hunter and mountain hunter battalions , and later in the tank hunter battalions of the hunter and mountain rifle brigades.

Against the Soviet T-64 and T-72 battle tanks, the ammunition of the 90-mm cannon proved to be too weak, as it could only fight such targets at distances of less than 1000 m. In the 1970s, the Rheinstahl-Sonderanproduktion company (Kassel) presented a concept for increasing the combat value / conversion of the cannon hunter with a 105 mm PzK . Since the Jaguar 1 rocket tank destroyer was approaching at that time and could now fight targets over a greater combat range (4000 m) head-on and not flanking as before, the concept was no longer pursued. From 1983 onwards, therefore, all tank destroyers were removed from the units of the field army and given to the territorial army ( homeland security brigades, homeland security regiments ) for further use.

From 1983 onwards, 162 tank destroyers were converted to the Jaguar 2 tank destroyer with the TOW weapon system and used in tank destroyer companies of the tank grenadier brigades. A further 486 vehicles were converted into observation tanks or observation and command tanks. To do this, the cannon was removed from the cover, which had to remain on the vehicle for weight distribution reasons, and the opening was closed. They served as VB tanks in the artillery battalions and in the tank mortar companies of the armored infantry battalions .

Up until 1991, tank destroyers were still in service in non-active tank destroyer companies and tank destroyer platoons of the homeland security forces.

User states

 BR Germany - 770 units until 1991 as KaJaPa, 1996 as Jaguar 2 and until 2003 as observation and command tank (without cannon)

 Belgium - 80 pieces until the beginning of the 1990s, but with a less powerful MB 837 Aa engine and an improved laser range finder and fire control computer from SABCA

See also

• List of tank models after 1945

Mowag Cheetah in the Swiss Military Museum
Link to the picture
(Please note copyrights )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl Anweiler, Rainer Blank: The wheeled and tracked vehicles of the Bundeswehr 1956 to today. P. 316.
2. ↑ Wasilij Saizev: Jagdpanzer- Kanon Gepard MOWAG. Swiss Military Museum. May 20, 2019, accessed May 20, 2019 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Rolf Hilmes: tank destroyers of the Bundeswehr . Ed .: Motorbuch Verlag. 1st edition. Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-613-03805-9 , pp. 128 .

literature

• André Deinhardt: Panzergrenadiers - a class of troops in the Cold War: 1960 to 1970. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-48670464-8 .
• 3rd revised edition of the catalog of the Panzermuseum Munster, 1992, published by Stadt Munster.
• Karl Anweiler, Rainer Blank: The wheeled and tracked vehicles of the Bundeswehr from 1956 to the present day. Bechtermünz-Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-8289-5369-7 .

Web links

Commons : Kanonenjagdpanzer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files