Re: [GZG] Subject: Re: What are the pitfalls of standardised forces?

At 2:08 PM +1000 7/14/08, Tony Wilkinson wrote:
>Gday all,
>
>Assault guns came about because;
>
>1) Cost - far cheaper than a tank.
>2) Manufacture - quicker and easier to build 
>that a turret and no fiddly turret rings to have 
>to mill.
>3) Gun Size - you can mount a far bigger gun on the same chassis (see
below)
>4) Reuse of old hulls - an old tank that is 
>obsolete can make an effective Assault gun. Take 
>the German Panzer II from WWII. Obsolete by 1940 
>being only able to mounted a 20mm gun, by 1944 
>it is being remade into the Hertzer assault gun 
>mounting a pretty good 75mm. A similar story 
>with the Panzer III and IV.

Actually the Panzer II's were remade into the 
Luchs, the Marder II, Wespe and a number of other 
SPs for howitzers. The Hetzer was a remake of the 
Czech  38t chassis.

>They are also smaller than a tank have better 
>frontal armour for the same weight (leaving out 
>the Jagtiger).

Only 60mm at a deep slope. Their main benefit was 
their size. They are bloody cramped for their 4 
man crew(I got to ride on and crawl around in the 
VMMV hetzer). Worse when fully stowed. The 
commander has his own hatch and the loader sits 
off to the left of the gun with a hatch he shares 
with the driver and gunner. Given the ammo 
stowage arrangements, if it takes a hit and 
starts to burn, the chances for the gunner and 
driver getting out are slim. The Commander has as 
I said, his own hatch and he sits in this nice 
little cubby directly behind the main gun and 
it's recoil shield with the engine just on his 
left.
-- 
--
Ryan Gill	       rmgill@SPAMmindspring.com
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'60 Daimler Ferret '42 Daimler Dingo '42 Humber MkIV (1/3)
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