Jagdpanzer IV

Jagdpanzer IV

Jagdpanzer IV at the Deutsches Panzermuseum

Type Tank destroyer

Place of origin Nazi Germany

Production history

Produced December 1943 – April 1945

No. built about 2,000

Specifications (Jagdpanzer IV/70(V)[1])

Mass 25.8 tonnes (28.4 short tons; 25.4 long tons)

Length 8.5 m (27 ft 11 in)

Width 3.17 m (10 ft 5 in)

 Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)

Crew 4 (driver, commander, gunner, loader)

Armor 10–80 mm (0.39–3.15 in)

Main 1x 7.5 cm Pak 42 L/70

armament
55 rounds

Secondary 1x or 2x 7.92 mm Maschinengewehr 42

armament
600 rounds

Engine Maybach HL120 TRM

300 PS (296 hp, 221 kW)

Power/weight 11.6 PS (8.6 kW) / tonne

Suspension Leaf springs

Operational 210 km (130 mi)

range

The Jagdpanzer IV, Sd.Kfz. 162, was a German tank destroyer based

on the Panzer IV chassis and built in three main variants. As one of
the casemate-style turretless Jagdpanzer (tank destroyer, literally
"hunting tank") designs, it was developed against the wishes of Heinz
Guderian, the inspector general of the Panzertruppen, as a replacement
for the Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III). Guderian objected against the
needless, in his eyes, diversion of resources from Panzer IV tank
production, as the Sturmgeschütz III was still more than adequate for its
role.
Officially, only the L/48-armed vehicle was named Jagdpanzer IV. The
L/70-armed vehicle was named Jagdpanzer IV/70. In this article, both
versions are referred to in general as Jagdpanzer IV, except in the
variants and surviving vehicles section.
 Contents

 1Development
 2Variants
 3Combat history
 4Comparable vehicles
 5Related
 6Survivors
 7References
 8External links

Development[edit]
With experience gained during the initial phases of the Battle of
Stalingrad, in September 1942 the Wehrmacht's arms bureau,
the Waffenamt, called for a new standard for heavy assault guns:
100 mm of armor to the front, 40–50 mm on the sides, wider tracks,
ground clearance of 50 cm, top speed of 26 km/h and the lowest possible
firing positions. The new Panzerjäger ("tank hunter") design would be
armed with the same 7.5 cm gun as fitted to the Panther: the Pak 42
L/70. Initially a new chassis was planned, but that of the Panzer IV had
to be used.
Previous efforts to mount bigger guns on smaller chassis resulted in
the Marder series as well as StuG IIIs. The Marder series were tall and
had open crew compartments. The new design had a low silhouette and
completely enclosed, casemate-style fighting compartment.
The Jagdpanzer IV used a modified Panzer IV Ausf. H chassis, but the
almost-vertical front hull plate was replaced by sloped armor plates.
Internally, the layout was changed to accommodate the new
superstructure, moving the fuel tanks and ammunition racks. Since
the Jagdpanzer lacked a turret, the auxiliary engine which powered the
Panzer IV's turret traverse mechanism could be eliminated.
The new superstructure had 80 mm thick sloped armour, giving much
greater protection than vertical armour of 100 mm. To make the
manufacturing process as simple as possible, the superstructure was
made from large, interlocking plates that were welded together.
Armament consisted of a 7.5 cm main gun, originally intended to be the
Pak 42 L/70. Due to shortages, older guns were initially used, the 7.5 cm
Pak 39 L/43 for pre-production, and the 7.5 cm Pak 39 L/48 for the
initial production variant. These were shorter and less powerful than the
Pak 42, and also carried a muzzle brake.
Installing the much heavier Pak 42 meant that the Jagdpanzer IV was
nose heavy, especially with the heavy frontal armour. This made them
less mobile and more difficult to operate in rough terrain, leading their
crews to nickname them Guderian-Ente ("Guderian's duck"). To prevent
the rubber rims of the roadwheels being dislocated by the weight of the
vehicle, some later versions had steel roadwheels installed on the front.
The final prototype of the Jagdpanzer IV was presented in December
1943 and production started in January 1944, with the Pak 39 L/48
armed variant staying in production until November. Production of the
Pak 42 L/70 armed variants started in August and continued until
March/April 1945.
On 19–22 August 1943, after the Battle of Kursk, Hitler received reports
that StuG IIIs performed better than the Panzer IV within the constraints
of how they were deployed. It was thus intended to stop production of
the Panzer IV itself at the end of 1944 to concentrate solely on
production of the Jagdpanzer IV, but the Panzer IV continued to be
produced until the end of the conflict along with Jagdpanzer IV.
VoMAG in Plauen switched completely from Panzer IV production to
Jagdpanzer IV in Spring 1944, Krupp-Grusonwerk in Magdeburg
switched to StuG IV in early 1944, and only the Nibelungenwerk in St.
Valentin continued with Panzer IV production.

Variants[edit]
The 0-Serie preproduction vehicle at Deutsches Panzermuseum

 Jagdpanzer IV 0-Serie
with 7.5 cm Pak 39 L/43: a small number of these were built as the
preproduction (0-Serie) probably in December 1943. [1]

 Jagdpanzer IV (Sd.Kfz.162 ) [1]

with 7.5 cm Pak 39 L/48, developed under the

name Sturmgeschütz neuer Art mit 7.5 cm Pak L/48 auf
Fahrgestell PzKpfw IV, with 769–784 produced in January 1944 -
November 1944. [1]

 Jagdpanzer IV/70 (V) (Sd.Kfz.162/1 ) [1]

was one of two variants armed with the same Pak 42 L/70 gun. The
(V) stands for the designer, Vomag. The most produced version,
with 930–940 built in August 1944 - April 1945.  Equipped with a [1]

long, powerful L/70 7.5cm anti-tank gun that could outrange

opposing Allied tank weapons, the Jagdpanzer IV/70(V) Lang
proved a formidable foe. The "Lang" (German for "long") in its
name was added to distinguish it from its predecessor with a
shorter L/48 7.5cm gun.

 Jagdpanzer IV/70 (A) (Sd.Kfz.162/1 ) [1]

the other Pak 42 L/70 armed Jagdpanzer IV. In order to send Pak

42 L/70 armed vehicles to the front as soon as possible, in July
1944 Hitler ordered an interim solution to speed up
Nibelungenwerke's transition from Panzer IV production to
Jagdpanzer IV/70 production. "A" stands for Alkett, a
manufacturer of the StuG III, that was ordered to redesign
the Jagdpanzer IV superstructure to be mounted onto a standard
Panzer IV chassis. The Vomag design used a modified chassis
permitting a very low silhouette. Mounting the superstructure onto
the original Panzer IV chassis required additional vertical steel
plates mounted onto the chassis to counter height differences. The
resulting vehicle was about 40 cm taller and lacked the sharp
edged nose of the Vomag variant. Only 278 were built by
Nibelungenwerke from August 1944 to March 1945.
Minor modifications and improvements were made
throughout the production runs of all variants, as well as
several field improvements, the most common being the
addition of armour sideskirts.
Originally the Jagdpanzer IV's gun had a muzzle brake
installed, but because the gun was so close to the ground,
each time it was fired, huge dust clouds would betray the
vehicle's position, leading many crews to remove the muzzle
brake in the field.  Later variants dispensed with the
[citation needed]

muzzle brake.
Early vehicles had zimmerit applied to the hull to protect
against magnetic mines, but this was discontinued after
about September 1944. Later vehicles had three return
rollers rather than the original four, and adopted the twin
vertical exhausts typical of the late Panzer IV series.

Combat history[edit]

Jagdpanzer IV with infantry support, Hungary, 1944

The Jagdpanzer IV served in the anti-tank sections of

Panzer and SS Panzer divisions. The vehicle fought against
Western Allied forces in Normandy and the Battle of the
Bulge, and Soviet tanks and troops on the Eastern Front. It
was very successful as a tank destroyer due to its low
profile, accurate gun and good armour protection, but
performed poorly when used out of role as a substitute for
tanks or assault guns to support infantry. This was
increasingly necessary in the later stages of the war from late
1944 to 1945, because there was often nothing else available
to the badly depleted German armoured units.
Romania received several Jagdpanzer IV/70 from the Red
Army after the war ended. They were officially known as
TAs T4 in their army's inventory and were used until 1950
when they were phased out. German armour in Romanian
service, including the Jagdpanzer IV, was replaced entirely
with Soviet vehicles in 1954. Bulgaria also received
Jagdpanzer IVs from both Germany and the Soviet Union
(most coming from the latter post-WWII), and they saw
limited service in the postwar Bulgarian military before
being stripped of all engine components, dug in and turned
into fixed gun emplacements on its border with
neighbouring Turkey, as part of the Krali Marko Line (now
fallen into disrepair). Most of these ex-German vehicles
have being dug up recently, with some scrapped while others
await restoration locally or abroad.
Jagdpanzer IV aces include SS-Oberscharführer (2nd
Lieutenant) Rudolf Roy from the 12th
SS Panzerjäger Battalion of 12th SS Panzer Division. He
was killed by an American sniper while looking out of the
hatch of his Jagdpanzer IV on December 17 in 1944 during
the Ardennes Offensive in Belgium, the last major German
offensive on the Western Front.
After the war, West Germany continued
the Jagdpanzer concept with the Kanonenjagdpanzer, but
few other fixed-casemate self-propelled guns were built in
the postwar era. An innovative exception was the
Swedish Stridsvagn 103, more widely known as the "S-
Tank".
Along with Panzer IVs and Sturmgeschütz IIIs, Syria
acquired in the 1950s six Jagdpanzer IV L/48s.  These were
[2]

used in the conflicts with Israel up until 1967 when most

were either destroyed, abandoned on the Golan Heights
overlooking Israel, or scrapped.