Sunday, March 22, 2015

10.5cm leFH18/1(Sf) auf Geschutzwagen IVb (Sd Kfz 165/1)

From 1941, various proposals had been made for a self-propelled version of the 10.5cm leFH18. Krupp designed a special vehicle based on the Pz Kpfw IV components, using a smaller engine, hull and three-station bogies per side, with larger road wheels. Krupp's Pz Sf IVb had a partly-traversing turret which was open-topped. A Test Series of eight units was ordered. Production vehicles were to have the Maybach HL90 which gave 320PS. Production was cancelled because, on the subject of self-propelled artillery, official thinking was tending towards carriages capable of all-round traverse, with ability to dismount the weapon. 
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The Sd.Kfz. 165/1 was similar in design to the Heuschrecke, but did not have the chassis-mounted launching mechanism to remove the turret. After a series of tests, the Sd.Kfz. 165/1 was accepted by the Wehrmacht in early January 1940. In 1941, Krupp built prototype vehicles armed with the 105 mm leichte Feldhaubitze 18/1 L/28 (light field howitzer 18/1 L/28, abbreviated leFH 18/1 L/28) cannon based on a modified Panzer IV chassis. The prototypes were fitted with a smaller six-cylinder Maybach HL66P engine, which had a power capacity of 188 hp (140 kW). Although 200 vehicles were ordered, Krupp completed only 10 prototypes in the final four months of 1942.
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Alkett now proposed an interim solution of mounting the 10.5cm leFH18 on the Pz Kpfw II chassis, and this was accepted as the Wespe (wasp). In a final attempt to have their special GW IVb chassis utilized, Krupp offered the design as the basis for the Jagdpanzer IV, designated Panzerjager IVb (E39) mit 7.5cm PaK39 L/48, but the normal Pz Kpfw IV chassis was again utilized.

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