The Jagdpanzer 38(t) (Sd.Kfz. 138/2), later known as Hetzer (“baiter”), was a German light tank destroyer of the Second World War based on a modified Czechoslovakian Panzer 38(t) chassis. The project was inspired by the Romanian “Mareşal” tank destroyer. The name Hetzer was at the time not commonly used for this vehicle. It was the designation for a related prototype, the E-10. The Škoda factory for a very short period confused the two names in its documentation and the very first unit equipped with the vehicle thus for a few weeks applied the incorrect name until matters were cleared.

However, there exists a memorandum from Heinz Guderian to Hitler claiming that an unofficial name, Hetzer, had spontaneously been coined by the troops. Post-war historians basing themselves on this statement made the name popular in their works, the vehicle was never named as such in official documents.

Following their disastrous defeat at Stalingrad during the winter of 1942-43, the German armed forces launched a major offensive in the East known as Operation Citadel on July 4th, 1943. The climax of Operation Citadel, the Battle of Kursk, involved as many as 6,000 tanks, 4,000 aircraft and 2 million fighting men and is remembered as the greatest tank battle in history. The peak of the battle was the massive armour engagement at Prochorovka, which began on July 12th.

Prochorovka is one of the best-known of the many battles on the Eastern Front during World War II. Tiger heavy tanks with deadly 88mm cannons, lumbered forward while hundreds of nimble Soviet T-34 medium tanks raced into the midst of the SS armour and threw the Germans into confusion. The Soviets closed with the Panzers, negating the Tigers’ 88mm guns, outmanouvered the German armour and knocked out hundreds of German tanks. The Soviet tank force’s audacious tactics resulted in a disastrous defeat for the Germans, and the disorganised SS divisions withdrew, leaving 400 destroyed tanks behind, including between 70 and 100 Tigers and many Panthers. Those losses smashed the SS divisions’ fighting power, and as a result Hoth’s Fourth Panzer Army had no chance to achieve even a partial victory in the south of the Soviet Union.

After receiving the news of the Allied invasion of Sicily, as well as reports of impending Soviet attacks on the Mius River and at Izyum, Hitler decided to cancel Operation Citadel. From then on the German forces were on the back-foot and the war had now turned against them.

The Jagdpanzer 38 (Sd.Kfz. 138/2), later known as Hetzer ("baiter"), was a German light tank destroyer of the Second World War based on a modified Czechoslovakian Panzer 38(t) chassis. The project was inspired by the Romanian "Mareşal" tank destroyer.  The Jagdpanzer 38 was intended to be more cost-effective than the much more ambitious Jagdpanther and Jagdtiger designs of the same period. Using a proven chassis, it avoided the mechanical problems of the larger armoured vehicles. 

It was built on the Panzerkampfwagen 38(t)‘s widened and lengthened chassis with modified suspension (larger road-wheels from Praga TNH n.A prototype reconnaissance tank) and up-rated engine. The new engine was 160 PS Praga AC/2 6-cylinder engine controlled by Praga-Wilson gearbox (5 forward and 1 reverse gear). Chassis was modified in order to accommodate larger gun and thicker armour than regular Panzerkampfwagen 38(t) tank. Its combat weight was 16 metric tons (versus 9.8-tonnes for the Pz 38(t)) and it could travel at maximum speed of some 42 km/h.

Production of the Tiger I began in August 1942 at the factory of Henschel und Sohn in Kassel, initially at a rate of 25 per month and peaking in April 1944 at 104 per month. 1,355 had been built by August 1944, when production ceased. Deployed Tiger I's peaked at 671 on 1 July 1944. It took about twice as long to build a Tiger I as another German tank of the period. When the improved Tiger II began production in January 1944, the Tiger I was soon phased out. Eager to make use of the powerful new weapon, Hitler ordered the vehicle be pressed into service months earlier than had planned. A platoon of four Tigers went into action on 23rd September 1942 near Leningrad.

Operating in swampy, forested terrain, their movement was largely confined to roads and tracks, making defence against them far easier. Many of these early models were plagued by problems with the transmission, which had difficulty handling the great weight of the vehicle if pushed too hard. It took time for drivers to learn how to avoid overtaxing the engine and transmission, and many broke down. The most significant event from this engagement was that one of the Tigers became stuck in swampy ground and had to be abandoned. Captured largely intact, it enabled the Soviets to study the design and prepare countermeasures.

The British named the M3 "General Stuart" upon receipt of the tank under the Lend-Lease program in June of 1941. The tank's ability to "shoot and scoot" as well as keeping the crew safe from small fire arms fire, earned an affectionae nickname of "Honey" by its operators. The British cavalry men liked this tank as it could travel 10 to 20 mph faster than their own or enemy tanks, and for its ease of maintenance. The M3s were designed to replace the outdated M2s. The M3 incorporated a thicker armor, lengthened hull, and a trailer idler wheel to act as another road wheel to decrease ground pressure and improve weight distribution.

The M3 turret had three pistol ports and shortened recoil mechanism. It was also equipped waith a 37mm M6 gun, which was adequate early in the war, but by 1942, the German counterparts far surpassed the range of the M3. The narrow width of the M3 could not accommodate a larger gun. The M3A1 was fitted with a Westinghouse gyrostabilizer, a turret basket and an oil gear hydrolic traverse mechanism, but lacked a turret cupola. The earlier version of the M3A1, the Stuart III, was powered by Continental W-970-9A-7 cylinder radial gas 250 hp engine but by mid 1941, the Stuart IVs came off the production lines with Guiberson T-1020 air cooled radial diesel engine.

The American M10 tank destroyer served during WWII. After the US entry into World War II and the formation of the Tank Destroyer Force, a suitable vehicle was needed to equip the new battalions. By November 1941, the Army requested a vehicle with a gun in a fully rotating turret after previous models were criticised for being too poorly designed. The prototype of the M10 was cdeveloped in early 1942, and was delivered in April of that year.

After requested changes to the hull and turret, the modified version was readied for production in June 1943, appearing as the 3-inch Gun Motor Carriage M10. It mounted a 3-inch (76.2 mm) Gun M7 in a rotating turret on a modified M4A2 Sherman tank chassis. Productions ran from September 1942 to December 1943. The M10 was numerically the most important U.S. tank destroyer of World War II.

It combined thin but sloped armor with the M4 Sherman's reliable drivetrain and a reasonably potent anti-tank weapon mounted in an open-topped turret. Despite its obsolescence in the face of more powerful German tanks like the Panther and the introduction of more powerful and better-designed types as replacements, the M10 remained in service until the end of the war.

Production of the Tiger I began in August 1942 at the factory of Henschel und Sohn in Kassel, initially at a rate of 25 per month and peaking in April 1944 at 104 per month. 1,355 had been built by August 1944, when production ceased. Deployed Tiger I's peaked at 671 on 1 July 1944. It took about twice as long to build a Tiger I as another German tank of the period. When the improved Tiger II began production in January 1944, the Tiger I was soon phased out. Eager to make use of the powerful new weapon, Hitler ordered the vehicle be pressed into service months earlier than had planned.

A platoon of four Tigers went into action on 23rd September 1942 near Leningrad. Operating in swampy, forested terrain, their movement was largely confined to roads and tracks, making defence against them far easier. Many of these early models were plagued by problems with the transmission, which had difficulty handling the great weight of the vehicle if pushed too hard. It took time for drivers to learn how to avoid overtaxing the engine and transmission, and many broke down. The most significant event from this engagement was that one of the Tigers became stuck in swampy ground and had to be abandoned. Captured largely intact, it enabled the Soviets to study the design and prepare countermeasures.

The Chrysler Corporation began producing the M4A3(76) in March 1944. Many of their first units arrived almost simultaneously in France & Italy in August 1944. It, like all the Shermans saw a steady flow of minor improvements, and versions of this tank with HVSS (horizontal volute spring suspension) started arriving in December of 1944, just prior to the Axis push into the Ardennes region, and would become increasingly common from that point on as replacement tanks entered the combat zone. These tanks were very well received, the Ford GAA was a very good engine for a tank in the Sherman's weight range.

The low RPM the motor matched the existing gear ratios in the transmission, and the motor mor than a match for the stresses most operations put it under. Once the HVSS suspension versions began replacing previous tanks, this really became the ultimate Sherman. The French 2nd Armored Division received a small number of M4A3(76)s just prior to their dash to liberate Paris. They were probably the first to use this model in combat.

One of a series of fast and relatively well armed cruiser tanks developed by the British during the Second World War, the Cromwell can trace its history back to late 1940 and the decision to find a replacement for the widely used Crusader tank. Due to a relatively protracted development however, there can be some confusion with these tanks, as similar looking machines were named Centaur and Cromwell, with both being derived from the A24 Cruiser Mark VII Cavalier, the name given to the original intended Crusader replacement programme.

The main reason for the different names refers to the three different engine types which were used to power the individual vehicles. The A27M Cromwell Mk.IV was the most heavily produced version of the new Cruiser Tank Mk.VIII and matched the Centaur hull with the highly effective Rolls Royce Meteor engine (A27Meteor), which allowed the tank to travel at impressively high speeds. The tank also featured a quick firing 75mm gun, which was a re-bored version of the British 6 pounder gun and allowed the commander to have the option of using American produced armour piercing or high explosive rounds. Although originally introduced in November 1943, persistent problems with the new gun’s operation meant that the Mk.IV would not make its combat introduction until the Normandy landings in June 1944, where its speed and mobility would complement the Sherman tanks, which were available in greater numbers.

During the savage fighting in the narrow hedgerow lined lanes of the Normandy battlefield, the excellent mobility of the Cromwell was somewhat nullified and even worse than that, as tanks were forced to climb these steep banks, they exposed their vulnerable undersides to potential armour piercing Panzerfaust attack. The simple solution was to attach a steel blade ‘hedge cutter’ to the front of the tank, which allowed the commander to scythe through the obstacle, keeping his tank level and still able to bring his guns to bear. This addition even provided some welcome natural foliage camouflage for the tank, as long as the bushes it didn’t obstruct his gun aiming sights.

Even though the new British A27M Cromwell Tank would not make its combat introduction until the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, the speed and mobility of this excellent new tank would soon earn it an enviable reputation amongst Allied troops, who came to rely on the support they provided. The majority of Cromwell Tanks were armed with the standard 75mm ROQF gun, however, the less numerous Mk.VI variant would provide specialist infantry close support with its 95mm Howitzer and were consequently never too far away from the action.

Firing a high explosive hollow charge shell, the tank was used to overcome fortified positions, such as concrete bunkers and pillboxes which stood in the way of the infantry’s advance and could even lay smoke-screens if required. With its distinctively short barrel, the Mk.VI also featured a large counterweight on its main armament, which was necessary in helping to balance the gun. Approximately 340 of these specialist tanks were eventually produced, which would prove to be extremely effective as Allied ground units pushed German forces back towards their homeland. Despite their impressive speed, the Cromwells were no match for the firepower of the German heavy tanks and would have to rely on speed and stealth for their battlefield survival.