Tag: hetzer

Jagdpanzer 38(t) “Hetzer”

The Tank Museum’s Jagdpanzer 38(t) was built by BMM in late 1944. It came to The Tank Museum in 1951 along with a large number of captured German vehicles.

The Jagdpanzer 38 (Sd.Kfz. 138/2), originally the Leichter Panzerjäger 38(t), known mostly post-war as Hetzer, was a German light tank destroyer of the Second World War based on a modified Czechoslovakian Panzer 38(t) chassis. Today they are popularly known as Hetzers, but this name was far less common at the time.

The Jagdpanzer 38(t)’s 75mm PaK 39 gun was powerful and effective against all Allied tanks, although its thin armour meant it was very vulnerable to their return fire.

Most Jagdpanzer 38(t)s were used by anti-tank companies in infantry divisions. These units had very few other vehicles and limited mobility. Crews would hide and camouflage their Jagdpanzers then use them to ambush advancing Allied tanks.

Jagdpanzer 38s first entered service in July 1944 and would eventually be assigned to a number of units, including infantry, Panzerjäger and Volksgrenadier divisions. BMM and Škoda continually modified and improved the Jagdpanzer 38 during production of the more than 2,800 vehicles built. Owing to the ease of production and high operating rates, the Jagdpanzer 38 came to serve as Germany’s main tank destroyer in the latter period of the war, making an important contribution on both the Eastern and Western Fronts.

Panzerjager G13 (Hetzer)

Though painted and presented as a Late War Hetzer at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, this in fact is a Swiss manufactured copy of the German WW2 self-propelled gun/tank destroyer. It had a crew of 4 and was armed with a 75mm gun and one machine gun.

The vehicle is a post war production model made by Skoda for the Swiss Army in 1947 (which designated it G-13). Vehicles were manufactured on the wartime production line and in many cases left over wartime spares were used (so Swiss G-13 vehicle parts sometimes carry Third Reich parts stampings). Indeed anecdotal evidence suggests some hulls were recovered from the battlefield, remanufactured and sold on to the Swiss (who used them until 1970). The main difference between the 38(t) and the G-13 was the use of a Saurer diesel engine, instead of a Tatra petrol engine in the majority of Swiss vehicles. The IWM example has a diesel engine.