Today to introduce you to a brand new weapon, it is not like the protagonists of the previous issues, have heavy armor, today we talk about a crispy - "Vespa" self-propelled gun.
Vespa self-propelled cannon
Self-propelled guns, as the name suggests, do not use trucks or manpower, their own guns. In fact, if you have to understand it this way, there is nothing wrong with it, but if you analyze it carefully, the self-propelled cannon is actually far from being so simple.
As we all know, the German "blitzkrieg" tactics are very powerful, and the speed of the troops is beyond people's imagination. Poland, France, Czechoslovakia agreed.
However, this tactic has a drawback, the use of armored units as arrows, there will be a problem, armored forces can not completely destroy the enemy, need the infantry behind to wipe the butt.
It is no wonder that since the headquarters requires "fast", you can't ask me to do too much work, so how much work will the armored troops have to leave for the infantry in the rear? In fact, this problem depends entirely on whether the enemy wants to fight you or not.
A wasp hiding in a corner and firing
Especially when attacking the Soviet Union, the Soviet army came up with a way, I know that our infantry can't run your armored units, so I simply don't run, I find a place to ambush you, I can't beat you, I let you go, focus on ambushing the infantry behind you to clean the battlefield.
Since the tanks were sent to be used as arrows, and the infantry behind them had at most a few trucks or armored vehicles, the Germans were very difficult to face the Soviet ambush troops.
The infantry could only rely on the towed 105 mm howitzer for fire support, but the Logistics of the German Army was actually not good, and many howitzers were actually pulled by mules and horses, and could not keep up with the speed of the infantry.
The operation room of the Wasp
So the brain-opening Germans came up with a solution. Is it possible to get the howitzer to a vehicle so that it can keep up with the infantry?
By this time, it was already 1942, and the old German tanks were no longer able to beat the Thick Skin T34 tank of the Soviet Army. Looking at the remaining Panzer II chassis in the factory, the designers came to the inspiration. Put the 105 howitzer on top of this, no.
Thus, the Wasp self-propelled cannon was born. The 105 mm howitzer sat on the chassis of the Panzer II and looked extremely incongruous, like a "big-headed son".
In addition, there is almost no armor, the thickest place is only 28 mm, and the control room is still open air. If it rains, the crew will have to rain.
However, what can pull out pus is a good plaster, and the wasp perfectly solves the problems currently encountered by the German army. At the very least, she could keep up with the infantry.
The Vespa's first actual combat was at the Battle of Kursk, and it did become a reliable support weapon for the German infantry, and whenever the German offensive was frustrated, the 105 howitzers mounted by the Rear Vespa would provide timely artillery support.
After covering fire on the Soviet artillery position, it can quickly move to another position, and when the Soviet artillery adjusts the angle of the gun port, the Vespa has long since disappeared.
However, it is not all an advantage, because it uses the chassis of the Panzer II tank, which makes it carry a small amount of ammunition, and each self-propelled gun can only carry 30 rounds, which makes his firepower sustained very poor. Over-reliance on logistical supplies.
In addition, the open operating room, in the cold winter of the Soviet Union, was a nightmare for the gunner, due to thermal expansion and contraction, the gun barrel often appeared to be stuffed into the shell, even if it was stuffed, there was a high probability that it would not sound.
But on the whole, the vespa is still a relatively successful design, he also played a great role in the battlefield, and later the German army did not spend less effort on the self-propelled gun on the technology tree, for example, crickets, weasels, etc., in general, it is similar, but the artillery installed on it, or the tank chassis is different, of course, the later Wasp has also been replaced with a larger 150 mm howitzer, for these kinds of "animals", I will not introduce them one by one.