You’ve likely heard about the story of the Sturmtiger given the plethora
of videos on that vehicle as well as its increasing popularity among tank fans.
I will without a doubt cover that and other Tiger based vehicles in this series,
but for today I wanted to look at a vehicle which is lesser known despite its similar design to
the big gunned feline. So sit back, relax and let's discuss the Sturmtiger’s little brother,
also known as the Sturmpanzer, Sturmpanzer 43, or as it’s commonly known nowadays, the Brummbar.
Before we get into discussing the Brummbär though I want to give a special thanks to today’s sponsor
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to this video is that one of the many playable vehicles ingame in none other than the Brummbär.
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Before we even start on the history of this vehicle it’s important to address
one common misconception about it, that being its name. Many of you, including myself,
likely know this vehicle as the Brummbar which translates roughly to grumpy bear.
However, this nickname has yet to be found in any German documentation regarding this vehicle.
That being said it is not entirely incorrect to use this name as it seems to have been used in
several Allied reports from 1943 referring to the self propelled gun. I will likely use that name
as well as the name Sturmpanzer IV as these are far easier to say than any of the others on this
list which it was referred to by at different times from various sources.
With that out of the way let’s get into the story of this grumpy tank.
The origin of the Sturmpanzer concept can be traced all the way back to June 9th
1941. This began as a desire to somehow get a 15cm caliber weapon into combat as previous designs
using the older Panzer chassis had not quite met the requirements despite being produced in some
quantity. In a new design submitted to Hitler by Alkett in October of 1942 they proposed a
vehicle that would utilize the Panzer 4 as its base, but now with a casemate on top
to house the gun. Seemingly Hitler was satisfied with what he was shown as his next request was
for when the first units could be completed. For the armament the 15cm Sturmhaubitze 43
L/12 from Skoda was selected. As with other large caliber weapons of the time this used
two piece ammunition with the projectiles being loaded separately from the propellant charges.
This was mounted in a ball-socket mount also designed by Skoda creating an effective shrapnel
shield without hindering the traverse of the gun. Reportedly Hitler was also interested in
the idea of mounting a 21 or 22cm mortar on the same chassis, but this never really progressed.
Like with many of these sorts of vehicles the Sturmpanzer IV would be built using recovered
Panzer IV hulls. This cut down on the needed resources as well as speeding up construction.
Modifications were still made to these rebuilt hulls though with some of the changes being
visible in this photo. We can clearly see that the upper glacius was removed and part of the
side armor was cut away as well to make room for the new casemate. The casemate itself was
obviously the main change with it boasting an impressive 100mms of armor at a 40 degree
slope on the front with 50mms on the side at 15 degrees. An additional plate was fitted between
these with additional angling from the front. For this first batch of vehicles earlier Panzer
IVs with 50mms of armor were selected so 50mms of armor was bolted to the lower glacis plate
and 30mms of added armor was fitted to the smaller plate below that with only the mid plate remaining
as 50mms frontally. This gave the machine impressive frontal armor but on top of the gun
it added weight to the chassis. Further armor was added to the sides to bolster the weak
20mms of the Panzer IV Es many of them were built on increasing the middle section to 40mms.
To somewhat make up for this the Sturmpanzer IV was given wider tracks and updated running
gear components to upgrade it to the level of the Panzer IV G which was at that time the most current version.
As the removal of the upper hull also removed the original vision port for the driver
a replacement was needed. For the eagle eyed among you you’ve probably noticed that this
new one looks quite similar to that found on the Tiger tank. This is exactly right as these were
reportedly taken from the Tiger P hulls following their conversion to the Ferdinand tank destroyer.
A wooden mockup of the design was completed in February of 1943 shortly followed by the first
of the initial batch. In total there would be 4 separate batches or series of the Sturmpanzer IV,
but for this first one which we are now referring to, a total of 60 would be completed.
The first 40 of these were to be delivered on the 12th of May 1943 in order to be ready for the
Russian offensive. Unlike many projects towards the mid to late war in Germany these were actually
completed on time with 20 being delivered ahead of schedule in April and 40 more in May. Still,
these vehicles would not escape from Hitler’s bizarre decision making as he ordered them to be
classified as “Panzerjager” or tank destroyers rather than going to the artillery branch.
This would lead to the decision to use the Sturmpanzer designation as it prevented confusion
with the Sturmgeschutz tank destroyers armed with the 105mm Sturmhaubitze already in service.
As I alluded to earlier this initial layout of the vehicle was just the first of 4 different
vehicle series. In total there were right around 300 tanks produced with some sources saying 302 or
306. I tend to lean more towards 302 as this seems to be taken directly from the production numbers.
Following the initial batch of 60, production would halt until December with it restarting
and continuing until March of 1945. Unlike the previous Sturmpanzers these new production tanks
would now be on the Panzer IV H hull. Changes would be made throughout the assembly of the
vehicles with the first change being a 50mm plate added to the bottom of the drivers viewport.
This was reportedly done to help prevent shot traps. This change was also made to some or all
of the surviving original Sturmpanzers making them into Sturmpanzer Ausf IIs. Changes were
also made to the roof of the vehicle to allow for a new sliding armor cover for the gun sight. Most
noticeably though the tanks received mounts for side skirts and began to be coated with Zimmerit
as with all german vehicles produced in late 43 and 44. It seems that with the new 80mm front
armor on the Panzer IV H hull they now no longer bolted additional armor on the front meaning the
protection dropped slightly. The second run of Sturmpanzers also consisted of 60 vehicles
running from December 1943 to March of 1944. This was then followed by the Sturmpanzer Ausf III
which replaced the earlier Tiger viewport with an armored box. For visibility the driver would now
have a periscope rather than direct view optics. To help address some of the weight concerns caused
by the limited suspension a new version of the 150mm cannon called the 15cm Sturmhaubitze 43/1
was introduced. I’m not entirely sure when exactly the swap was made to this gun in the production of
the vehicles, but as deliveries began in December of 1943 it's likely that it was at some point
during the Ausf II run of vehicles. Production of the Ausf III would run until June of 1944
amounting to a total of 18 vehicles before the fourth and final series would begin construction.
This fourth series, the Sturmpanzer Ausf IV, would be the most produced of all variants as
well as featuring the most changes. The casemate was redesigned, likely to simplify production by
eliminating the angled side panels. The armor values seem to have remained the same as no
sources make mention of changes to it. The roof armor was reconfigured allowing for new periscopes
the commander could use rather than just a bare hatch as previous vehicles had been fitted with.
Aside from the simplified superstructure the Sturmpanzer was also given a ball mount
machine gun above the driver. Similar to the Elefant refit of the Ferdinand
this was done to protect the vehicle from infantry which it was fairly vulnerable to.
Although some of the earlier vehicles would receive different numbers of steel road wheels,
early Ausf IVs would have their wheels completely swapped for these. This does not seem to have been
the case for the entire production as later vehicles can be seen with varying numbers of
steel wheels or none at all. The Sturmpanzer Ausf IV was built on both new production
Panzer IV J chassis as well as rebuilt hulls. As the war situation turned production numbers were
inconsistent with delays impacting work. Still a total of 162 of these were reportedly completed
by the time production stopped in March of 1945. Alongside the main Sturmpanzer force there were
also a small number of munition panzers completed which would carry additional ammo for them.
These were largely unmodified although at least some early ones were refitted to the
same standard as the original Sturmpanzers. The hull remained unchanged aside from a sheet metal
roof over the turret ring which could be opened and rotated to access the rounds carried inside.
As for the combat history of the Sturmpanzers, far less is known. We do know quite a bit about
where they were sent but not much about their actual combat usage. Over the course of their
usage the vehicles were split between 4 Abteilung or Divisions numbers 216, 217, 218, and 219. After
the first Sturmpanzers were delivered the crews in the initial 216th division trained with the
vehicles in France during May of 43. At some point during this training it was reported that
the assigned personnel were not just untrained but essentially unable to operate the tanks.
Nevertheless on June 10th they were sent East to participate in Operation Citadel entering combat
on the 5th of July 1943. Within just two days 5 Sturmpanzers had been totally lost with another
17 disabled by mines, 9 of which were repaired by the 11th. One month later in August the 216th
would be pulled back for maintenance and repairs before going back to the front in September.
They would continue fighting along different bridgeheads including alongside some Ferdinands
at Nikopol before being pulled off the front in late November. Once again they were repaired,
as well as refits being done to the Ausf II version, before being ordered to the
newly opened Italian front following the Allied landings. The division would see
combat across the Italian front seemingly ending the war around the Lake Garda area.
As for the 217th they were assembled in March of April 1944. After just around 6 weeks of training
they would then be sent to defend against the Normandy invasions leaving for the front in
early July. Over the course of the war they would see combat across the Western front
including in the Ardenne offensive until being captured in the Ruhr pocket in April 1945.
The 218th were assembled in August of 1944 in two companies. The first company was sent to
assist against the Warsaw uprising and would then continue fighting on the Eastern front
being completely destroyed in East Prussia. The second company was sent to the West to
the area near Paris. The first company of the 218th was attempted to be raised again
in early 1945 but would only have Stug IIIs never receiving any Sturmpanzers.
The 219th was the final Sturmpanzer division of the war being created in 1944. These vehicles
and their crews would be thrown into the meat grinder that the Eastern front had become,
seeing combat in Hungary west of Budapest. Although this does give us some idea of the
places the Sturmpanzers saw combat it does little to tell us how they performed. For that most of
the information we have seems to have come from a captured German gun commander. According to the
interrogators his information was fairly reliable, but obviously this is not as good as if it were
backed up with combat documentation. Seemingly the Sturmpanzers were primarily used as offensive
weapons being employed against fortifications as well as against enemy armor in some cases with
reportedly good effect. Although the maximum range of the gun was well over 4000 meters it was said
to be rarely done in practice at anything beyond 2500 meters. Another captured POW would contradict
this claiming a max range of 8000 meters with an effective range of 4500 against normal targets
and 800 meters against armor. Both reported that the vehicles were used with tanks or assault guns
to protect their flanks and would normally disengage if enemy tanks were encountered.
The Sturmpanzer’s continued production seems to indicate they did their jobs fairly well, but
suffered the same issues as other German tanks. In one instance a division of Sturmpanzer went from
fully equipped to only 2 combat ready vehicles in just 6 days. This seems to have been caused by the
tanks being moved along a long section of mountain roads resulting in numerous breakdowns. According
to one of the captured POWs these breakdowns in the Sturmpanzers were largely due to the final
drives as with many German tanks. No doubt the lack of properly trained crews also hindered the
vehicles leading to additional breakdowns and likely worse battlefield performance.
Without additional information it's hard to tell whether these vehicles truly performed well in
combat or if they were largely pushed by Hitler as he seems to have been quite fond of the vehicle.
In talks with Hitler about eliminating the 25 ton vehicle class to instead use the 38t chassis the
Sturmpanzer was noted as continuing despite still using the Panzer IV chassis. Prior to its combat
debut he also supposedly anticipated it would be popular with the troops. Whether this played
into the continued production more than actual effectiveness is unclear at this time though.
As there were a fairly large number of these produced it’s no surprise that quite a few
were either recovered or captured after being abandoned by the crews. As mentioned
earlier this led to the name Brummbar and a number of these vehicles surviving the war.
Four of the tanks remain today from what I can tell with one original Sturmpanzer at Kubinka,
a Sturmpanzer Ausf III in the US which was originally at Aberdeen before being moved
to Fort Sill, and two Sturmpanzer Ausf IVs at Saumur and Munster.
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