I’ve been off for a while, quite a bits been going on, mostly last year of high school stuff. But summers here and I should have a lot more free time open up.
Question:
German armor in Arnhem towards the last bit of the British push? I know they brought in Tigers one night… I think, but I wanted something smaller. I was wondering if a Panzer IV or a Stug III would be more appropriate. Pros and Cons for both:
-Panzer IV is already built!.. but painted in Normandy red and green stripe over yellow, aaaand I made it a while ago so its not up to my new standards (biggest con is color, and I’m not sure if the Germans (9th and 10th SS Panzer) had this tank in Arnhem. Keep in mind this is the long barreled version. If this tank and the Normandy colors work for Arnhem then its no problem).
-With the Stug III, I have a great ref. picture of the tank in Arnhem including unit and everything, part of the 9th SS Panzer regiment, only problem is I can’t find a model to fit the picture. The lable says Stug III G but as far as the mantlet goes, it looks more like a Stug IV (as far as I can tell, Dragon makes a Stug IV. If a Stug IV fits Arnhem, this would work fine too), and I can’t find a Stug III that doesnt have the angled mantlet, I need the smooth.
Here’s the picture I’m trying to match:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:StuG9SS.jpg
Thanks for the help!
Well the StuG IV was basically a III-G hull on the IV chassis, built after the factory was bombed. I’m away from my reference at the moment, but I think the late III-G mantlet was called the saukopf (?), which was then adopted on the IV. The IV was built late '43 till about Sept '44, so could realistically place it at Arnhem.
Alright, thanks! Jeeze a saukopf huh? Definitly not too bad at all if you were guessing, you even spelled it right haha. Did you know that its a direct translation to “sow head”? Now that I look at the mantlet… and all the random interwoven pictures of pig heads that popped up on google image, they do in fact share the same shape. Talk about learning something new… lol anyway, that bit should help me out a lot at my LHS when I’m talking about the specificts. I’m thinking Ill save the Panzer IV for another day. I’ll use a Stug III with the late saukopf if I can find one, if not I’ll go for the Stug IV. Thanks again Shaun
From what I remember the StuG unit that particpated in the battle was an independant Army unit and not part of either the 9th or 10th SS Divisions,and they were equiped with late model StuG III G’s but dont quote me on that, its just from memory ( been reading alot on the StuG’s with all my latest projects[;)])
Psstoff995, the Tigers at Arnhem wer from schwere-Panzer kompanie “Hummel”-two made it intact to Arnhem on the evening of Tuesday the 19th. Some of these tanks were indeed in Dk Yellow w/ medium-sized redbrown and green patches. Some of the tanks of this group were actually older models. with S-mine dischargers and the remnants of Feifel cleaners. They carried foliage as extra camo.
Pz. Komp. Melke had several PzIV G’s and at least one H in Arnhem, from Elst to Oosterhout; they were in 3-color and did NOT have zimmerit. They arrived on ths eve of Mon the 18th. All were all lost by the 20th. One H model was lost right under “the bridge”. There were also Pz III’s with this group, acouple M’s and at least one older G
There were indeed StuG III’s–plenty of them, as well as StuH 42’s, of StuG Brigade 280. They were indeed Saukopf type, and most had waffle-iron zimm patterns.
In the Oosterbeek region there were also at least two Mobelwagen late version, a Jgdpz IV l48 and several Hohenstaufen Panthers. There were even Tiger II(H) of the Sch. Pz Abt 506. All the aforementioned tanks were in 3-color in varying patterns. A Jagdtiger has been credited wuth having managed to make it to Elst but this has been hotly disputed and is probably not treu, as it would have been in 1944!
So really, you’ve got a huge variety of panzers that would fit your needs! Hope this helped!
Tank Workshop has a late StuG update set that includes that later mantlet (saukopf). Great Models has it in stockor you get get it direct from The Tank Workshop.
http://www.tankworkshop.com/Shop/agora.cgi?cart_id=205.12955*Pt3ND5&next=70&exact_match=on&product=Tank+Workshop&user4=German
Mike T.