I have heard conflicting information about this…was the A-0 variant of the Jagdpanzer IV steel or were the superstructure and bow armor aluminum as some claim?
I’ve heard that as a training vehicle, aluminum was used to make it lighter and easier for novice drivers to handle, since the Jagdpanzer was already very nose-heavy. One source claims that ‘several’ were armed with a dummy wooden gun barrel for training purposes.
But I’ve also heard that only a few were produced, and that they were steel armored.
I have found pictures of at least five different vehicles, three in school markings, 112 from Panzer Lehr and 244 from an unknown unit. There were also two A-0 vehicles with Panzer Division Clausewitz in late 1945, including one which carried the PaK 42 L/70 in place of the PaK 39 L/48, which according to one account was because it had only the dummy barrel when it was pressed into service by the crews from Putlos gunnery school.
Anyone know anything about this, particularly if the alleged use of aluminum is correct or not?
Pre production tanks were often made of mild steel not aluminum. Mild steel is iron based but just not treated like typical homogenous armor plate. As the term implies, the “mild” stuff was not designed to withstand fire. As to how many of the Jdgpzr IV A-0s were these pilots and which had actual armor, I dunno
I’ve heard/read mention of prototypes being produced with an “alloy” instead of the hardened final steel armor…this may have created a translation error into aluminum? Mild steel is much more likely vs. aluminum…aluminum was a precious war-time material throughout the conflict and especially so by the later years when the A-O was in trials.
Spielberger refers to the AO series as being made of “soft steel”, or what we would call mild steel. I think something got lost in translation to have come up with aluminium.
When I was at Panzermuseum Munster, (where the sole remaining AO Jagdpanzer IV resides.) I discovered that not all the parts on the tanks were steel. As I walked around photographing the vehicles, I couldn’t help but knock on the armor plate, just convince myself that they were real…guess what? Not everything there is real. When I rapped on the Pz 38(t) side vision block, it was hollow, not only that, it was made of resin! Guess they didn’t have any spare vision blocks during the restoration process and had to make due with a resin copy…[:P]
I have found pictures of at least five different vehicles, three in school markings, 112 from Panzer Lehr and 244 from an unknown unit. There were also two A-0 vehicles with Panzer Division Clausewitz in late 1945, including one which carried the PaK 42 L/70 in place of the PaK 39 L/48, which according to one account was because it had only the dummy barrel when it was pressed into service by the crews from Putlos gunnery school.
Hi,
advance and sorry for my English (I use the translator).
I have a request regarding the photos of the machine 112 of the Panzer Lehr Division.
Could you write in the book, or where on the Internet you can find photos of this machine? I managed to find only the school machines. Thank you for your reply.
[/img]
[/img]