German Tank Museum

[stabiz]

I was on a road trip through Europe (or that was the plan, hehe, but thats another story) with a mate and we stopped at the Deutches Panzermuseum. Lots of goodies in that place:

Panzer IV:


Hetzer:


StuG:


StuG again:


Me & the BIG Panther (I am 180 cm tall/short):




Jagdpanther:


88mm gun:


Sturmtiger:


Hummel & Vespe:

[stabiz]

SU 100:


Brummbar(?):


Jagdpanzers:


Panther again:


Me & the Koenigstiger:




Never seen this one before:


Lots of other stuff as well, including more modern tanks, but who cares about that? Well worth the trip to Munster.

[SUBMAN1]

Whats remarkable is the height. I was next to an M1A1 not too long ago (actually buttoned down in it) and you can practically look over the top of that tank it is so low profile and close to the ground. These are just tall with a big "shoot me" sign on them.

-S

The last one is a 7.5cm PaK40/4 auf Raupenschlepper ,Ost (Sf) to give it it's full name

it's one of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raupenschlepper,_Ost cut down and fitted with a 7.5cm Pak 40/4 L/46 gun , theres a picture of it in the link.

[Buddahaid]

That one drips oil like my beetle.

Buddahaid

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

Whats remarkable is the height. I was next to an M1A1 not too long ago (actually buttoned down in it) and you can practically look over the top of that tank it is so low profile and close to the ground. These are just tall with a big "shoot me" sign on them.

-S

That's because the ones in the pictures are quite a bit older than the M1A1. The US M3 Lee for example didn't have a particularily low silhouette.

[Raptor1]

That Sturmtiger looks nasty, wouldn't want to see one driving up to my bunker...

[Janus]

Does anyone know the range of the Sturmtiger's gun? The calibre surely is huge but the length of the gun makes me think that thing has a range of 500 meters at most...

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Janus

Does anyone know the range of the Sturmtiger's gun? The calibre surely is huge but the length of the gun makes me think that thing has a range of 500 meters at most...

Only 18 Sturmtiger were built by Hitler's personal command. The "gun" is a mortar 38cm, shooting 350kg heavy explosive rocket-grenades over distances of up to 6 km. Originally it was a Navy weapon to fight submarines.

Nice pics, Stabiz! Be damned for not showing the more modern stuff, too!

Getting hit by this thing was a nasty affair, resulting in collapse of the affected bulding or whole groups of Shermans receiving major damage and kills. They were also heavily demoralising. The US Army made them a top priority target to find and take out.

http://www.waffenhq.de/panzer/sturmtiger.html

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Janus

Does anyone know the range of the Sturmtiger's gun? The calibre surely is huge but the length of the gun makes me think that thing has a range of 500 meters at most...

Since the projectiles are rockets, barrel length is moot

[Jimbuna]

Some great shots ....brings back memories of my numerous visits to our tank museum in the UK at Bovington near Salisbury Plain:

http://www.tankmuseum.org/home

To view the vehicles click on Collections and follow the prompts, or here then floor plan of the museum

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Janus

Does anyone know the range of the Sturmtiger's gun? The calibre surely is huge but the length of the gun makes me think that thing has a range of 500 meters at most...

The main armament was the 380 mm Raketen-Werfer 61 L/5.4, a breech-loading rocket launcher, which fired short-range, rocket-propelled projectiles. These projectiles were roughly 1.5 metres (59 in) in length and could either contain a high explosive charge of 125 kilograms (280 lb) or a shaped charge for use against fortifications, which could penetrate up to 2.5 metres (98 in) of reinforced concrete. The stated range of the former was 5,650 metres (6,180 yd). The weight of the complete rounds was 345 to 351 kilograms (760–770 lb). A normal charge first accelerated the projectile to 45 metres per second (150 ft/s), the 40 kilograms (88 lb) rocket charge then boosted this to about 250 metres per second (820 ft/s).

Range for the 38cm RW61 on the Sturmmorser was was around 4600 meter's

[Platapus]

So is the Sturmtiger classified as a Self-propelled arty piece or is it in a class of its own?

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Platapus

So is the Sturmtiger classified as a Self-propelled arty piece or is it in a class of its own?

I do believe it's classified as an Assault Gun, even if the gun isn't exactly much of one.