The Sturmgeschütz III was an assault gun produced by Germany during World War II. It was the most-produced fully tracked armoured fighting vehicle, and second-most produced German armored combat vehicle of any type after the Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track. It was built on a slightly modified Panzer III chassis, replacing the turret with an armored, fixed superstructure mounting a more powerful gun. Initially intended as a mobile assault gun for direct-fire support for infantry, the StuG III was continually modified, and much like the later Jagdpanzer vehicles, was employed as a tank destroyer.
Sturmgeschütz III Ausführung G
German forces on a short-barrel StuG III Ausf B cross the Desna river on their march east, 1941.
StuG III Ausf.B in Latvia during the Baltic Operation
A StuG III of the Finnish Army in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna, Austria. This model has the concrete armor added postwar by the Finnish Army.
An assault gun is a type of self-propelled artillery which uses an infantry support gun mounted on a motorized chassis, normally an armored fighting vehicle, which are designed to provide direct fire support for infantry attacks, especially against other infantry or fortified positions. Assault guns were pioneered by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany during the 1930s, initially being self-propelled guns with direct fire in mind, with Germany introducing the first purpose-built assault gun, the Sturmgeschütz III, in 1940.
The Soviet SU-76 was easily constructed in small factories incapable of producing proper tanks.
The German Stug III assault gun, here in one of its early configurations, armed with a 75 mm StuK 37 howitzer
US World War II assault gun M8 Scott
Soviet ASU-85 air-deployable assault gun
