German Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III) assault gun story during World War II

The Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III) was an assault gun produced by Nazi Germany during World War II. It was the most-produced German fully tracked armoured fighting vehicle,[4] 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.
The Sturmgeschütz III-series of vehicles proved very successful and served on all fronts, from Russia to North Africa and Western Europe to Italy, as assault guns and tank destroyers. Because of their low silhouette, StuG IIIs were easy to camouflage and hide, and were difficult targets to destroy. By the end of the war 11,300 StuG IIIs and StuH 42s had been built but due to heavy losses, there were only 1,053 StuG IIIs and 277 StuH 42s remaining in German service by 10 April 1945. The StuG assault guns were cost-effective compared with the heavier German tanks such as the Tiger I and the Panther, although as anti-tank guns they were best used defensively as the lack of a traversable turret and their generally thin armour was a severe disadvantage in the attack role. As the situation for the German military deteriorated further later in the war, more StuGs were built than tanks, particularly due to ease of production.In Italy, the Sturmgeschütz was highly valued by crews fighting Allied armour, but was dogged by mechanical unreliability; particularly the delicate final drive units. The small box on the track cover, which was normally fixed on the engine deck, contained the track tools.
In 1943 and 1944, the Finnish Army received 59 StuG III Ausf. Gs from Germany and used them against the Soviet Union. Thirty of the vehicles were received in 1943 and a further twenty-nine in 1944. The first batch from 1943 destroyed at least eighty-seven enemy tanks for a loss of only eight StuGs (some of which were destroyed by their crews to prevent enemy capture). The later batch from 1944 saw no real action. After the war, the StuGs were the main combat vehicles of the Finnish Army up until the early 1960s when they were phased out. These StuGs gained the nickname "Sturmi" in the Finnish military, which can be found in some plastic scale-model kits.
After the Second World War, abandoned German StuG IIIs remained behind in many European nations Germany had occupied during the war years, such as Czechoslovakia, France, Norway and Yugoslavia. The Soviet Union also captured hundreds of StuGs, most ending up being donated to Syria. An Italian 12.7 mm Breda-SAFAT machine gun taken from Syrian Fiat G.55 was mounted on commander cupola with retrofitted anti-aircraft mount. Syria continued to use StuG IIIs along with other war surplus armoured fighting vehicles received from the USSR or Czechoslovakia (varying from long-barrelled Panzer IVs (late models) and T-34-85s) during the 1950s and up until the War over Water against Israel in the mid-1960s. By the time of the Six-Day War in 1967, many of them had been either destroyed, stripped for spare parts, scrapped or emplaced on the Golan Heights as pillboxes. Some remained in service up to the Yom Kippur War in 1973. None remain in service today. A few Syrian StuG IIIs ended up in Israeli hands and became war memorials or were simply left rusting away on former battlefields.

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