Sturer Emil

Common card · No. 231139

The 12.8 cm Selbstfahrlafette auf VK 30.01(H) "Sturer Emil" (German for "Stubborn Emil"), also called Panzer Selbstfahrlafette V (Pz.Sfl. V), was an experimental World War II German self-propelled anti-fortification gun. It was based on the Henschel VK 30.01 (H) chassis and armed with a Rheinmetall 12.8 cm Kanone 40 L/61 gun (based on the 12.8 cm FlaK 40). This gun could traverse 7° to each side, elevate 10° and depress -15°. It carried 15 rounds for the main gun. The hulls were left over from Henschel's submission for the canceled VK 30.01 heavy tank program - development of a 30-tonne tank which led to the Tiger - but the hull was stretched and an extra road wheel added to its overlapped and interleaved Schachtellaufwerk roadwheel-based suspension system, to accommodate the large gun, which was mounted on a pedestal ahead of the engine. A large, open-topped fighting compartment, much like that fitted to the Panzer IV-based Hummel self-propelled 15 cm howitzer, was built where the turret...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Alan Wilson from Stilton, Peterborough, Cambs, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0