Bringing out the Extremely Big Guns | Sturminfanteriegeschütz 33

The concept of mounting a heavy infantry gun on a tank chassis was born out of the requirement to provide effective, destructive firepower against enemy-fortified positions. The need for a well-protected vehicle armed with a 15 cm (5.9 in) gun arose in late 1942. At that time, the Germans were bogged down attempting to take the city of Stalingrad. Due to the urgent demand for such a weapon system, a small series of semi-improvised vehicles armed with a 15 cm gun placed inside an armored superstructure would be built on the StuG III chassis, creating the Sturminfanteriegeschütz 33, or StuIG 33 for short.
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Sources:
D. Nešić (2008) Naoružanje Drugog Svetskog rata-Nemačka, Beograd
T.L. Jentz and H.L. Doyle (1999) Panzer Tracts No.8 Sturmgeschütz
T.L. Jentz and H.L. Doyle Panzer Tracts No.9 Sturmpanzer
P. Chamberlain and H. Doyle (1978) Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two - Revised Edition, Arms and Armor press.
H. Doyle (2005). German military Vehicles, Krause Publications
Ian V. Hogg (1975) German Artillery of World War Two, Purnell Book Services Ltd.
T. L. Jentz and H. L. Doyle (1998) Panzer Tracts No.10 Artillerie Selbsfahrlafetten
J. Engelmann, Bison und andere 15 cm-Geschutze auf Selbstfahrlafetten, Podzun-Pallas-Verlag GmbH
Tank Power Vol.XXIV 15 cm sIG 33(Sf) auf PzKpfw I/II/III, Wydawnictwo Militaria
Walter J. Spielberger (1993) Sturmgeschütz and its Variants, Schiffer Publishing Ltd
T. Anderson (2016) Sturmartillerie Spearhead Of the Infantry, Osprey Publishing
W. J. Spielberger (2007) Panzer III and its Variants, Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
B. Carruthers (2012) Sturmgeschütze Armored Assault Guns, pen and Sword
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An article and script by Marko P
Narrated by Rel Wood
Edited by magicleaner
Sound edited by Rel Wood

[@Saltasaur]

Finally, this is one of the more obscure vehicles people never talk about!

[@WildBillCox13]

Check the photo at 8:37. A crew firing the standard sIG 33 on the ground. Notice how everyone but the lanyard guy is plugging his ears? It's that loud. Now envision it placed in a tiny metal bell. Imagine the effect on the crew when the howitzer discharged. Do not ask for whom the bells tolls, it tolls for thee!

[@WildBillCox13]

"Ka-BONG!" -Quickdraw McGraw.

[@johncranston8918]

Never mind the noise. Imagine the smoke and fumes inside the unventilated casemate

[@mdkd99]

Oh, a video on this vehicle. Love this vehicle! Good armor for the time, and amazing gun, but not the best outside vision, and without infantry support, it was easily attacked by AT rifles.

[@jonnyboi841]

Love the panzer 3

[@Constantin_91]

9:50 Valve intro, didn't expect that

[@pavelslama5543]

My favourite vehicle in the Call to arms: Ostfront. Its invulnerable to Soviet AT rifles, it has enough armor to get close enough for its inaccurate howitzer, it has a ball-mounted MG to deal with infantry, and its reasonably small and cheap. P.S. Thumbs up for the Half-Life 2 soundtrack in the background.

[@Ulani101]

Basically, a German SU152, and history shows how effective they were. Pity, (from a historics perspective), that there weren't enough built to judge the effectiveness of the design.

[@ODST6262]

They were replaced by Sturm Haubitz (Storm Howitzer) IV, which is the same gun in a similar casement on a Panzer IV hull.

[@453543ification]

​@@ODST6262 it was Sturmpanzer IV Brumbar if we want to be more precize))

[@johnd2058]

The more the nazis wasted on 12MpH vehicles (let alone with the stated issues towards end), the better, yes.

[@rkitchen1967]

​@@johnd2058It was still better than a towed SIG 33.

[@johncataldo5529]

There were also the Bison Sig 33 vehicles built on the 38 t chassis. Two versions, one with the fighting compartment in the center and the other with it at the rear. Basically following the Marder III 38 t Panzerjager layout. And of course the Brumbar Sturmpanzer IV build on Panzer IV chassis with 150 mm gun

[@RetroGamesCollector]

Imagine if they had designed a tank from the ground up to house this gun. Great video.

[@highjumpstudios2384]

Isn't that kind of what they did though? Often the simplest path towards success is using a chassis you already have on hand. If it can take the weight of the gun and the armor you want theres no reason not to use it.

[@Abomb5991]

Always a treat to see you post a video!

[@TallDude73]

Cool vehicle. The Germans wrung everything they could out of that Panzer III chassis. ;)

[@wolf_7479]

Your German is pretty good, thanks for putting effort into getting the pronunciation right.

[@Tankbuilder32]

I’ve been in the tank industry for a few decades now, it just amazes me that they thought this vehicle together and got it to the front so quickly, hats off to the engineers and builders 👍

[@Tankbuilder32]

Edit, threw

[@keithplymale2374]

I find interesting all the other efforts the Germans went to get the 15cm SiG on a tracked chassis later in the war and also did a variant of the StuG III with the 10.5cm howitzer in it for direct fire support. This can be seen as the predecessor of the Strumpanzer IV.

[@ptonpc]

Good video thanks. I'm not sure I had seen this one. I imagine if it had been modified to be more sustainable (Better brakes, engine, more robust transmission) and it was only used in combination with other formations, it could have been useful, or at least not as much of a resource hog as Germany's other late war armoured vehicles.

[@1joshjosh1]

Another brilliant episode from Tank Encyclopedia

[@ftffighter]

TIK might know a little more about the Stalingrad stuff with this tank, you and him should get together! This was an awesome vid!

[@janwitts2688]

Seems that in combination with regular tanks it is a very effective machine.. they could have rectified most of the faults... like fitting a panzer cupola for observation and suchlike... a very credible effort compared to many of the more ambitious weapons

[@BloodyCrow__]

Now brummbar next pls

[@loneranger5349]

Everything is more effective in bigger numbers 😊

[@Bowl_of_roses]

Very interesting, well done, with these less well-known vehicles

[@TheArklyte]

Soviets tried to do the same thing with SU-5-3(or was it 4?) and if I recall it was using the same gun, that was licensed from germans. But once again they were sabotaged by their own inability to plan ahead and by the fact that T-26 chassis was at its limit and had no modification reserve by mass. British equivalents would have been Bishop, bu alas, brits didn't have and neither felt the need for such high caliber gun in small package so they settled for 25 pounder. Speaks a lot about long term staying power and capabilities of czech LT35... or about how nuts germans were. Edit: sorry, commented before watching. Based on thumbnail I thought this is video about Grille ausf. H, different model of SPG armed with sIG33😅

[@constantinalexe4862]

You are so wrong. The SU-5-3 and 4 have NOTHING to do with this thing. Not even the same role.

[@TheArklyte]

@@constantinalexe4862 1)it uses the same gun that simply doesn't have range to be a long range SPG if you're about that; 2)it was created a decade earlier on chassis that couldn't handle more armor and was competing against AT-1 SPG with enclosed casemate ie what YOU probably understand under assault gun. 3)as I've said, I've mistaken it for other SPG armed with sIG33, Grille H. A far more known and numerous vehicle. However it's still part of the same development cycle of "let's put sIG33 on self propelled chassis". So please, DO elaborate how and where I'm wrong. Or at least post a comment that would make it obvious you didn't read mine before "answering"😛

[@lebien4554]

​@@TheArklyte Constantine is right. Mistaking a self propelled howitzer for an infantry assault gun isn't wrong enough? And don't try to put others down to save yourself from an embarrassment.

[@Wolfe_Blue]

awesome

[@mikesmith2905]

Nice summary, well done. Any chance of some coverage of the kit used in North Africa, I gather they had some SiG33s on Pz2 chassis, but the only references to these I have seen were from western Europe.

[@jayfelsberg1931]

There were more than one SP 15cm IG and profiling them would be great

[@Treblaine]

I wonder why there aren't vehicles like this today then it was obvious: this huge armored vehicle is just to lob a couple kilos of TNT only about 100m. You don't need any sort of AFV for that, you can just use a rocket launcher or similar recoilless weapon. I see why Eisenhower rated the Bazooka so highly as it granted "pocket artillery" to even a rifle platoon.

[@ODST6262]

Although most effective using direct fire that fire was only restricted by the distance the crew could identify a target. Main gun range is mentioned and it was around 6 km.

[@janwitts2688]

It could shoot a 90kg demolition charge with over 50kg of amatol inside... this would be the equivalent of about a dozen single shot anti structure weapons that cost 10s of thousands each... a similar vehicle was a centurion variant.. these vehicles are not directly replacable.. modern militaries rely on having weapon ability overlap to avoid specialist vehicles when they can.. but the effect is often poor and this bites them in the ar se when actual stand up war comes around..

[@hailexiao2770]

​@@janwitts2688Name one case where the lack of specialization bit someone in the arse in modern warfare? If you tried fighting in something like this today you'd get wasted by ATGMs and a bajillion $100 RPG-7 rockets (far cheaper than that demolition shell) long before you get into a firing position.

[@muhammadfarhun1197]

Wonder they didn't produce more of this variant since the stug3 chasis are more easily available plus it had low profile that can be use in ambush and give fire power in attacking strong points.

[@HanSolo__]

Wood is back!

[@JeanLucCaptain]

another win for German transmissions LOL. yes more videos on assault guns. id espeically lvoe to see the mostly ignored SU series soviet Stugs.

[@johndoe-so2ef]

Seems like a recurring theme, aye? Bought a car with a ZF transmission one time about 20 years ago. Won't be making THAT mistake again.

[@JeanLucCaptain]

@@johndoe-so2ef to be fair unlike the panther this was a semi improvised design so I’d cut it a pit more slack. Brummbar probably fixed those issues.

[@monkeyfarmer1138]

Time.....Doctor Freeman? Is it really time for WWII documentaries with music ripped from Half-Life 2 again?

[@christophervanoster]

Oh this thing is a lot of fun in wot console. Stealthy and big gun what can go wrong?

[@mladenmatosevic4591]

Soviets had SU-152 mm howitzers which were capable to destroy Tiger tank and were even more useful in Budapest and Berlin. They were well armored too.

[@kingofgameing2774]

If they add it to warthunder it would be a worse brumbar.

[@BloodyCrow__]

Can you also do the KV-220?

[@Sofus.]

[@Rusty_Gold85]

Trouble with Germany they had too many minor specialist weapons , tanks , guns , planes causing tooling and factory supply issues.Wasting industry time.

[@wacojones8062]

The US Built Shermans with 105mm Howitzers and later various engineer support vehicles. The last of the series mounted a M135 gun of 165mm bore diameter. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M728_Combat_Engineer_Vehicle en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Ordnance_L9 US variant the M135. 40 pounds of explosive love delivered with each shot.

[@crapphone7744]

Typical emergency measure. Pretty well performs to the immediate need but not useful in general use due to maintenance problems and excessive wear-and-tear due to a ridiculously fast design process with xero testing. But if you're fighting house-to-house a crappy assault been in hand is worth 10 well-designed ones on the test range back home.

[@brooksroth345]

This proof of concept vehicle led to the brumbar , SU-152, ISU152, SU-122. The Russians came to the same conclusions as the Germans but did it better.

[@billevans7936]

Very good❤

[@JamesLaserpimpWalsh]

If they put it on panther chassis maybe.

[@kobeh6185]

Ok gaijin do the thing

[@tsclly2377]

Too big a gun... 10.5 cm FlaK 38 barrel would have give range and penetration with a fire rate of 10 rounds a minute using rear leg stabilizers and minimal sloped frontal armor and still could be raised to AA elevations of 80 degrees with limited turning radii .. better yet would have been a tracked towed 10.5 cm FlaK 38 or electric 39 with rapid hydraulic or air powered fold down legs using the prime movers air or a power unit. Germany had logistical problems from not having enough armored tracked recovery / engineering units all the time on the Eastern front. Horses can only do so much.. and were not recovered enough to be used ast food when killed. The stagnant peasants probably ate them. this also applies for quite a few of the 88's.

[@ronin3381]

Shortest German tank name

[@merafirewing6591]

I wonder if this is in War Thunder?

[@RetroGamesCollector]

I believe it is and responsible for several of my tank crews dying 😂

[@TanksEncyclopediaYT]

The Stupa IV is ingame, along with the 15cm sIG 33 auf Panzer II.

[@VeganerHippie]

Not this exact Vehicle, but two other Vehicles with the Same Gun.

[@TRUMP20Z4]

Another great and accurate video, awesome work.

[@comentedonakeyboard]

As usual the best german engeneering is Czech😂

[@ethanlor7251]

2nd comment :D

[@MasonIluminat]

ТЕLegграм💪/DDGeopolitics👍🏻

[@markusfrombgen2967]

Das ist eine Haubitze, keine Kanone !

[@rubberwoody]

It's being used in a direct fire capacity. So it's a cannon

[@rubberwoody]

@@AKUJIVALDO According to google cannons shoot flat and howitzers shoot in arcs idk

[@SuperKonjac]

What a weird choice for music. Unsubbed.

[@Rush47.]

Please just stop trying to pronounce it in german, sounds terrible