The first armoured troop carriers - prototype APCs - began to emerge during World War I, as did another vehicle which would subseciuently influence the genesis of the APC, the armoured car. Typically, these armoured troops carriers were simply modified tanks elongated to carry troops in the rear
Left: A section of SS panzergrenadiers seated in their MG34 rnachine-gun equipped Sd Kfz 251/1 in wintertime. These men are wearing German winter clothing, and the vehicle has been covered in whitewash as a crude camouflage.
Hull - the British Army’s Mark V Special Tank being a classic example. In the aftermath of the German defeat in 1918, the emasculated Reichswehr (German Army) was permitted to retain some 105 dual-purpose armoured cars-cum-troop transporters for internal policing duties. These vehicles provided the Germcins with some experience of light armoured vehicles that would stand them in good stead for developing the /VPC during the 1930s. The other technological experience necessary for the development of the APC was the design of an effective half-tracked chassis: this was provided by foreign expertise.
In the first years of the twentieth century, Adolphe Kegresse, a French engineer, was tasked with looking after the fleet of motor vehicles owned by the Russian Tsar, Nicholas. In an attempt to overcome the problems experienced within this fleet every year due to the extreme icy weather conditions, Kegresse developed a bogie wheel assembly with rubber tracks that he fitted to the rear of one of the Tsar’s vehicles to create the world’s first half-tracked vehicle. By 1917 the Western Allies had adopted Kegresse’s half-tracked vehicle designs and had introduced to the battlefields of Europe the world’s first half-tracked armoured cars. The Germans duly responded by copying these Allied vehicles, and in late 1918 introduced the Daimler Marienwagen halftrack to the battlefield, although only four had been completed by the armistice on 11 November 1918. The Marienwagen possessed an Erhardt armoured car superstructure that was simply mounted on top of a Daimler truck
Above: In the appalling mud of the Eastern Front, resupply of panzergrenadier and panzer formations proved problematic. Here a Wiking Division truck becomes bogged down. Many trucks were converted into halftracks and designated a Maultier (or Mule).
Chassis that had been modified with a simple rubber-band type halftrack assembly. This use of armoured car design features within a half-tracked fighting vehicle set a precedent that influenced the Germans in the mid-1930s when they began to develop the world’s first half-tracked APC.
The APC designs utilised by the German Army during World War II trace their genesis back to 1926. In that year the German High Command placed orders for six different prototype half-tracked troop transporters. Eventually, subsequent development of these prototypes led to the manufacture of the range of artillery tractors used by the Wehrmacht throughout the 1939-45 war. In the second half of the 1930s further development of the tvm lightest artillery tractor designs, including the Demag Sd Kfz 10 vehicle, ultimately produced the Sd Kfz 250 and 251, the two standard German half-tracked APCs of the 1939-45 war. The Sd Kfz 250 leichter Schutzenpanzerwagen (leSPW) light APC carried just part of an infantry section (six men) into battle, while the Sd Kfz 251 rnittlerer Schutzenpanzerwagen (mSPW) medium APC carried an entire ten-man German infantry section into combat. These two vehicles remained the key weapon of the panzergrenadiers throughout the entire war.
The Sd Kfz 250 Light APC
In 1939 the German Army designed a lighter APC version of the recently introduced mSPW Sd Kfz 251, which they designated the le SPW Sd Kfz 250. This vehicle was based on the chassis of the Demag Sd Kfz 10 artillery tractor and featured a scaled-down duplicate of the armoured superstructure mounted on the Sd Kfz 251. The basic Sd Kfz 250 halftrack possessed armour some 14.5mm (0.57in) thick on its front and just 8mm (0.315in) thick on its side and rear surfaces. Weighing 5.3 tonnes (5.2 tons), the Sd Kfz 250 could carry a payload up to 1 tonne (0.98 ton). The rear half-tracked assembly provided the vehicle with good cross -country mobility, while on roads the vehicle could reach an impressive speed of 60 kph (37.5 mph). On each side of the vehicle’s rear this assembly comprised five overlapping wheels plus a slightly separated front wheel; over all six of these wheels ran the rubber-padded caterpillar track. At the front of the vehicle was a single set of tyred wheels. The leSPW entered service with the Wehrmacht during early spring 1940 and first participated in combat during the German invasion of the West in May-June 1940. The Sd Kfz 250 possessed a long, shallow hull front, which ran approximately to the front of the track assembly. Toward the rear of the vehicle, the superstructure then rose to form an open-topped fighting compartment with distinctive sloping sides. Apart from being smaller than the Sd Kfz 251, the leSPW was distinguishable from its larger cousin by its fewer tracked wheels (six instead of eight) and by the fact that its shallow hull bonnet extended further on the vehicle in relation to its overall length than it did on the larger mSPW.
Like the Sd Kfz 251, the basic leSPW light APC normally carried two 7.92mm (0.312in) MG 34 machine guns to provide close-range offensive and defensive firepower. These weapons were mounted on pivot devices at the front and rear of the vehicle’s fighting compartment superstructure. The MG 34 constituted one of World War II’s most effective weapons, and was the world’s first general-purpose dualrole machine-gun. The weapon possessed an air-cooled barrel which was ventilated by round holes in the sleeve, rather than the more typical but cumbersome water-cooling jacket. As a result of this feature the MG 34 remained relatively light - just 11.6kg (25.4 lbs). The weapon fired either magazines or 50-round belts at an incredible rate of 800-900 rpm up to a maximum effective range of 2000m (2188 yds). to its twin MG 34 guns, therefore, the standard Sd Kfz 250/1 troop transporter possessed sufficient firepower to make close range enemy infantry action against it extremely hazardous.
Although the Sd Kfz 250 remained less tactically flexible on the battlefield than its larger cousin, because it could not transport an entire infantry section, this APC design nevertheless proved well suited to modification into a range of specialised vehicles. During the course of the war, German firms constructed 14 different versions of the leSPW Sd Kfz 250, some of which duplicated the roles performed by the Sd Kfz 251 variants. Indeed, as even the standard Sd Kfz 250/1 troop carrier - unlike its larger Sd Kfz 251 cousin - could not carry an entire infantry squad, the Germans often used this troop transporter in specialised roles, such as a platoon commander’s vehicle. As the war progressed the basic design of the leSPW underwent numerous minor modifications designed to simplify the construction process, and thus increase the rate at which German firms could deliver new vehicles to the battlefield troops. The bolted-on stowage compartments, for example, became incorporated into the basic superstructure design in order to simplify manufacture.
World History
