Jagdpanzer 38 „Hetzer“ (Sd.Kfz. 138/2)

Type: Tank Destroyer
Nation: Germany
Period: World War 2
Location: Bastogne War Museum, Belgium

Caught on the back foot

Following their 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany’s troops were facing an ever-increasing number of enemy tanks on the Eastern Front. Craving for capable anti-tank vehicles, the Germans upgunned their Panzer IIIs, Panzer IVs and Sturmgeschütz assault guns and pushed for the creation of a variety of improvised “Panzerjäger” (= tank hunter) vehicles based on the hulls of outdated tank models. On 26 November 1943 the Alkett factory in Berlin was bombed, which seriously interrupted production of the StuG III. The StuG IV was introduced as a substitute, while at the same time Böhmisch-Mährische Maschinenfabrik AG (BMM) in Prague was considered to be turned into an additional manufacturing site for the 24-ton StuG III. But since the cranes at their facilities were not capable of lifting such heavy vehicles, a new and lighter type of Panzerjäger was to be constructed there instead.

Lookalike

The Panzer 38(t) – by this time obsolete as a gun tank – had already been used as the basis for the open-top Panzerjäger Marder III, which carried an effective gun but suffered from its high silhouette and the lack of crew protection. The new Jagdpanzer 38 was derived from the same reliable vehicle. But in the end almost none of the original parts remained unchanged: The hull was wider, the road wheels larger and the suspension system sturdier to cope with the extensive extra weight. It was thus a completely new purpose-designed machine, not just another improvisation. The vehicle went through numerous name changes throughout its history, but its popular nickname “Hetzer” was never an official German designation during World War 2. This term was in fact used as the name for a whole class of small tank destroyers.

The original G

This particular vehicle at the Bastogne War Museum is made up to look like a wartime Jagdpanzer 38 in German service – including the distinctive “ambush camouflage” paint scheme. The Germans used around 300 Jagdpanzer 38s during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and January 1945. However, this one was built after the war for the Swiss Army who designated it “Panzerjäger G13”. “G13” had been an internal factory code at Škoda during World War 2. The G stood for a “Panzerjäger”, 1 for “light” and 3 for the third model after G11 (Panzerjäger I) and G12 (Marder III).