Sd.Kfz.251/9
| This page is about the German tank destroyer Sd.Kfz.251/9. For other versions, see Sd.Kfz.251 (Family). |
Contents
Description
The m.Schütz.Pz.Wg. (Sd.Kfz.251/9), nicknamed "Stummel", was an infantry support vehicle developed by Nazi Germany during WW2 in 1942. Learning from the lessons in the Eastern Front and with a surplus of 7.5 cm howitzers due to the Panzer IV and StuG III being refitted with more capable anti-tank weapons, the Wehrmacht decided to use the already proven Sd.Kfz.251 platform to mount this gun and use it as an infantry support weapon. Initially armed with just the cannon and a narrow range of fire, the vehicle proved unsatisfactory, but after being refitted with a new gun mount and a coaxial machine gun it was deployed in large numbers in the Eastern Front. It mostly served in Armored Recon Units and was used in areas were tanks couldn't support infantry due to poor terrain or weak infrastructure (like roads or bridges) that the Sd.Kfz.251/9 had no problem crossing, as a direct fire platform it proved very good, reliable, cheap to produce and maintain and it filled the need of a "bunker buster" vehicle in the Eastern Front.
The "Stummel" was introduced in Update "Fire and Ice" and is considered a competent vehicle against its foes. While the armour is not good enough to stop even 12.7 mm shots, its gun and mobility compensate this lack of protection. The HEAT rounds are the best to deal with most enemies, it can be used effectively against armoured and open top vehicles, the 870 g of explosive mass would make sure most enemies are dealt with, however post penetration damage may feel lacking. The APCBC can be used specially in flanking manoeuvres, but it has less penetration and velocity than the HEAT rounds and thus, hitting enemies would be even harder, the mobility is decent enough, to the point that you can rush for capture points and then hide in favourable positions to ambush passing tanks.
General info
Survivability and armour
Like all APCs the m.Schütz.Pz.Wg. (Sd.Kfz.251/9)armour is not enough to protect against any kind of enemy heavy fire. Since it's armour was designed to be effective against small arms fire even 50.cal ammunition common in tanks like the Sherman and the M3 Lee would be able to penetrate it and cause damage to internal modules and crewmembers.
Armour type:
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 14.5 mm (20°) Engine compartment 14.5 mm (30°) Driver Cabin 8 mm (41°) Lower glacis |
8 mm (41°) Top - Engine 8 mm (35°) Top - Crew compartment 8 mm (19°) Bottom - Engine 8 mm (34°) Bottom - Crew compartment 8 mm + 8 mm (34°) Storage bins 8 mm Bottom - Undercarriage |
8 mm (31°) 5.5 mm (42°) Lower glacis |
| Gun shield | 14.5 mm (40°) + 14.5 mm (15°) Gun shield - centre 14.5 mm (34°) Gun shield - sides 14.5 mm (16°) + 14.5 mm (15°) Gun mantlet |
10 mm |
Notes:
Mobility
The vehicle's mobility will take you wherever you need to go. Use it to be able to quickly reach and prepare a sniper/ambush position. Be careful when making sharp turns at maximum speed as the vehicle has a chance of tipping over.
Like all wheeled vehicles the m.Schütz.Pz.Wg. (Sd.Kfz.251/9)has better mobility than tanks when traversing trough paved roads, it has indeed tracks in the rear and those help to increase off-road mobility, but it will still be faster than most tanks in paved roads/ground.
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 57 | 12 | 8 | 142 | 191 | 17.75 | 23.88 |
| Realistic | 53 | 11 | 88 | 100 | 11 | 12.5 | |
Modifications and economy
First, it is important obtaining early modules like improved FPE, improved parts and Crew replenishment, then, improving the tracks and the suspension as well as the breaks is very important to compensate the lack of mobility in harsh terrain.
Recommended modifications (Not in order)
- All protection modifications
- Tracks, suspension, brakes and transmission
- Elevation mechanism and horizontal drive
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
The main gun of the Sd.Kfz.251/9 is the same howitzer that you will find on all Pz.IVs found before the F2 model. It gets access to the more capable Hl.Gr 38C round, which is very potent at its low BR, and comes in handy against heavily-armoured vehicles (e.g. B1 bis, 2C bis, etc.). The stock APCBC round has a potent explosive filler and a decent penetration for its BR, but do try to have a handful of HEAT rounds ready in case they are needed. One upside of the (relatively) large calibre of this BR is that you have access to a capable HE round, which will overpressurize lightly-armoured and open-topped vehicles, a useful thing in case SPAAGs shows up.
| 75 mm K51 L/24 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 38 | -10°/+16° | ±14° | - | 12.3 | 17.0 | 20.7 | 22.9 | 24.4 | 4.29 | 3.80 | 3.50 | 3.30 |
| Realistic | 8.3 | 9.8 | 11.9 | 13.2 | 14.0 | ||||||||
Ammunition
The available ammunition offers a wide range of shells to engage all types of targets:
- K.Gr.rot Pz.: APCBC; a slow shell with explosive filler mass that will knock out any tank with a single shot but has an average penetration power.
- Hl.Gr 38B: HEAT; a shaped charge with good penetration and without penetration loss over distance. Only penetrates flat vertical surfaces but the post-penetration damage is very effective on open and lightly armoured vehicles.
- Hl.Gr 38C: HEAT; a shaped charge with increased penetration over the previous shell. Very useful against heavily armoured targets.
- Sprgr. 34: HE; useful for destroying open and lightly armoured vehicles.
- K.Gr.Rot Nb.: Smoke; useful to blind enemy vehicles that are too remote for you to disable so that you can progress towards objectives.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| K.Gr.rot Pz. | APCBC | 52 | 50 | 45 | 39 | 34 | 30 |
| Hl.Gr 38B | HEAT | 80 | 80 | 80 | 80 | 80 | 80 |
| Hl.Gr 38C | HEAT | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Sprgr. 34 | HE | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| K.Gr.rot Pz. | APCBC | 385 | 6.78 | 1.2 | 14 | 102.4 | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
| Hl.Gr 38B | HEAT | 450 | 4.57 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 872.1 | 62° | 69° | 73° | |||
| Hl.Gr 38C | HEAT | 450 | 4.8 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 875.5 | 62° | 69° | 73° | |||
| Sprgr. 34 | HE | 420 | 5.74 | 0 | 0.1 | 686 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| Smoke shell characteristics | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Screen radius (m) |
Screen deploy time (s) |
Screen hold time (s) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
| K.Gr.Rot Nb. | 423 | 6.2 | 13 | 5 | 20 | 50 |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 38 | 33 (+5) | 1 (+37) | No |
Note:
- Shells are modeled individually and disappear after having been shot or loaded.
- Right flank empty: 33 (+5) shells.
Usage in battles
The Sd.Kfz.251/9 is a lightly armoured vehicle that can be penetrated by nearly anything, including heavy machine guns, and destroyed by overpressure. This means you want to avoid rushing points and areas of high traffic, and instead flank the enemy team with your decent mobility. The 75 mm gun on the 251/9 is excellent at its BR, coming with an APCBC shell with moderate penetration and an excellent HEAT shell with good explosive filler and 100 mm of penetration at all angles. However, sniping with this tank is not recommended, as its gun and shells have low muzzle velocity and high drop, making it difficult to hit your targets at range. A better way to use this tank is in an ambush role. If you can find a good spot that protects your sides and flanks from enemy tanks, you can surprise and quickly destroy almost enemy tank that come your way with your excellent reload speed and HEAT shells. It also has excellent depression, allowing you to engage enemy targets over ridges and give you more combat flexibility.
The biggest threats to this tank are aircraft and flankers. It is an open-topped vehicle, leaving it vulnerable to strafing and bombing from enemy aircraft. Because it lacks a turret, the 251/9 also struggles against flanking manoeuvres and is doomed if an enemy tanker flanks and gets a good firing profile on the side of your tank. To counteract this, stick with teammates and/or relocate after a few shots, to prevent players whose tanks you destroyed from coming back and revenge-bombing you. It may also be beneficial to pair with a friendly SPAA, as they can help provide some measure of defence against CAS.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Highly mobile for the BR, will get to one's destination quickly.
- Potent gun with a fast reload that allows for versatile engagement of enemies
- Gun depression makes hull-down positions possible
- Smoke shells available, useful for covering allied movements, specially good thanks to a low reload time
Cons:
- Open-topped, vulnerable to HE rounds, artillery strikes and strafing aircraft
- A single shot can knock out the driver, gunner and loader at once, leaving you vulnerable
- Weak mobility in harsh terrain compared to tanks because of it's design without full tracks
- Relatively poor shell velocity for it's main gun
History
The m.Schütz.Pz.Wg. (Sd.Kfz.251/9) was developed over the Sd. Kfz. 251 platform, which was already proven alongside infantry as an APC and in other roles. This variant was made with infantry support in mind, thanks to the lessons learned in the Eastern Front and the need of a cheaper assault gun against soviet fortifications and entrenched infantry.
The gun chosen was the 7.5 cm K. 37 L/24 that was available in large numbers after the Panzer IV and StuG III were refitted with more capable anti tank cannons. Early versions of this mount proved unsatisfactory, with 10 to 12 degrees of horizontal traverse and only -5 degrees of gun depression, still the vehicle was sent to the Eastern front and a first batch of 150 units was ordered.
The improved version entered service in 1944 with a revision of the 7.5cm Howitzer, a new gun mount, a coaxial MG-42 machine gun and a simpler construction that allowed better maintenance and more ammo capacity thanks to more internal space (many rounds were carried in bags and rifle racks). The new design proved much more efficient, the horizontal traverse was increased to 20 degrees and gun depression went from -5 to -10 degrees.
The "mittlerer Schützenpanzerwagen Stummel" entered service in 1942 with the SS-Panzerregiment 4 „Der Führer“, 2nd SS Armored Division in the Eastern front, it should be noted that most units served in that theatre, and not against the Allied forces. Later in the war the vehicle would be deployed in all armoured reconnaissance units to provide heavy fire support and also in the paratrooper division “Hermann Göring”, this was made considering that the "Stummel" could be carried inside the Me 323
The vehicle had a many uses for the Wehrmacht, for instance, it was much cheaper to produce and maintain than the Panzer IV or Stug III, and when those tanks went from infantry support to anti tank duties, it was far cheaper and easier modifying an existing platform like the Sd.Kfz.250 to fulfil this new role. Not only that, but the "kanonenwagen" as it was called, was also lighter, and was able to cross weak bridges alongside infantry and APCs to provide direct fire support and even help in anti tank duties when shooting from favourable positions.
Media
- Skins
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the vehicles;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
Sources
| Germany tank destroyers | |
|---|---|
| Pz. I Derivatives | Panzerjäger I |
| Pz. II Derivatives | 15cm sIG 33 B Sfl |
| Pz. 38(t) Derivatives | Marder III · Marder III H · Jagdpanzer 38(t) |
| Pz. III Derivatives | StuG III A · StuG III F · StuG III G · StuH 42 G |
| Pz. IV Derivatives | Jagdpanzer IV · Panzer IV/70(A) · Panzer IV/70(V) · Dicker Max · Nashorn · Brummbär · VFW |
| Pz. V Derivatives | Jagdpanther G1 · Bfw. Jagdpanther G1 |
| Pz. VI Derivatives | Sturer Emil · Elefant · Ferdinand · 38 cm Sturmmörser · Jagdtiger |
| Wheeled/Half-track | 8,8 cm Flak 37 Sfl. · Sd.Kfz.251/9 · Sd.Kfz.251/10 · Sd.Kfz.251/22 · Sd.Kfz.234/3 · Sd.Kfz.234/4 · 15 cm Pz.W.42 |
| ATGM Carrier | RakJPz 2 · RakJPz 2 (HOT) · Wiesel 1A2 |
| Other | Waffenträger · M109G · JPz 4-5 · Raketenautomat · VT1-2 |
