Sturmpanzer IV - 'Brummbär'

The Sturmpanzer IV also called wrongly "Brummbär" is a heavily armored assault gun with a large 150 mm that was requested by Hitler for urban combat, its predecessor vehicle was directly sent to Stalingrad.

DISCLAIMER: This video is sponsored by the free-to-play game War Thunder.

DISCLOSURE: I was invited by the Deutsche Panzermuseum in 2018, 2019, 2020 & 2023.

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Doyle, Hilary Louis; Friedli, Lukas; Jentz, Thomas L.: Panzer Tracts No.8-1: Sturmpanzer - Sturminfanteriegeschütz 33, Sturmpanzer and Munitionspanzer development and production from 1942 to 1945. Panzer Tracts: Boyds, Maryland, USA, 2014.

Jentz, Thomas L./Doyle, H.L.: Panzer Tracts No.8: Sturmgeschuetz - s. Pak to Sturmmoerser. Darlington Productions: Darlington, Maryland, USA, 2000.

Töppel, Roman: Kursk 1943: The Greatest Battle of the Second World War. Helion & Company: Warwick, UK, 2018.

Hogg, Ian V.: German Artillery of World War Two. Paperback edition, Frontline Books: London, UK, 1975.

Datenblätter für Heeres-Waffen, -Fahrzeuge und -Gerät. Pawlas: Nürnberg, Germany, 1976.

Various stuff from the German Military Archives.

#sponsored #sturmpanzer #stalingrad

00:00 Intro
00:18 Schwere Infanteriegeschütz 33 on Panzer I B [VISUALIZED]
00:49 15 cm sIG 33 auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampfwagen II (Sf)
01:18 Sturminfanteriegeschütz 33
02:05 War Thunder
03:26 Development
04:43 Firepower
07:32 Armor
08:26 Mobility
10:12 Variants
12:45 Operational History
15:02 Naming
17:08 Production
18:42 Summary
19:09 War Thunder

[terraflow__bryanburdo]

I scratch built an HO scale model of this critter in 1970, complete with schurtzen. It is one of the few possessions from that age that i still have.

[Axonteer]

Shows you how easy one underestimates the weight of small things, in games or movies we see soldiers yoink open hatches at leassure with like one arm but in reality those things required deliberate push or pull due to their weight

[rolandhunter]

Fun fact:
Sturmpanzer had 470 L of fuel, the IS-2 had 820 Liter, and the Tiger B had 860 liter. ;)

[djscottdog]

The reasons for differences is probably factorys under pressure to get wepons out the door, production team: " we dont have that part ready for the hatch" reply from management "just use what you have got"

[SaperPl]

Oh, my favourite one in WT. Sadly the version without the slanted corners is not in the game (yet, it was suggested though as well as the 33B) which makes angling it not that useful.

[michaelbevan]

there is at least one crewman account out there that I have read; the guy was a loader on these and the shells were so heavy to load that they agreed a policy of lowering the barrel after every five rounds to give the guy a break from having to heft a shell into an elevated breech. Also, crews would bring on board an extra loader to ease the workload.

[ChrisS-fhzt]

this Sturmpanzer was actually at the French armor museum at Saumur then was refurbished and given to the Panzermuseum at Munster. There is only 4 left where France, Germany, Russia and finally the USA have them the rest sadly was either destroyed or scrapped after the war, hence why they are so rare.

Very nice Video. It is interesting how many interesting things to talk abou there are on every single Tank in that museum.

And it was nice to see the interior.

[michaelguerin]

Thank you Bernhard and Andy for another superb video. By the way, ‘unofficially’, as opposed to ‘inofficially’, is correct English usage. Have a good New Year. Cheers from NZ🇳🇿.

[jczeus]

There were four different versions of this vehicle: Ausf I to IV, the museum vehicle shown here is a Ausf IV. The Ausf I and II had the the Tiger (P) vision slit, which was was replaced by the boxy structure with periscope in Ausf III, and finally the Ausf IV had the completely different superstructure. I have Panzer Tracts 8-1 mentioned here, but also Nuts & Bolts 46, and the latter contains some pretty damning after action reports. There were complaints about barrel bursts, for example. And the front bogies were overstressed in the Ausf I to III, therefore the Ausf IV was designed to save weight and put the center of gravity further back. The issue with the shredded rubber tyres was only partially addressed by the steel-rimmed road wheels, because these caused the track pins to break more frequently. It's also mentioned that some units saw it as a form of punishment to be issued these vehicles!
One could argue that a weapon system, designed primarily for offensive operations in urban areas, is of little use in defensive operations in open terrain.

[ew]

I am surprised at how long it took for this video to pop up in my feed. Thanks again Bernhard for the excellent content!

[davidk]

I became fascinated with the Brummbar as a teenager when I played Avalon Hill's classic "Advanced Squad Leader". Is this vehicle the only German AFV with a hull mounted MG on the left hand side of the vehicle?

[THX]

It should be noted that, although the 15cm sIG.33 auf (Sf) Pzkpfw-II prototype was built on a standard Pzkpfw-II chassis, the 12 Versuchs (trial) vehicles that actually saw combat action shared little in common with the Pzkpwf-II other than the suspension parts, steering unit and final drive. The vehicle had a completely different chassis which was longer and wider than any of the Pzkfpw-II series and, as well, had a entirely new engine (an 8 cylinder Buessing NAG vs the standard Pzkpfw-II 6 cylinder Maybach HL62TR) and transmission.

PS - BTW - The German's war time nickname for the Sturmpanzer IV was "Stupa" a contraction of Stu-(rm) pa-(nzer).

[snbd]

Nice video, just a point, i play warthunder and in here i honestly didnt expect to see game graphics portrayed instead of historical pictures or film footage.

[treyhelms]

"Hans, do you see that building?"
"Yes, Commander."
"I don't want to see it anymore."
"Yes Commander!"

[Karelwolfpup]

heheh, ah the (not) Brummbar, my favourite SPG in Panzer Corps, these and StuH42s formed the core of my mobile artillery. If only we'd gotten more interviews with actual vehicle crews back in the 60s-80s when most of them were still around.

[proCaylak]

I see what you did there with the disclosures. keep doing such things from time to time :D

[papaaaaaaa]

Guten morgen.

Schön das du uns wieder mit 1a Videos versorgst, die haben doch sehr gefehlt.
Hoffe dir geht es wieder gut und wir sehen dich wieder öfter.

Nur so am Rande, kannst du mal was zu den unterschiedlichen Aufklärungsfahrzeugen und Taktiken des 2 Weltkrieges machen. Ich hab Hans von Luck gerade gelesen, und nicht nur sind da viele Fehler drin (so redet er mehrmals von 20mm Mgs in Stukas und He111 wo eigentlich normale Bordwaffen sein sollten?) sondern auch einige Interessante Aussagen. So schreibt er das die englischen 15mm Besa der Aufklärungsfahrzeuge den deutschen 20mm Geschützen überlegen gewesen seien.
Deshalb hätten die Aufklärer so ne Art "Indianer-Planwagen" Taktik angewendet, also die britischen Kräfte versucht gezielt aus mehreren Richtungen zu beschiessen.

Das war mir alles neu. Aber zugegeben ist das Buch nicht sehr gut geschrieben, zeitweise bezweifelt man das der Herr dabei war oder er hatte permanent ne Rosa Sonnenbrille auf...


Aber wie dem auch sei, danke für deine erstklassige Arbeit!

Bleib gesund!

[thomasadler]

Would be interesting to know
if the slow speed was considered as an issue or if this is just a postwar "looks bad on paper" opinion.

[bebo]

We had one of these in high school. We would drive it around on weekends and the cops didn’t know what to do. Sold it for scrap in 1983.