"Sturmtiger" (German Sturmtiger), full official name - 38 cm RW61 auf Sturmmörser Tiger, also common name "Sturmpanzer VI" (German Sturmpanzer VI) - German self-propelled
artillery installation (ACS) of the Second World War, assault gun class, heavy in mass. Created in 1943 on the chassis of a heavy tank "Tiger" and was intended for the destruction of enemy fortifications and battles in urban settings.
According to the initial project, the new self-propelled gun, which received the unofficial name "Sturmtiger", was to be armed with a 210-mm howitzer specially designed for it, but the development of the latter was delayed and endangered the entire project. As a replacement for this gun, on April 11, 1943, A. Speer proposed the 380-mm Raketenwerfer 61 jet bomber, which had not yet been adopted by the Kriegsmarine. Hitler highly appreciated this initiative, and as a result, on August 5, 1943, the final draft of the a modified 380-mm Sturmtigra bomb. The planned production volume of "Sturmtiger" was 10 vehicles per month, and although this figure was never achieved, the release of self-propelled guns could significantly affect the production volumes of the base tank much needed by the front. In this regard, it was decided to use for the assembly of the "Sturmtigers" the chassis of the "Tigers" received for overhaul. The first prototype with a non-armored steel cabin was re-equipped by Alkett and presented to the customer on October 20 1943.
The release of the first batch of 12 "Sturmtigers" went from August 13 to September 21, 1944, after which on October 6 of the same year, the new ACS was finally adopted by the Wehrmacht and began
distributing it in parts. Meanwhile, with the development of the Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front, the number of available "Tigers" was further reduced, since now retreating
German troops most often had to abandon faulty or damaged equipment. As a result, later, only one batch of 5 "Sturmtigers" was produced, completed in December 1944
of the year. In total, from October 1943 to December 1944, 18 "Sturmtigers" were manufactured, including the prototype, on which the wheelhouse was already installed from armored steel by 1944.
"Sturmtigers" were converted from the "Tiger" line tanks, while only the fighting compartment of the tank and partly the frontal armor of the hull were re-equipped, while the other components remained practically unchanged. The self-propelled guns had a layout with the location of the engine compartment in the aft part, the transmission compartment in the frontal part, and the combined control and combat compartment in a spacious fixed wheelhouse in the middle of the hull. The crew of the "Sturmtiger" consisted of five people.
The main armament of the Sturmtiger was the Raketenwerfer 61 380-mm rocket launcher (military designation 38 cm RW61 or StuM RM 61 L / 5) with a barrel length of 5.4 caliber. The bomb was installed in the frontal leaf of the wheelhouse in a ball mount, which allowed its guidance in the vertical plane within 0 ... + 85 ° and in the horizontal - within ± 10 °.
The bomb launcher fired rockets with a solid-propellant engine, stabilized in flight due to rotation, achieved due to the inclined arrangement of the nozzles of its engine, as well as the entry of protrusions on the rocket body into the rifling channels of the gun barrel. The initial velocity of the rocket at the exit from the barrel was 300 m / s.
The maximum ammunition load of the bomb consisted of 14 missiles, of which 12 were placed in stowages on both sides of the wheelhouse, one was on the charging tray, and one more in the barrel, but usually the crews preferred to load only 13 shells into the vehicle, not
taking up the charging tray. Usually it included only high-explosive Raketen Sprenggranate missiles weighing 351 kg, containing 125 kg of TNT.
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