Tank Craft 41 StuG III Assault Gun Battle of the Bulge and the Last Battles in the West, 1945

Designed and developed as a mobile bunker-buster, armed with a short-barrelled howitzer, the Sturmgeschütz III was continuously up-armoured and up-gunned as the Second World War progressed. By 1943 its abilities as an anti-tank weapons system were widely recognised. From that time it was increasingly substituted for gun tanks in official unit establishments and a plan to equip each infantry division with at least one company of these versatile tank killers was well underway, although never completed. Successful Allied bombing of the major production facility, and the ensuing delays in vehicle assembly, caused near-panic and spurred the development of a series of self-propelled anti-tank designs but the importance of the Sturmgeschütz III was never diminished. For Allied soldiers they were among the most frequently encountered German armoured vehicles and by December 1944, when the Ardennes Offensive commenced, almost 600 examples were serving on the Western Front, more than the number of Tiger and Panther tanks combined. In the third volume in the TankCraft series to examine the Sturmgeschütz III, Dennis Oliver draws on official documentation and unit histories to examine the formations that operated these vehicles and uses archive photos and extensively researched colour illustrations to examine the markings, camouflage and technical aspects of the assault guns that served on the Western Front during the last months of the war. An important section of his book displays available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented by a gallery of beautifully constructed and painted models in various scales. Technical details as well as modifications introduced during production and in the field are also examined, providing everything the modeller needs to recreate an accurate representation of these historic vehicles.