WWII German panzers & AFV's: Q&A

First one hasn't been identified for years and probabaaly never will... as far as I'm aware we don't even know where that picture was taken. Probabaly Germany.

Second one is most likely a "Wiking" Panther in Poland, 1944, around Kovel.

No idea yet on the third picture.

First one is a late (maybe even final) G, second one is an early A, third are early G (though I don't recall haveing seen a Panther G with A type skirts before).

Is this a Maus?

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I was under the impression that the Maus never saw service yet this one looks to have been destroyed (maybe deliberately) in operation.

The working Maus prototypes remained at Kummersdorf and at the proving grounds in Böblingen. In the last weeks of the war the V1 with the dummy turret was captured by the advancing Soviet forces in the vicinity of the western batteries of the Kummersdorf artillery firing grounds. It had been mechanically sabotaged by the Germans before abandoning it.

Bei Kriegsende befanden sich beide Prototypen auf dem Heeresversuchsgelände in Kummersdorf, wo die erste Maus beim Herannahen der sowjetischen Truppen von der Wehrmacht gesprengt wurde.

Sowohl der V1 als auch der V2 wurden von ihren Besatzungen gesprengt, als die Rote Armee das Versuchsgelände in Kummersdorf erreichte. Darüber hinaus gibt es auch Gerüchte, dass die beiden "Maus"-Panzer bei der Verteidigung des Testgeländes eingesetzt wurden.

I personally lean toward it being sabotage as the turret is relatively intact yet the central hull is destroyed, this would indicate that it was unlikely to have been caused by artillery fire or an AT round.

The other thing that interests me is that lack of finish on the turret itself as it has no hatches or spare "wheels" this indicates to me that the vehicle was unfinished at the time of destruction.

That would certainly be a plausible answer although I would have thought they would have put more effort into destroying the turret as well.

The 12.8 cm Selbstfahrlafette auf VK3001(H) "Sturer Emil" was an experimental World War II German self-propelled anti-tank gun. It was based on the Henschel VK3001 chassis and armed with a Rheinmetall 12.8 cm K L/61 gun (based on the 12.8 cm FlaK 40). This gun could traverse 7° to each side, elevate 10° and depress 15°. It carried 18 rounds for the main gun.

The chassis was left over from Henschel's submission for the canceled VK3001 heavy tank program, but the hull was stretched and an extra road wheel added to accommodate the large gun, which was mounted on a pedestal ahead of the engine. A large, open-topped, fighting compartment was built where the turret was intended to go in the original design.

Two vehicles (named Max and Moritz) were built, both of which served on the Eastern Front. One vehicle was destroyed, the other captured at Stalingrad in January 1943, with 22 kill marks painted on the barrel. This captured vehicle is now displayed in the collection on the Kubinka Tank Museum.

Design of Selbstfahrlafette 12.8cm was based on Henschel's prototype of Panzer IV' successor - VK3001(H). In March of 1941, two VK3001(H) were ready to be converted into heavy anti-tank gun carriers - Panzerjagers. Rheinmetall-Borsig provided the 128mm PaK 40 L/61 gun for the main armament, which was developed in 1939, from 128mm Flak gun. Both chassis had to be modified in order to mount heavy 128mm gun. Major modifications consisted of the enlargement of the chassis (addition of one road-wheel, extension of the hull) and addition of the heavily armored open-top compartment mounted over the engine compartment. Fighting compartment was mounted in the rear of the vehicle and housed powerful 128mm anti-tank gun with limited traverse of 7 degrees to the left and to the right. Space inside the fighting compartment operated by the crew of five, allowed storage for only 15 to 18 rounds. One 7.92mm MG34 was mounted in the hull for local defence.
From August of 1941 to March of 1942, Rheinmetall-Borsig and Henschel produced two prototypes, which were troop tested in Russia in mid 1942. Both prototypes performed successfully but the development of this project was cancelled in favour of Tiger I. One of Selbstfahrlafette 12.8cm (pictured above) saw service with 521st schwere Panzerjaeger Abteilung and second one with 2nd Panzer Division as late as July of 1942. One of two prototypes (from 2nd Panzer Division) was destroyed in combat, while other one (from 521st sPzJagAbt with 22 kills rings painted on the gun barrel) was captured intact in January of 1943 in Stalingrad area. It was shown at the captured equipment exhibitions in Moscow's Gorky Park in 1943 and 1944. Vehicles were named "Max" and "Moritz" after characters in Busch's classic children's story. Today, the one captured by the Red Army can be seen in the Museum of Armored Forces in Kubinka (Russia).

Call it a 'field test' - no other chassis had the ability to carry a 12,8cm gun at that time, the KVs were numerous but the Tiger not yet avialbale in sufficient numbers or at all. And would you let a couple of chassis go to waste when you can modify them a little and employ them with a gun without match on the battlefield, even when there are only 2? Then there was the "Dicker Max" (based on a PzIV chassis aremd with a 10.5cm field gun), of which also only 2 were built. Even though thsoe were expensive and difficult to produce I'm sure the German engineers gained valuable information from the deployment of those vehicles necessary for the development of the heavy tank destroyers.