| History: Before the war, while the various factions in the German Wehrmacht were arguing over modernisation, the artillery branch had a support vehicle designed – the Sturmgeschütz or “Assault Gun”. The original StuG was built on the chassis of the Panzer III, carrying a short-barrelled 75mm gun, so that it could follow the infantry on the attack and destroy enemy strong-points. Early in the war, however, it was upgunned to carry the longer 75mm so that it could be used as a mobile anti-tank gun – and the tank destroyer was born. 
Combat use: The StuG was originally issued as an infantry support vehicle, intended to work closely with the infantry to suppress and destroy enemy strong-points. The original gun (the StuK37 L/24) was short-barrelled, with low muzzle velocity. In early 1942, the first of the long-barrelled versions start to come into service, to help handle the Soviet T-34s and KVs, which were causing so much trouble for the German armour. It was a cheap and expedient solution to getting a powerful gun into the field. However, it was also very effective, so remained in production until March 1945. 
In game: The StuG has a reasonably powerful gun (especially for early in the war), but on a limited traverse, making co-operation between the driver and the gunner imperative. It is fully-armoured and has a low profile, making it harder to hit – and the reload time is quite short as the loader had more room to work in, without a turret. One of the minor drawbacks was the fact that the main gun was actually an artillery piece and the gunsight was not designed for anti-tank work. The version modelled is actually an early Ausf F, which has almost identical characteristics to the Ausf G. The later model Ausf G had a tank-style cupola and some mounted an MG on the roof.
| StuG III Ausf F | | Weight (Tonnes) | 23.9 | | Crew | 4
Commander
Gun-layer
Loader
Driver | | Road Speed (Kph) | 40 | | Off-Road (Kph) | 15 | | Max gradient (Deg) | 30 | | Side gradient | ~18 | | Gap crossing (m) | 2.3 | | Max range (Km) | 155 | | Engine | Maybach HL120TRM (petrol) | | Power (hp) | 300 | | Gearbox (forward/reverse) | 6 / 1 | | Main Gun | 7.5cm StuK40 L/48 | | Elevation (Deg) | -6 to +20 | | Rate of fire (rpm) | 4-8 | | Average reload time (sec) | 12 | | Rounds in storage | 54 | | Full 360 traverse (sec) | 10 deg each way only | | Traverse mechanism |
| | Secondary armaments | None | | Armour (Hull/Turret) (mm-Deg) |
| | Front | 80-10/80-0 | | Side | 30-0/30-11 | | Rear | 50-0/30-0 | | Top/Bottom | 16-90/15-90 | | Version modelled | Ausf F L/48 1942 |
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