* Elefant — " Elephant "; a heavy Panzerjäger ( tank hunter or tank destroyer ) built on the chassis of Porsche's unsuccessful prototypes for the Tiger tank, and mounting the 88mm L / 71 PaK 43.

During World War II, most purpose-built German Wehrmacht and Soviet Red Army tank destroyers and self-propelled guns ( like the Wehrmacht's Sturmgeschütz III ) essentially had turretless, armored steel casemates mounted onto ( or built integrally into ) conventional main battle tank chassis to carry heavier, forward firing guns — the German vehicles were dubbed Jagdpanzer and Panzerjäger respectively, while their Soviet counterparts all bore an " SU -" or " ISU -" prefix, with the " SU -" prefix an abbreviation for Samokhodnaya Ustanovka in Russian, or " self-propelled installation " in their designations, much like the U. S. Army's designation for self-propelled artillery, and American tank destroyers, as a " Gun Motor Carriage ".

The first German tank destroyers were the Panzerjäger (" tank hunters ") which took an existing anti-tank gun and mounted it on a convenient chassis to give mobility, usually with just a three-sided gun shield for protection.

Elefant | Panzerjäger Tiger, after the loss of the contract to the Tiger I Porsche recycled his design into a tank destroyer.

In modern times it has also been adopted in the original sense of " hunter " for compound terms such as Panzerjäger, " tank destroyer ".

As the war progressed, some Panzerjäger-Abteilungen were fully equipped with specialized tank destroyers known as Jagdpanzer (" hunting tank ") or Panzerjäger.

The Jagdpanzer 38 ( t ) fitted into the lighter category of German tank destroyers that began with the Panzerjäger I, continued with the Marder series and ended with the Jagdpanzer 38 ( t ).

Elefant ( German for " elephant ") was a schwerer Panzerjäger (" heavy tank destroyer ") of the German Wehrmacht used in small numbers in World War II.

After the first German experiences with the newer Soviet tanks like the T-34 or the Kliment Voroshilov tank during Operation Barbarossa, the need for a Panzerjäger capable of destroying these more heavily armoured tanks became clear.

An urgent need arose for a more mobile and powerful anti-tank weapon than the existing towed anti-tank guns or tank destroyers like the Panzerjäger I.

The Panzerjäger I ( German " Tank Hunter 1 ") was the first of the German tank destroyers to see service in the Second World War.

in German ) was a branch of service of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War which were the anti-tank arm-of-service who operated anti-tank artillery, and made exclusive use of the tank destroyers which were also named Panzerjäger.

Development of the Panzerjäger designs begun before the war with the Sturmgeschütz-designated armored vehicles, the initial German turretless tanks to use completely closed-in armored casemates, and continued until 1944, resulting in such casemate-design vehicles as the Jagdpanzer (" Hunting tanks "), purpose-built heavy-gun tank destroyers.

Independent battalions and regiments were used by Corps to protect most likely avenues of tank attacks, while divisions would often position their Panzerjäger on the flanks, or use them to support infantry advances against enemy using tanks.

When used with tanks, despite intense inter-branch rivalry, Panzerjäger would work in teams, with the tank crews enticing enemy tanks to fire, disclosing their position, and Panzerjäger engaging the enemy from a defilade.

Notable tank destroyers in the Panzerjäger classification were:

The Jagdpanzer designs followed on from the more lightly armoured Panzerjäger (" tank hunter ") designs which took an anti-tank gun and mounted it on top of a tank chassis with supplementary armour fitted around the gun crew.

164 ), though it was also known as the Panzerjäger Hornisse ( in English " armor hunter hornet ")

For this attack, the division had been reinforced with a Panther tank company from 21st Panzer-Division, the 352nsd and 353rd flame-thrower tank companies ( equipped with Flammpanzer 38 ( t ) s ), and the 653rd Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion ( equipped with Jagdtigers ).

For instance, 202 obsolete Panzer I light tanks were modified by removing the turret and were rebuilt as the Panzerjäger I self-propelled Skoda anti-tank gun.

From 1940 the Panzerjäger troops were equipped with vehicles produced by mounting an existing anti-tank gun complete with the gun shield on a tracked chassis to allow higher mobility.

In the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht felt the need for a more mobile and more powerful anti-tank weapon than the existing towed anti-tank guns or self-propelled tank destroyers such as the Panzerjäger I.

In addition to the veterans of Flandern, the Sturmbrigade now gained a battalion of Finnish volunteers, a contingent of new Flemish volunteers, an anti-tank Panzerjäger company, an assault gun battalion equipped with StuG's and a FlaK battalion.

They wore ordinary field-gray uniforms rather than the black of the Panzer troops ; those Panzerjäger troops who crewed the tank-destroyers however wore the Panzer jacket in field gray.

; 7. 62 cm FK36 ( r ) auf Panzerjäger Selbstfahrlafette Zugkraftwagen 5t ( SdKfz 6 / 3 )

The Marder IIs were used by the Panzerjäger Abteilungen of the Panzer divisions of both the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS, as well as several Luftwaffe units.

Designs of the Panzerjäger vehicles varied based on the chassis used, which could be of three types:

The " open-topped " design format of the Panzerjäger vehicles was succeeded by the Jagdpanzer '(" hunting tanks ") which mounted the gun in true casemate-style superstructures, completely enclosing the crew compartment in armor that would usually be integral to the hull.

Panzerjäger were often called upon to provide direct high explosive supporting fire to infantry by destroying machinegun and artillery positions, particularly in urban fighting.

The vehicles were converted by Alkett between May to October 1941 to try and make an equivalent vehicle to the Panzerjäger I.

Although the early German Panzerjäger carried more effective weapons than the tanks on which they were based, they were generally lacking in protection for the crew, having thinly armored open-topped superstructures.

Its tank destroyer unit, the 12th SS Panzerjäger Battalion, however, was not considered ready for action and was understrength in Jagdpanzer IVs.

Instead the gun was mounted in a simple low open-topped armoured box with gun barrel to the rear, very much like the early Panzerjäger German self-propelled guns in general appearance.

The 152nd Panzerjäger Battalion had two Sturmgeschütz batteries of 10 Stug III ( self-propelled, armored artillery mounting a 75 mm gun and a machine gun on an obsolete Panzer III chassis ).

The Panzerjäger series continued up to the equipped Nashorn.

It was better armored than the lightly armoured earlier Panzerjäger Marder and Nashorn with a sloped armour front plate of sloped back at 60 degrees from the vertical ( equivalent in protection to about ), carried a reasonably powerful gun, was mechanically reliable, small and easily concealed.

* Panzerjäger 38 ( t ) with Panzer IV turret Krupp proposal to mount the turret of a Panzer IV with a 7. 5 cm KwK 40 or 8 cm PAW 600 gun on the chassis of Panzerjäger 38 ( t ).

The official German designation was Panzerjäger Tiger ( P ) and the ordnance inventory designation was Sd.

* Elefant, a German Panzerjäger.

The Hornisse / Nashorn was issued to the heavy antitank battalions ( schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilungen ), with which six would eventually be equipped: schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung 560, 655, 525, 93, 519 and 88.

* Panzerjäger I = captured Czech 47 mm Pak ( t ) 36 L / 43. 4 on Panzer I chassis ( Sd.

For this action it was temporarily assigned as the third battalion of schweres Panzerjäger Regiment 656 (" Heavy Anti-tank Regiment 656 ") under the command of the 9th Army of Army Group Center.