Sd.Kfz 162 Jagdpanzer IV L/48, late version 1/72 Hasegawa 31151

SSd.Kfz 162 Jagdpanzer IV L/48, late version
1/72  Military Vehicles
Hasegawa 31151

Manufacturer: Hasegawa
Scale: 1/72
Material: Plastic
Paint: Unpainted, Unassembled, Kit do not contain paints and glue.
Condition: New in Box

The Jagdpanzer IV, Sd.Kfz. 162, was a tank destroyer based on thePanzer IV chassis built in three main variants. As one of the casemate-style turretless Jagdpanzer (tank destroyer, literally "hunting tank") designs, it was developed against the wishes of Heinz Guderian, the inspector general of the Panzertruppen, as a replacement for theSturmgeschütz III (StuG III). Guderian objected against the needless, in his eyes, diversion of resources from Panzer IV tank production, as theStug III and Sturmgeschütz IV were still more than adequate for their role.

Officially, only the L/48-armed vehicle was named Jagdpanzer IV. The L/70-armed vehicle was named Panzer IV/70. In this article, both versions are referred to in general as Jagdpanzer IV, except in the variants and surviving vehicles section.After the Battle of Stalingrad, in September 1942 the Wehrmacht's arms bureau, the Waffenamt, called for a new standard for assault weapons: 100 mm of armor to the front, 40–50 mm on the sides, wider tracks, ground clearance of 50 cm, top speed of 26 km/h and the lowest possible firing positions. The new Panzerjager ("tank hunter") design would be armed with the same 7.5 cm gun as fitted to the Panther: thePak 42 L/70. Initially a new chassis was planned, but that of the Panzer IV had to be used.

Previous efforts to mount bigger guns on smaller chassis resulted in theMarder series as well as StuG IIIs. The Marder series were tall and had open crew compartments. The new design had a low silhouette and completely enclosed fighting compartment.Installing the much heavier Pak 42 meant that the Jagdpanzer IV was nose heavy, especially with the heavy frontal armor. This made them less mobile and more difficult to operate in rough terrain, leading their crews to nickname them Guderian-Ente "Guderian's duck". To prevent the rubber rims of the roadwheels being dislocated by the weight of the vehicle, some later versions had steel roadwheels installed on the front.

The final prototype of the Jagdpanzer IV was presented in December 1943 and production started in January 1944, with the Pak 39 L/48 armed variant staying in production until November. Production of the Pak 42 L/70 armed variants started in August and continued until March/April 1945.

On August 19–22, 1943, after the Battle of Kursk, Hitler received reports that StuG IIIs performed better than Panzer IV within certain restraints of how they were deployed. It was thus intended to stop production of the Panzer IV itself at the end of 1944 to concentrate solely on production of the Jagdpanzer IV, but the Panzer IV was in production all the way until the end of the conflict along with Jagdpanzer IV.

Jagdpanzer IV
Jagdpanzer IV at the Deutsches Panzermuseum
Type	Tank destroyer
Place of origin	Nazi Germany
Production history
Produced	December 1943 – April 1945
Number built	about 2,000
Specifications (Jagdpanzer IV/70(V))
Weight	25.8 tonnes (28.4 short tons; 25.4 long tons)
Length	8.5 m (27 ft 11 in)
Width	3.17 m (10 ft 5 in)
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Crew	4
Armor	10–80 mm (0.39–3.15 in)
Main armament	1x 7.5 cm Pak 42 L/70 55 rounds
Secondary armament	1x 7.92 mm Maschinengewehr 34 600 rounds
Engine	Maybach HL 120 TRM 300 PS (296 hp, 221 kW)
Power/weight	11.63 PS/tonne
Suspension	Leaf springs
Operational range	210 km (130 mi)