Marder III Tamiya-35248

Description

During the Barbarossa operation that started the invasion of the Soviet Union by Hitler’s Germany, the German Panzer Divisions had unpleasant encounters with Russian tanks, the medium type T34/76 and the heavy type KV-1 that proved superior to the Germans in armor, firepower and, in the case of the T34, in speed. These meetings made clear the need to modernize their tanks and to look for new possibilities to be able to face the Soviet tanks.

During the first months of the invasion, the Germans were achieving victory after victory which allowed them to capture numerous enemy material, among this material were pieces of the Russian anti-tank gun of 7.62 cm, which were improved by the Werhmacht and renamed as PaK36 (r) of 7.62 (with the ability to penetrate armor up to 120 mm at distances of 1000 meters). It was later decided to use the chassis of the Czech-made Panzer 38 (t) to assemble these artillery pieces, the result of this mixture went down in history under the name of Marder III.

Weighing 11 tons, it was powered by a 140 hp Maybach HL62 engine, could develop a maximum road speed of 40 km/h and had a range of nearly 200 km.