6566 - Marder III Ausf. H Sd. Kfz.138 - Italeri Scale 1/35

6566 - Marder III Ausf. H Sd. Kfz.138 - Italeri

Scale: 1:35

Box Dim. 340x240x50 mm

The Marder III (Sd.Kfz 138 and 139) was a German tank destroyer of World War II. The first prototypes of the vehicle were manufactured in 1942 and serial production continued in the period 1942-1944, ending with the production of about 970 vehicles. The Marder III was powered by a single Prague EPA engine of various versions with a capacity of 125-150 hp. It was armed with 1 cannon. F-22 Model 1936 cal 76.2 mm (Sd. Kfz. 139) or 1 PaK 40 cal 75 mm cannon (Sd. Kfz. 138) and 1 MG34 or MG42 caliber 7.92 mm machine gun.

The Marder III was created as a result of a hardware shortage in the Wehrmacht related to a mobile anti-tank gun, capable of destroying the Soviet T-34 and KW-1. To minimize the time of testing and implementation into production, the Marder III was created on the chassis of the PzKpfw 38 (t) tank, which was later decommissioned, and in the original version the main armament was the captured Soviet F-22 gun. Three variants of this vehicle were mass produced. The first was designated Sd.Kfz 139 Marder III and was armed with the aforementioned captured Soviet 76.2 mm F-22 cannon and powered by a 125 hp engine. Sd.Kfz 138 Marder III Ausf was established shortly after. H, which was equipped with the German 75 mm PaK 40 gun and a 140 hp engine. Finally, the last series-produced version was the Sd.Kfz 138 Marder III Ausf. M, which still had the PaK 40 gun, but already had an enclosed crew compartment and a 150 hp engine. Marder III vehicles of all versions were mainly used on the Eastern Front in the period 1942-1945, where especially in the period 1942-1943 they proved to be a very effective weapon. A small batch of them, consisting of about 60-70 vehicles, went to North Africa at the end of 1942-1943.