The Economic Situation of the Jews. Appeal to Working Germans by Labor Front. Appeal of New Government to German People. Application to the Nazi Party.Hitler spoke of his Third Reich. Once the Nazis controlled the government, though, they began building heavy armored scout cars with six and eight wheels to obtain greater cross-country capability.Young people were very important to Hitler and the Nazis. The vehicles designed and manufactured in the 1930s were four-wheeled light reconnaissance vehicles built on commercial truck chassis for cost reasons and made within the constraints of the Treaty of Versailles.
They not only lacked sufficient firepower to overwhelm enemy armored forces, but their superiors did not want their scout cars needlessly destroyed in combat. The scouts were supposed to avoid initiating combat. Speed and stealth were essential. Eyes and Ears of the Panzer DivisionThe purpose of armored reconnaissance vehicles was to be the eyes and ears of the German panzer divisions. Pictured with half-tracks are an SdKfz.222 light armored vehicle and the SdKfz.263 heavy armored command vehicle. Other key elements of the reconnaissance battalions were pioneers, motorcycle troops, and artillerymen in half-tracks or trucks that towed 37mm and 75mm antitank guns. They also looked for secondary river crossings that would serve as alternate routes under the assumption that the enemy would block major bridges.Reconnaissance battalions with armored scout vehicles were part of the organic composition of motorized and armored divisions. They located and reported on enemy troop positions with a particular emphasis on armor concentrations. The scout crews had to balance the need for speed with the need for caution.The scouts’ primary purpose was to explore far ahead of the panzer columns, penetrate enemy lines, and radio valuable information to the main elements of the panzer division. However, the political unrest that consumed Germany in the immediate aftermath of World War I compelled the Allied Control Organization to allow the Reichswehr to have a small number of wheeled armored personnel carriers.To meet this need, Daimler manufactured 105 of the lumbering Gepanzerter Mannschaftransportwagen (MTW). Article 171 of the treaty banned the German military from building vehicles on tracks and severely limited the type of armored military vehicles the Reichswehr was allowed to build. Working Within the Treaty of VersaillesThe 1920 Treaty of Versailles limited Germany’s army to 100,000 men of which the officer corps was to number only 4,000. Those who belonged to these units maintained an esprit de corps throughout the war. German recruiting materials highlighted the adrenaline rush that came from joining a reconnaissance battalion. Reconnaissance troops participate in an exercise in 1936 with an SdKfz.13 open-topped armored scout car armed with an MG-13 machine gun and a SdKfz.232 six-wheeled heavy armored scout vehicle featuring a fully rotating turret with a 20mm autocannon and an MG-13 machine gun.By 1930, the restrictions on armored cars appear to have been loosening up as the Reichswehr replaced its MTWs with a sleek, four-wheeled Adler Standard-6 lorry with a commercial chassis that featured a rotating cupola that housed an MG-13 machine gun.Adler produced a better armored scout vehicle in 1933 in the form of the Sdkfz.13. Such capabilities were lacking in the Schutzpolizei vehicles designed to protect local police responding to civil disorders. Concurrent with this was the effort to establish motorized armored reconnaissance battalions that would be an integral part of Germany’s future armored forces once it could get out from under the restrictions embodied in the treaty.Several respected German vehicle manufacturers, such as Benz, Daimler, and Ehrhardt, produced an armored vehicle with twin machine-gun turrets and a command cupola known as Sonderschupowagen (Armed Police Special Purpose Vehicles) for the Schutzpolizei.But the proponents of mobile warfare in the Reichswehr desired armored vehicles with substantial cross-country capabilities. The treaty specified that Germany could recruit 150,000 men into the Schutzpolizei and that it could manufacture one armored vehicle for every 1,000 men.The Reichswehr subsequently established seven motor battalions, or Kraftfahr-abteilungs, in 1929 that enabled its theorists and engineers to test and refine vehicles for mobile warfare. The first of these was the MTW, which was designated Sdkfz.3.Whereas the Treaty of Versailles forbade the Reichswehr from having armored vehicles, the Schutzpolizei, which was the uniformed civil police force for the individual German states, was allowed to have armored cars. The armored scout cars were designated as Sonderkraftfahrzeug (Sdkfz), which translates to special motor vehicle, and assigned a number. Its open design afforded little protection for its crew, and it was derisively referred to as “the Bathtub.”A model designed strictly for communications, the Sdkfz.14 had no armament. The Sdkfz 13 mounted one MG-13 behind an armored shield. The rear-wheel-drive, open-topped machine-gun car had 8mm armor and a two-man crew. As the war progressed, though, the motorcycle companies became woefully inadequate for cross-country operations in far-flung theaters of war with limited primary roads. Each battalion included two armored car companies, one motorcycle infantry company, and a heavy company with engineers, antitank guns, and infantry support guns. Although initially intended as a scout car for future armored divisions, the subsequent production of better suited vehicles meant that it eventually was relegated to use by German security forces garrisoning occupied countries.By this time the German Reichswehr had completed its organizational structure for its armored reconnaissance battalions. Webbrowser python docHorch of Zwickau furnished the chassis and 75-horsepower V8 engine. The main components of the light armored scout vehicle, Sdkfz.221, were assembled by two companies, Schichau in Elbing and Machinenfabrik Neidersachsen in Hanover. He shocked Europe on March 16, 1934, by stating that not only was he instituting requirements for general military service, but also that Germany would immediately begin rearming itself.The German military contracted for its first true armored scout car in 1935. Upon the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg in the summer of 1934, Hitler became the supreme commander of the German armed forces. Access to the vehicle was either through the turret or a small hatch on the lower half of the vehicle. These screens were hinged to allow one of the crew to stand up. The design included detachable turret screens to protect the crew from enemy hand grenades. Later models came equipped with a hanging machine-gun mount for defense against enemy aircraft. To fit the antitank gun with its shield required cutting away part of the front of the turret. It was armed with a 7.92mm MG-34 (later upgraded to an MG-42).In some of the later Sdkfz.221s, a 28mm Panzerbuchse tapered-bore, antitank rifle was substituted for the MG-34. The Sdkfz.221 had a top speed of roughly 55 miles per hour and a range of nearly 200 miles. On the positive side, the rear-mounted engine allowed for a sleek front end with sloped armor that increased its ability to deflect incoming shells.In addition to having only two crew members, the Sdkfz.221 could be distinguished from its slightly bigger successors by its large driver’s window, its slanted tail, and its rectangular-shaped radiator. Four-wheel steering not only drove up the cost but also increased the maintenance requirements. The latter was unnecessary. Scouting vehicles were an integral part of the reconnaissance battalions of panzer and motorized regiments in World War II.The armored scout car that followed the Sdkfz. An Sdkfz.261 light armored radio vehicle in Russia in 1941. For that reason, it was retired from the battlefront in 1943.
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