15 cm s.I.G. 33/2 auf Bergepanzer 38(t)

This version was created by rebuilding the Bergepanzer 38(t).
This example was adapted from Jagdpanzer 38(t) serial number 321079¹⁾ produced in 5/1944. The vehicle had a rear mounted towing traverse. Company sources BMM only mention the production of an example prototype. It is possible that production of 30 units took place at a German firm (Alkett ?), but somehow I miss the point of outsourcing production to a firm that was not involved in the production of the Jagdpanzer 38(t) and its derivatives. German records list the production of six machines as conversions and the remainder as new builds between 12/1944 and 2/1945. If any series were made, I would assume it was more likely production at a ČKD or Skoda factory. As for the numbers quoted and production claims, I have no information where these generally published figures come from.


The source²⁾ states that a report by a tank representative dated 26.10.1946 mentions a pair of vehicles with a 15 cm sIG gun.
The same source states that vehicle serial number 321073²⁾ was listed as captured and stored in the warehouses of the post-war Czechoslovak Army. According to inventory records dated 21.7.1948, this machine was stored in Branch 1. Automobilova zbrojovka Přelouč in Vrutice. Subsequently, the text mentions the presence of the prototype vehicle in the list of stored vehicles in Milovice. Again, the dating is given as 7/1948. It is clear from the text that this prototype was to be used together with other vehicles for conversion into a flamethrower tank PM-1. I reason that if this prototype reservation was made before the actual design of the PM-1 project, it stands to reason that in the later period when the shape of the flamethrower tank crystallized, the prototype conversion would probably have been problematic and cancelled.


As for the pair of serial numbers given attributed to this self-propelled gun, it is possible that they are not two different serial numbers 321079 and 321073, but a typo by the authors of the sources or a typo in the military records, and they were one and the same sample unit.
References to mass production are contradictory, no relevant evidence of production is available and the origin of this claim is unknown to me. It is highly speculative to consider the series in the context of the production of Bergepanzer 38(t) of 10/1944, when the status of the largest series of up to 50 vehicles is given. I can quite well imagine the use of dozens of vehicles for conversion to this self-propelled gun. But given the absence of photos of the vehicles in the field, this is purely speculation.

¹⁾Vladimir Frantsev, Charles K. Kliment, Milan Kopecký - Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer, MBI, Publishing House, Prague, year of publication 2001, ISBN 80-902238-9-3
Thomas L. Jentz, Hilary Louis Doyle - Artillerie Selbstfahrlafetten 15cm s.I.G.33 auf Pz.Kpfw.I (ohne Aufbau) to Karl Geraet (54 cm), Panzer Tracts no.10, ISBN 0-9708407-5-6

²⁾armada.vojenstvi.cz

...