Researchable June 1942 Modification for the Stug III F

[SockTheMankey 16]

The design of the Stug III F came to be by upgunning the Stug III E with the Stuk 40 L/43 paired with some superficial changes to the superstructure design.

On 6 and 7 May 1942 Hitler demanded an investigation to determine if the frontal armor of the Stug could be increased to 80mm,

On June 1942 production of a new Stug III F modification with welded additional 30mm armor plates was put into production by July 1942 zero Stugs with the original 50mm frontal armor were produced.

The total numbers of Stug III F (359),  182 of them were built with the additional armor. Before the production was moved to the Stug III F/8

 

Specifics of the modification

Armor changes:

• 30 mm plates welded to both forward facing 50 mm upper plates of the superstructure. June 1942
• 30 mm plates welded to the upper and lower nose 50mm plates. June 1942

Exterior changes:

• The headlights with armored covers were removed and replaced with a single mounted "Notek" headlight that was relocated from the left fender. June 1942
• A bracket on the lower nose plate to carry the spare tracks was added on a previous modification .April 1942

Internal changes:

• Ammunation bins were altered to allow the maximum carry capacity of 54 rounds for the main gun (the same amount the Stug III G ingame can carry). June 1942

Main gun :

• Replaced with the Stuk 40 L/48, The one used in the Stug III G,This would mean a slight increase of penetration (around +3mm by ingame numbers) across all ranges. June 1942

Features removed

• Removal of Smoke candle rack on the right rear.hull ( I think the reason IRL for this was that they were prone to damage by small caliber guns and the early release of smoke blinded the crew and allies). May 1942

 

Images

This is a Stuh 42 built on the chassis of a StuG F that showcases the nose armor modifications from upclose

 

 

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This one also shows some Schürzen skirts 

Spoiler

 

 

Sources

• Panzerjäger und Sturmgeschütze: Die Bilddokumentation der deutschen Panzerabwehrwaffen des Zweiten Weltkrieges, Horst Scheibert. 1980. German and English (pages 96 and 108)
• Sturmgeschütz & its variants. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military/Aviation History, Spielberger, Walter J. 1993. English (pages 68 and 75)
• Panzer Tracts No.8: Sturmgeschuetz - S.Pak to Sturmmoerser Thomas L. Jentz, 1999. English (page 18)
• военно-технический сериал N°155 Stug III часть 2 (Military technical series N°155 Stug III part 2), Kirov society. Russian (pages 8 and 13)
• German Assault Guns and Tank Destroyers 1940 - 1945, Tucker-Jones, Anthony (Page 25)
• Sturmgeschutz, Vol. 1, Legends of Warfare DOYLE, D. 2018 (Page 113)

Edited October 19, 2020 by SockTheMankey

[ItssLuBu 1,798]

Approved and open for discussion. 

[eleks12 1,079]

+1

[Solarmod 1,203]

+1, seems like a worthy upgrade.

[Milocat 4,854]

I'll give this a +1, looks nice.

[Chomusuke1 1,219]

+1 Could you do a suggestion for a late Stug III G as well?

[SockTheMankey 16]

14 hours ago, Chomusuke1 said:

+1 Could you do a suggestion for a late Stug III G as well?

uhm, i could try it might take so time to make it properly , That cupola shot deflector looks mean tho' 

[KillaKiwi 5,477]

Wouldn't that turn it into a 3.7 StuG G?

[SockTheMankey 16]

On 09/10/2020 at 15:14, KillaKiwi said:

Wouldn't that turn it into a 3.7 StuG G?

Let's  compare to the other vehicles in the TD line.

The frontal armor would be similar to a stock StuG III G, keep in mind tho' the superstructure design is overall weaker on  the StuG III F (lack of Schürzen skirts , and no spaced plates on the superstructure ). The  StuH 42 G at 3.0 has the same armor layout has a StuG III G. Both also have an armor addon modification  something the Stug III F currently lacks.(i tried looking for photos of tracks armor for the Stug III F and found none that would help ingame, it brought me to this modification tho')

There is no 3.7 lineup too. You can uptier  the 3.3 lineup but there is little reason too do so because the Pz.IV F2 already has a similary performing gun with the KwK40 and it has a turret. so how about uptiering the Stug III F, the next lineup is at 4.0 the same BR the StuG III G is at. so why bring a StuG III F? 

 

P.S. Judging by the list of new BR changes for Oct 2020 the StuG III F might have a lineup with the Pz IV G now that it got moved to 3.7 and the Wirbelwind

Edited October 14, 2020 by SockTheMankey

[SockTheMankey 16]

Okay i think i am happy with this number of photos that i managed to find of this specific modification. I added the last ones inside a spoiler tab.

[Nahguav 419]

On 10/10/2020 at 10:21, SockTheMankey said:

Let's  compare to the other vehicles in the TD line.

The frontal armor would be similar to a stock StuG III G, keep in mind tho' the superstructure design is overall weaker on  the StuG III F (lack of Schürzen skirts , and no spaced plates on the superstructure ). The  StuH 42 G at 3.0 has the same armor layout has a StuG III G. Both also have an armor addon modification  something the Stug III F currently lacks.(i tried looking for photos of tracks armor for the Stug III F and found none that would help ingame, it brought me to this modification tho')

There is no 3.7 lineup too. You can uptier  the 3.3 lineup but there is little reason too do so because the Pz.IV F2 already has a similary performing gun with the KwK40 and it has a turret. so how about uptiering the Stug III F, the next lineup is at 4.0 the same BR the StuG III G is at. so why bring a StuG III F? 

 

P.S. Judging by the list of new BR changes for Oct 2020 the StuG III F might have a lineup with the Pz IV G now that it got moved to 3.7 and the Wirbelwind

 

The only reason the StuH 42 G is 3.0 because it's gun is less effective than the gun on the StuG III G. The armour is quite effective at that BR, which helps make up for the long reload. The StuG III G is at a higher BR than the StuG III F for the same reason the Pz IV G is higher than the Pz IV F2, mainly the 80mm of frontal armour vs 50mm. The Pz IV H gets a further jump in BR, even though it only has the slightly better gun and some track armour.

 

If these differences between Pz IVs and StuGs are enough to create BR changes, then making the StuG III F able to be upgraded to be effectively as good as the StuG III G in most ways would require it to be the same BR. The other differences wouldn't be enough to separate the two. It's the same with a lot of other tanks, a new model with a slightly better gun and/or armour invariably means a BR increase.

 

I'm not against the idea in principle, but Gaijin has tended to add new vehicle models in most cases rather than upgrades. I could see them adding the StuG III F (late) as a new vehicle, possibly even as a premium.

 

I don't recall any other tanks that have modifications that upgrade the main gun either, although there are several examples in planes. It would be an interesting precedent, there are probably quite a few other tanks that could justify similar modifications.

 

It could work if the modification also raised the BR of the vehicle, but people have been asking for something similar for the BMP for quite some time and Gaijin don't seem to be interested in have modifications being able to affect BR.