Armament: 76mm gun (see narrative), no secondary armament Speed: 26 mph During the early stages of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the German tanks didn't have adequate guns to take out the Russian T- 34's and KV series of heavy tanks. Until the Germans could field their Tiger and Panther tanks, they had to find more immediate countermeasures. The Marder design was a stopgap vehicle that provided the German Army with a suitable weapon to use against the Russian heavy tanks. It proved to be a successful design and was produced until May of 1944! The Marder III series was based on the now obsolete Czech Panzer 38T chassis and early versions used the Russian 76mm guns that had been captured in large numbers early in the Russian campaign. Later versions had the German 75mm Pak 40 antitank gun instead. The vehicle pictured above is a late model Marder III. More Aberdeen Proving Grounds Introduction German Jagdpanther German Jagdpanzer IV German Jagdtiger Russian SU-100 Vietnamese Modified T-34 German Sturmpanzer IV Brummbar (Grizzly Bear) Russian SU-76 German Marder III Back to Table of Contents The Messenger November 2002 Back to The Messenger List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by HMGS/PSW. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles covering military history and related topics are available at http://www.magweb.com