In the works XI
Today we’re going to look at the HS.30’s more fortunate stablemate, the Schützenpanzer 11-2 kurz, or infantry armored vehicle 11-2 short. Designed by Hotchkiss, yes the French manufacturer of everything from luxury autos to machine guns, the kurz was designated a “halbgruppe,” or squad, vehicle. In practice, it could carry no more than 5 soldiers, and so served as a reconnaissance vehicle or, with the one man 20mm cannon turret removed, as an ambulance, ground surveillance radar or mortar carrier or artillery observation vehicle. With only 15mm of high hardness steel for frontal armor, protection was provided by a combination of a bow sloped at a rakish 62 degrees and small size (1.97m or 6’ 5” tall) and clever tactics, but mostly small size and clever tactics. The 20mm Hispano-Suiza autocannon was a good weapon for the time and role, and the combination of 18 hp/ton at just over 9 tons and a maximum speed of 36 mph seems to have given kurz good mobility. More than 2300 Kurz were used by the Bundeswehr from 1959 until it’s retirement in 1987.
The basic Kurz
Radarpanzer
81mm panzermorser
The sanitätspanzer ambulance loaded through two large doors in the rear that were actually usable. Who’d have thought French designers would do better than Swiss and German engineers?
By the early 1970s the Bundeswehr was in a position to design it’s own weapons systems and could expect German industry to produce them. In the case of reconnaissance units, this meant that it was time for another WW2 throwback: the Spähpanzer Luchs. Inspired by the very successful Sdkfz 234 series of 8 wheeled armored cars, the Luchs was a big, heavy (nearly 20 tons) 8 wheeled armored car that was designed to be quiet, fast and highly maneuverable. A 390 hp engine drove all 8 wheels and 4 (yes, all of them) steerable axles at up to 54 mph on roads with fully amphibious capability and an operational range of more than 400 miles. An extra driver in the rear could take over and drive the Luchs just away from the enemy just as fast as the primary driver in front had found them. In many ways the Luchs was what the 234 was meant to be.
Next time we’re going to take a look at three of the US Army’s first true post war tanks, which saw widespread service through the Military Assistance Program.