German Marders of World War II: The Wehrmacht's prime tank destroyers: 350 (New Vanguard)

Built for mobile antitank firepower, the Marder family combined the superb 7.5cm antitank gun with existing light tank chassis.Fully illustrated, this studies their design and use. The appearance of T-34 and KV tanks in 1941 forced the Wehrmacht to field a more powerful antitank gun, the 7.5cm PaK 40.Although an excellent weapon, the towed gun was heavy, awkward to employ, and vulnerable to enemy counter-fire.At the same time, many light tanks had become obsolete even though their chassis was still useful. In this book, armor expert Steven J. Zaloga presents a study of how these obsolete tanks and the superb new gun were combined to create the Marder family of tank destroyers.The Marder I used captured French Chenilette Lorraine chassis, and subsequently other French light tanks such as the Hotchkiss H39 and FCM36, while the Marder II was based on the PzKpfw II chassis.The Marder III was the most significant of the new types, built on the Czech PzKpfw 38(t) chassis.The Marder family re