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sIG 33 Self-propelled Artillery
Type	Self-Propelled Artillery
Place of origin	Germany
Service history
In service	1940-1945
Used by	Germany
Wars	WWII
Production history
Produced	1939-1944
No. built	370
Specifications
Mass	11.505 tonnes
Length	4.835 m
Width	2.15 m
Height	2.40 m
Crew	4; Commander, Driver, two gunners
Armor	6-13 mm
Main armament	One 15cm SIG 33 howitzer
Engine	Praga six cylinder gasoline engine. 150 hp
Operational range	185km
Maximum speed	35 km/h on-road.

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The sIG 33 Self-propelled Artillery were a series of self-propelled mounts for the German sIG 33 howitzer. Very successful, they first appeared in 1940, and improved versions were still in production in 1944.

History

The Invasion of Poland had shown that the sIG 33s assigned to the infantry gun companies of the motorized infantry regiments had difficulties keeping up with the tanks during combat. The easiest solution was to use a spare tank chassis to carry it into battle. It was first mounted on a Panzer I chassis and given an a lightly armored superstructure. This produced an adiquate vehicle, but the center of gravity was very high, and the chassis was overloaded. As a result only a few dozen were built. Since the over-loaded Panzer I chassis was too small for the gun, production switched to models using the chassis of larger, more suitable tanks^[1]. In 1942 the PzKpfw II chassis was modified to accept the sIG 33. This version also received better armour protection. Eventually production switched to a modified version of the PzKpfw III. This version which was still in production in 1944. Over 370 vehicles were manufactured in total.

Guns

The early vehicles used ordinary sIG 33s, but an sIG 33/1 was developed for use on later vehicles although it's unknown what the changes were from the original model. The 15 cm Sturmhaubitze 43 gun used on the Sturmpanzer IV was an entirely new design developed by Skoda that used the same ammunition as the sIG 33^[2].