Comments by "Psiberzerker" (@Psiberzerker) on "The Hetzer's Useless Uncle? - Marder III Ausf. H." video.
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It's basically a Schlepper. All of the Marders (Can't really call them a series) were Schleppers in both meanings of the word. Their only purpose was "We have a bunch of guns lying around, let's see what we can bolt them to!" and get guns into battle. They all fulfilled that role: Self Propelled Gun, very well. All they had to do was get the guns to the battlefield, because the plan was to mobilize the Entire army. Even the Infantry were supposed to ride in half-tracks. So, schleppen the ATGs around by hand just wasn't going to work. Towing them behind another vehicle just wasn't going to work, and they learned a lot about JagdPanzer design in the process. They practically invented the Assault Gun, and the Tank Hunter concept, again to get guns to the field, and keep up with the Infantry in Half-Tracks. Tiger was more of a failure than this, and KonigsTiger even more of a failure than that. Throughout the war, they needed more guns, and more fuel, to carry the guns. More guns to fight their way to Ukraine, and get the fuel, to schlepp more guns. (Ultimately, the Nazis lost because they had an impossible goal, and went about it in the least sustainable way. Blitzkreig worked, until the Allies learned from it, and the Axis burned up all their fuel.) One of the main reason why the Panzer arm failed was they spent too much time polishing the welds on Panthers to get them into battle (If they didn't break down on the way.)
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