Freunde ...
Today's article focuses on this small self-propelled howitzer, which was widely used from the middle of WWII, until the end, by the Germans. Meet the 10.5 cm leFH 18/2 auf GII Wespe - Sd.Kfz. 124:
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Wespe roaring in route at new firing position
Eastern Front - Summer, 1943 |
History:
The
Sd.Kfz. 124 Wespe (German for "Wasp"), also known as Leichte Feldhaubitze 18/2 auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampfwagen II (Sf.) ("Light field howitzer 18 on Panzer II chassis (self-propelled)"), is a German self-propelled gun developed and used during the Second World War. It was based on a modified
Panzer II chassis.
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| PzKpfw. II Ausf. F in The Tank Museum - Bovington |
During the Battle of France in 1940 it became apparent that the intermediate tank of the German forces, the Panzer II, was unsuitable as a main battle tank. Though mechanically sound, it was both under-gunned and under-armoured. The chassis, however, proved serviceable for providing mobility to the
10.5cm field howitzer. Existing chassis were converted to self-propelled artillery vehicles, such as the
Marder II conversion providing mobility to the PaK 40/7.5 cm anti-tank gun.
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Marder II 7.5 cm PaK.40/2 auf Fahrgestell Pz.Kpfw.II Ausf.A-F (Sf) - SdKfz131
Kubinka Museum |
The design for the Wespe was produced by
Alkett, based on the Panzer II Ausf. F chassis. Alkett had earlier worked with
Alfred Becker to convert captured French armoured vehicles into self-propelled artillery carriers. Among other modifications the Panzer II's engine was moved forward and the chassis slightly lengthened to accommodate the rear-mounted 10.5 cm leFH 18 howitzer.
The superstructure was lightly armored, with 10 mm armor plate (enough to stop small arms fire) left open at the top and rear. The vehicles were produced by
FAMO's
Ursus plant in
Warsaw.
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10,5cm Leichte Feldhaubitze 18-2 auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampfwagen II Sf. Wespe
Sd.Kfz.124 - Musée des Blindés - Saumur |
The Wespe was in production from February 1943 until June 1944, when Soviet forces approached the frontier.
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A knocked out Wespe being inspected by a American soldier
Normandy, France - 1944 |
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Wespe Sdkfz124 of the 2nd Panzer Division
France, Normandy, 1944. |
By that time, 676 had been produced. An additional 159 gun-less Wespe were produced to serve as mobile artillery ammunition carriers.
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Munitionsschlepper Wespe in Eastern front - 1943.
Notice the flat steel plate closing the opening of the gun. |
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Wespes ammo carriers (Munitionsschlepper) with "standard" Wespes 10,5cm SPH
Notice the truck ammo carrier in the background
Eastern front - Spring, 1944. |
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Wespes ammo carriers (Munitionsschlepper) with "standard" Wespes 10,5cm SPH
Notice the truck ammo carrier leading the line
Eastern front - Winter, 1943. |
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Wespe ammunition carrier captured by Free French fighters
France, Normandy, 30th August 1944
Notice the flat plate in the vehicle's front casemate |
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A Wespe ammo carrier with winter cammo bogged in the Russian road
Eastern front - 1944. |
Combat history:
The Wespe first saw combat in 1943 on the
Eastern Front. It proved very successful, and Hitler ordered all Panzer II chassis production be dedicated to the Wespe alone, at the expense of other projects, including the
Marder II self-propelled anti-tank gun.
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Wespe waiting for a new phase in artillery fire...
Eastern Front - Winter 1943. |
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A battery of 3 Wespes opening fire against the Russians,
"fed" by an Opel Blitz ammo carrier.
Kursk - July 1943 |
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Wespe wearing full winter cammo, in the
Eastern front - winter, 1943. |
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A posed picture of an immaculate Wespe with his smiling full crew.
Eastern front - Summer, 1943. |
The vehicles were allocated to the armored artillery battalions (Panzerartillerie Abteilungen) of
Panzer divisions along with heavier
Hummel self-propelled artillery. The Wespe brought greater mobility to the artillery formations of the panzer divisions.
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Two wrecked German self-propelled guns (Wespe and Hummel)
somewhere in Germany in March 1945, victims of the guns of the
1st Belorussian Front. |
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An interesting pic showing Hummels and Wespes fighting togheter...
East front - 1945 |
The
Wespe proved relative reliability and poor performance, but sorely needed. Like contemporary self propelled guns such as the British
Sexton 25pdr. SPG and U.S.
M7 Priest 105mm SPG, had inadequate overhead gun crew protection. The
Wespe was a considerably smaller target than either of these allied vehicles, but it also held less ammunition given it was based on a smaller chassis chosen based upon availability given limited production capacity for larger ones.
The main deficiences observed in the Wespe were:
- The engine was too weak. Therefore, the Wespe are to slow (only one-third of the convoy speed of a motorized towed artillery). Concentrated movement of a Batterie was not possible because of continuous mechanical failures. The Wespe moved individually.
- The Wespe final drives frequently broke down while attempting to steer through the tight curves in the mountains.
- Due to overtaxing caused by the terrain, damage continuously occurred to the brakes, brake linings, and their rivets. As an example, because of these problems, only 11 out of 18 Wespe were still operational in the 3.Panzer-Grenadier-Division although this division first came into action with these vehicles for only several weeks. In the 26.Panzer-Division only two out of twelve Wespe still remained operational after four weeks in action. Three Wespe had to be blown up by the troops after they broke down during a retreat. These losses due to mechanical breakdown are especially high when one compares them to only two losses occurring due to enemy action.
- The lack of room for carrying anything in addition to the crew and ammunition in the Wespe fighting compartment is bothersome. It isn't possible to carry along the necessary baggage for the crew such as blankets, washing kits, ration pouches, and cooking utensils. To try to compensate for this limitation in the amount of ammunition, the ammo-carrier version was a constant company of the armed version.
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Wespes howitzers move through a town in southern Russia.
Notice the amount of stuff in the vehicle superstructures... |
In spite of several minor weaknesses, the Wespe have proven to be successful on the Eastern Front. The Wespe has proven to be an excellent weapon on the Eastern Front.
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Battery of Wespe self-propelled howitzers supporting
German forces during the Battle of Kursk
Eastern front - Autumn, 1943. |
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A battery of Wespes ready to fire at the enemy.
Look at howitzers at maximum elevation. |
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A Wespe from an unknown unit with the sprocket wheel oil seal in terrible condition ...
Eastern front - 1943. |
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Wespe “43” of the Grossdeutschland Division.
Ponyri - Kursk, July 1943 |
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Wespe displaying a beautiful Panzer-gray camouflage with green stripes.
Notice the cammo net laying in the howitzer barrel...
Easern front - 1943. |
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Hallo, Greta!! A Wespe with white stripes
roaring by a russian road. Eastern front, winter. 1944. |
However, it has been established that this model of the self propelled gun is not suitable for employment in the mountainous terrain in the south and middle of Italy. The troops want their old towed batteries back.
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Wespe 11 in howitzer maintenance in heavy mud conditions
Italy, 1944. Notice the Famo Sd.Kfz 9 18t crane doing the job... |
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Wespe of the 26. Panzer-Division under howitzer maintenance...
Cisterna Italy 1944
Notice the M4A2 turned and burned on the side of the road... |
Specs:
| Wespe - 10.5 cm leFH 18/2 auf GII - Sd.Kfz. 124 |
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| Type | Self-propelled artillery |
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| Place of origin | Nazi Germany |
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| Service history |
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| In service | 1943 - 1945 |
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| Used by | Nazi Germany |
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| Wars | World War II |
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| Production history |
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| Designer | Alkett |
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| Designed | 1942 |
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| Manufacturer | Famo-Ursus |
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| Produced | 1943 - 1944 |
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| No. built | 676 (gun version)
159 (ammo carrier) |
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| Variants | ammunition carrier |
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| Specifications |
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| Mass | 11 tonnes |
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| Length | 4.81 m |
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| Width | 2.28 m |
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| Height | 2.3 m |
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| Crew | 5 (commander, driver, three gunners) |
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| Armor | 5 - 30 mm |
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Main armament
| 1x 10.5 cm leFH 18/2 L/28 with 40 rounds |
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| Engine | 6-cyl petrol Maybach HL62 TR 140 PS
(138 hp, 103 kW) |
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| Power/weight | 12.7 PS/tonne |
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| Suspension | leaf spring |
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Operational range
| 220 km |
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| 40 km/h |
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The kits:
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| German self-propelled howitzer Wespe Sd.Kfz 124 - Tamiya box art (#35200) |
For the ammo carrier version, I'll use a kit that I bought as scrap, from a colleague... An incredible
Alan Sd.Kfz. 124 Wespe (#005), with missing pieces and a very rough construction.
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| Sd.Kfz.124 Wespe - Alan box art (#005) |
Starting by the scrap-kit (Wespe ammo carrier) ... See how it got my hands: a very rustic construction, with a thick layer of paint and with the exhaust muffler missing ...
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| Ouch...tons of fun in this case.... |
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| The painting is sooo crude!! |
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| But where's the muffler??? |
The former owner started converting the Alan kit in to Wespe ammo carrier, but he must have based himself on the art of a 1/72 ACE kit, because it is the only justification for the frontal shield to be curved. All the photos I've found so far of Wespe ammo carrier feature the flat front shield.
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| ACE kit box art: notice the front shield curved, similar to the gun shield |
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| The drawing, in detail... |
It seems that ACE relied on this photo to make the art of its kit box. But the frontal shield is clearly flat, and not curved (red arrow) ... I think the vertical line (see the point in the double blue arrow) led them to the error of deducing that the frontal plate was the result of the union between the two curved shields of the howitzer ...
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Wespe ammo carrier. Notice the side racks, not common to the vehicle
and which are reproduced in the drawing above (green arrows) |
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| The Wesspe ammo carrier in clear picture |
Another Wespe ammo carrier, with flat armor front plate:
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| Notice the flat armor plate in the front of Wespe casemate.. |
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The drawing redesigned with flat front armor...
Much better!! |
But back to Alan's crude kit: , I decided to use the brake fluid bath technique: This consists of immersing the entire painted model or painted parts in a bath of DOT 3 or DOT 4 brake fluid. I left the kit completely submerged in this fluid overnight and, the next day, the paint had been completely removed from the plastic surface. I washed and scrubbed the kit with a soft brush and neutral detergent, rinsing everything with plenty of clean running water. Caution: Use gloves and dispose of the fluid correctly, as it is toxic. Brake fluid attacks the paint, but not the plastic. After the Alan model dried, it looked like this:
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| Holy cow!! I think the kit with the painting, the thing was not so ugly ... |
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| The cracks, gaps and imperfections are huge!! |
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| Is there a Doctor on board ??? |
Well, let's turn the Alan-crap kit in something not so horrible ... I removed the curved front armor from the tractor and replaced it with something more realistic: the flat armor...And starting the Tamiya SPG.
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| The ugly and the beauty!! |
But as the old wise scholar said: "It is better not to do it than to do it wrong ...", I decided to make a canvas cover to hide the inside horrors of this kit. But never forget that I wanted to reproduce what appears in the photos: the Wespe ammo carrier with the canvas cover in place !!
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My old technique of using tracing paper to make tarps...
The mooring strips I made with paper tape |
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| Notice the gun's travel lock (in yellow= Tamiya spare part) in the upper middle deck |
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| The real Wespe ammo carrier wearing tarp in the top of the superstructure... |
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| My girl got very hairy !! |
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| Rear view |
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| I decided to detail the canvas with reinforcement seams and "trim the girl's braids" ... |
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| I think she is getting almost decent! Cute!! |
Continuing the building, we must now waterproof and "reinforce" the tracing paper layer, to avoid accidents and stains in the painting (the paper is hydrophilic). I make a mixture of water (30%) and PVA glue (70%) and apply it with a wide, soft brush ...
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| Appearance of the paper after applying a mixture of water (30%) and PVA glue (70%) ... |
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The tracing paper immediately crinkles and presents several wrinkles on its surface.
Don't worry ... it's like that ... |
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| But an hour later ... |
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The surface stretches when the paper dries ...
The paper is waterproofed, more resistant and smoother ... |
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| Primer Tamiya |
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| Ready for cammo and markings.. |
And as always, I try to locate the armored vehicles in the historical period, researching the units and theaters of operations that the girls used ... and making profiles as a guide for paintings and markings.
I chose the Russian front, Ukraine, when the 1st Battalion of the 89th Panzer Artillery Regiment (24th Panzer Division - 1st Panzer Army) landed in the Uman / Krivoi Rog region in mid-October 1943, coming from Italy, to participate in the counter-attacks against the Nikopol Bridgehead. The 89th Panzer Artillery Regiment arrived still with the dark yellow camouflage, with sprayed Germanic green stripes, which they used in Italy. These are the colors and markings:
Starting the cammo: German green strips with jagged edges: painting on the battlefield ...
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| Stripes in green. Notice the tarp in fieldgray...Wespe ammo carrier |
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| Wespe ammo carrier - rear view |
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Wespe 10,5cm SPH - Stripes in green.
In background, ammo crrier version |
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| Wespe 10,5cm SPH - right side |
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Wespe ammo carrier White-4 - rear view
It is prudent to stay away from an ammo-carrier for at least 50m... |
Now, let's choose some things to put on the girls. As described above in the History, Wespe was very tight and did not have the capacity to carry much equipment internally ... Therefore, placing roll-bags, tarps and crew stuff externally was common. So, let's choose some
Value Gear Details miscellaneous to give it that a "circus truck look" !!!
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| The two Wespe Girls waiting their accessories and jewelry ... |
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Tamiya white primer...
The Milk of the Mother Goddess |
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| Tones and colors |
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| Starting the weathering in the Value Gear stuff... |
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| And the details from value Gear are ready for action... |
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Wespe Ammo Carrier - Fully loaded for action !!!
left view |
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| Wespe Ammo Carrier - fully loaded - rear view |
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| Wespe Ammo Carrier - fully loaded - right view |
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| Wespe 10,5cm SPH - fully loaded - left view |
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| Wespe 10,5cm SPH - fully loaded - rear-right view |
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| Wespe 10,5cm SPH - fully loaded - front-right view |
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The two Wespe Girls fully loaded
The end is very near!! |
And the Wespe Girls were ready. First, let's look at the armed version: Meet Wespe 10,5cm leFH 18/2 auf GII - Sd.Kfz 124 - White-11 - 1st Battalion of the 89th Panzer Artillery Regiment (24th Panzer Division - 1st Panzer Army) - Uman / Krivoi Rog region - Russian front, Ukraine, in mid-October 1943.
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Wespe 10,5cm leFH 18/2 auf GII - Sd.Kfz 124 - White-11
1. Abteilung - 89. Panzer Artillerie Regiment
24. Panzer Division (Wermacht) - 1. Panzer Armee
Ukraine - Russian Front - October, 1943. |
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Wespe 10,5cm leFH 18/2 auf GII - Sd.Kfz 124 - White-11
left view |
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Wespe 10,5cm leFH 18/2 auf GII - Sd.Kfz 124 - White-11
rear-left view |
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Wespe 10,5cm leFH 18/2 auf GII - Sd.Kfz 124 - White-11
rear-right view |
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Wespe 10,5cm leFH 18/2 auf GII - Sd.Kfz 124 - White-11
right view |
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Wespe 10,5cm leFH 18/2 auf GII - Sd.Kfz 124 - White-11
with Kojak and Rover, the dog. |
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Wespe 10,5cm leFH 18/2 auf GII - Sd.Kfz 124 - White-11
1. Abteilung - 89. Panzer Artillerie Regiment
24. Panzer Division (Wermacht) - 1. Panzer Armee
Ukraine - Russian Front - October, 1943. |
And now, the Ammo carrier version:
Munitionsschlepper Wespe (ammo carrier version) - White-4 - 1. Abteilung - 89. Panzer Artillerie Regiment -
24. Panzer Division (Wermacht) - 1. Panzer Armee Ukraine - Russian Front - October, 1943.
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Munitionsschlepper Wespe (ammo carrier version) - White-4
1. Abteilung - 89. Panzer Artillerie Regiment
24. Panzer Division (Wermacht) - 1. Panzer Armee
Ukraine - Russian Front - October, 1943. |
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Munitionsschlepper Wespe (ammo carrier version) - White-4
left side view |
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Munitionsschlepper Wespe (ammo carrier version) - White-4
rear-left side view |
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Munitionsschlepper Wespe (ammo carrier version) - White-4
rear-right side view |
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Munitionsschlepper Wespe (ammo carrier version) - White-4
right side view |
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Munitionsschlepper Wespe (ammo carrier version) - White-4
1. Abteilung - 89. Panzer Artillerie Regiment
24. Panzer Division (Wermacht) - 1. Panzer Armee
Ukraine - Russian Front - October, 1943. |
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Munitionsschlepper Wespe (ammo carrier version) - White-4
with Kojak and Rover, the dog. |
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| Wespe - 10.5 cm leFH 18/2 auf GII - Sd.Kfz. 124 and Munitionsschlepper Wespe |
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| Wespe - 10.5 cm leFH 18/2 auf GII - Sd.Kfz. 124 and Munitionsschlepper Wespe |
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Wespe - 10.5 cm leFH 18/2 auf GII - Sd.Kfz. 124 and Munitionsschlepper Wespe
with Kojak and Rover, the dog. |
Indeed, the life of the German gunners was not easy. Notice the difference in the size of the combat posts between three contemporary weapons, of similar caliber ...
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Sexton Mk I and Wespe 10,5cm HMC
less space, less ammo, more fatigue for the crew ... |
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Wespe - 10.5 cm leFH 18/2 auf GII - Sd.Kfz. 124 and Munitionsschlepper Wespe
1. Abteilung - 89. Panzer Artillerie Regiment
24. Panzer Division (Wermacht) - 1. Panzer Armee
Ukraine - Russian Front - October, 1943. |
