Tank Panzer

The Marder TD Series, Was The Marder 1 Tank Destroyer built on the chassis of the French Lorraine Tractor?

I know the Panzer 2 chassis was used for the Marder 2 and 38T chassis for Marder 3. Was the Marder 1 first based on the Lorraine chassis and how successful were these vehicles.

The other guy pretty much copied and pasted the whole answer from that website....The Marder series was not that bad, the stugs were better but mainly because production favored those vehicles. The Marders were stopgap solutions until dedicated tank destroyers would be produceded, plus they were intended to be attached to infantry, and provide a mobile AT gun to replace the PAK guns that would take time to deploy and are somewhat stationary. The Marder fulfilled this role.

The Marder 2 and 3 would be standardized in chassis. The Marder 1 would be based mainly on captured French vehicles, but some would be based on Polish vehicles...After Barbarossa and seeing the T34 and KV1 the panzers, and any anti tank weapon were pretty much useless. Another problem that always plagued Germany was the lack of needed vehicles. The Marders would provide some relief. The Germans basically placed the PAK 40 or the Russian 76mm F-22 field gun (after modification it was an AT gun firing same rounds as PAK 40) on a superstructure on a chassis.

The majority of the Marder 1 used the Lorraine chassis you are asking about..This chassis was very reliable and well designed. It was lightweight, which was good for the leaf spring suspension, Any additional weight added say from the Marder superstructure would be balanced between the 6 roadwheels that are in pairs would distribute any weight. The engine was fairly easy to provide maintanence for. But mainly it was a simple vehicle in comparison many of the French vehicles that would be difficult to service.

The Marder 1 would be sent to the Eastern Front where they where organized into antitank battalions under infantry divisions. They worked well, but they would be pulled out because its harder to get replacement parts for French vehicles in Russia. So they would be sent back to France and some would serve in Normandy. The Marder 2 and 3 would be better in the east because parts would easier to find and closer for transport.

I admit the high profile was a con..but the part about being under armoured is unfair. The Marder 1 with the Lorraine chassis had at most 12mm of armour. The Hotchkiss variant had up to 34mm. For the Lorraine version its unfair to criticized. The chassis was intended as more of ammo carrier or supply vehicle for French armor. It's like the French equivalent to the Brit's Bren carrier. This chassis was light and not intended to carry a whole lot.I dont think the Marder I could have been up armoured, or able to support the added weight.

And also for armour protection, if you look at the Marder i it just looks like a regular PAK 40 just on a track. And that was its intended role..It wasnt meant for the offensive, but rather the defensive role or ambush like the regular PAK 40.So only the gun shield would suffice against small arms. The added protection would come from that the gun could easily displace and relocate or fall back far quicker than a regular PAK 40...Plus the idea was to engage at farther distances than let the enemy get close to easily pierce the armor..You can also see it was just a PAK 40 on tracks because it was initially just assigned to infantry anti tank battalions, rather than tank destroyer battalion of the panzer divisions like the later Marders.

I prefer the Marder III because of the better chassis that is used plus the better use of crew..Plus that variant would also be the one to be used the most and it would be better than the towed anti tank guns.

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