COBI Sturmgeschütz IV Sd.Kfz.167 Set 2576

COBI's Sturmgeschütz IV Sd.Kfz. 167 is a 1:28 model built from 952 blocks, 24.5 cm long. The service hatch opens to a removable engine, the gun traverses as well as elevates, the crew hatches open and the tracks work. The large scale allowed the interior to be modelled. All markings are printed; no stickers.

It exists because of a bombing raid

The StuG III was Germany's most-produced armoured vehicle and it was built almost entirely by Alkett in Berlin.

On 26 November 1943 the RAF bombed Berlin and hit the Alkett works. Production of the StuG III — the weapon German infantry divisions depended on for anti-tank defence — collapsed at the worst possible moment.

Krupp had a working answer within weeks. It took the Panzer IV hull it was already building and fitted the StuG III's superstructure and gun to it. The StuG IV went into production in December 1943, and around 1,140 were built.

It is a rare case where a single air raid produced a new armoured vehicle. The StuG IV existed for no tactical reason at all — only because a factory in Berlin had been destroyed and the shells still had to be fired at something.

What a Sturmgeschütz was for

A tank destroyer with no turret is cheaper, lower and better armoured at the front than a tank on the same chassis, and it cannot fight in a moving battle because aiming means turning the whole vehicle. That suits defence, ambush and supporting infantry — which by 1944 was what the German army was doing.

Crew of four, issued mainly to infantry divisions rather than panzer units, and by the end of the war it accounted for a significant share of German tank kills.

In the COBI range

Set 2592 is the Panzer IV this vehicle was built on, and 2668 the Jagdpanzer IV/70.

Specifications

Pieces: 952 · Scale: 1:28 · Removable engine, interior access · No stickers
Model length: 24.5 cm (9.6 in)