A column of Sturmgeschutz Assault guns heads towards the front

Based on the PZKW III chassis, the SP guns were deadly weapons in the hands of an experienced crew. In Russia they were particularly successful, Hugo Primozic, Germany's most deadly SP commander, destroyed 24 Soviet tanks (mostly T34s) in one day, 17 of these were 'killed' in one hour during the heavy fighting around Rzhev in late 1942. The SP was well suited to the defensive tactics adopted by the Germans in Italy & took a heavy toll of allied armor. As the war progressed and German forces were losing ground, production of SP's increased, being cheaper and easier to produce than tanks the SP was the prominent German fighting vehicle during the closing stages of WWII.