Marder III - Combat History

Combat History

The various Marder IIIs fought on all fronts of the war, with the Sd.Kfz. 139 being used mainly at the Eastern Front, though some also fought in Tunisia. Even in February 1945 some 350 Ausf M were still in service.

The Marder IIIs were used by the Panzerjäger Abteilungen of the Panzer divisions of both the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS, as well as several Luftwaffe units, like the Hermann Göring division.

The Marders were mechanically reliable, as with all vehicles based on the Czechoslovak 38t chassis. Their firepower was sufficient to destroy the majority of Soviet tanks on the battlefield at combat range.

The Marder's weaknesses were mainly related to survivability. The combination of a high silhouette and open-top armor protection made them vulnerable to indirect artillery fire. The armor was also quite thin, making them highly vulnerable to enemy tanks and to close-range machinegun fire.

The Marders were not assault vehicles or tank substitutes; the open top meant that operations in urban areas or other close-combat situations were very risky. They were best employed in defensive or overwatch roles. Despite their mobility they did not replace the towed antitank guns.

In March 1942, before Marder III appeared, Germany already started production of StuG III assault gun with comparable anti-tank capability (StuG III Ausf. F and later variants). These were fully armored vehicles, built in much greater numbers than vulnerable Marder III. Among many German fully armored tank destroyers, also one based on Panzer 38(t) chassis was built in numbers since 1944: the Jagdpanzer 38(t) (known as Hetzer). The weakly armored Marder series were phased out of production, however, they served until the end of the conflict.