The Waffenträger – When you're sick of carrying your guns! With Adam Brooker Berlin German brings us another late-war Wunderwaffen, the 8.8cm PaK43 auf Waffenträger (8.8cm PaK43 Weapons Carrier), this straps the long-barrelled 88mm gun of the Tiger II, on a lightweight self-propelled chassis, sounds great? But your question may be why they wanted to do this in the first place? They already had plenty of other vehicles in production with the same or better gun, why now produce another one? Well, those were all for armoured or artillery regiments, these self-propelled guns are actually for the infantry divisions…. makes sense, right??

German infantry divisions would often have Panzerjäger Battalions of heavy anti-tank guns such as the ground version of the long 88, the 8.8cm Pak43/41, which while wheeled was very heavy. They needed either trucks or many horses to move and relocate, and additionally, they took a long time to dig in effectively, as long as 24 hours of back-breaking work, and then would be time-consuming to pack up again if they needed to relocate. The cruciform mount Pak43s were even harder to move!

Given the many retreats on the Eastern Front in 1943, a lot of German heavy anti-tank guns and artillery had to be abandoned or destroyed in the field, due to a lack of transport, or just a lack of time to take them in the retreat. This lost not only valuable guns but would often also strengthen the enemy, the Soviets had no issues re-using captured German weapons against its former owners (in fact I think they had some great satisfaction doing it), which I’m sure displeased its original owners….

An 8.8cm Pak 43/41 on the split-trail carriage

Wehrmacht infantry divisions also often had separate Panzerjäger Battalions of Hetzers or Stug IIIs attached to provide mobile anti-tank support, as their static guns could not relocate in time, to halt enemy armoured thrusts. Getting later into the war, this was taking armoured strength away that could be better used in Panzer divisions.

What the Germans really needed was a lightweight mobile gun carriage that you could use to both move these heavy anti-tank guns or artillery around the battlefield, but also if needed, you could fire the weapon from the vehicle. So, the call went out to design a Waffenträger, or Weapons carrier in early 1944, with 3 companies accepting the task in collaboration.

The specifications were to mount the 8.8cm Pak43 on a standardised light chassis, have a low profile (Max height 1.75m), carry 50 rounds of ammunition (20 stand-by), a top speed of 35km/h on the road and have a range of 140-200 km. It was to have a crew of 4-5, and ideally, an armoured open-topped rotating turret to protect the crew from light arms and shrapnel, a radio, smoke launchers, and if possible, a secondary machine gun. Initially, there was a requirement for the gun to be detachable as well, but this was dropped.

The Steyr-Krupp 8.8cm Pak 43 Waffenträger prototype – 1944 Kummersdorf

The Steyr company produced a chassis based on a modified RSO artillery tractor, lengthened and up armoured, to reduce costs and complexity, and Krupp designed the gun and turret. Problems selecting and adapting the correct engine delayed development. A single prototype was made, but the vehicle was not selected for mass production.

The Ardelt-Rheinmetall 8.8cm Pak 43 Waffenträger prototype – 1944 Kummersdorf

This looked similar to the Steyr version, but had much larger drive sprockets as well as a larger armoured fighting compartment, and used the proven Hetzer engine and running gear with metal road wheels, which allowed a very quick build. It easily ran 120km with no issue, as well as gunnery tests, firing 129 shots while rotating the turret with no major issues. Interestingly it used a Krupp Pak 43/41, as Rheinmetall had discontinued their production of their Pak 43/41. Although it worked well, as Rheinmetall was no longer making the Pak 43/41, it made no real sense to install a Krupp Pak 43 in a Rheinmetall turret, so this prototype was also not selected.

The Ardelt-Krupp 8.8cm Pak 43 Waffenträger prototype – 1944 Kummersdorf

The final and winning prototype was the Ardelt-Krupp machine, it used a modified version of the Rheinmetall chassis, so had the reliable Hetzer engine and running gear and metal road wheels. It used the Krupp Pak43/41 from the cruciform mount, but with an enlarged shield to protect the crew. It could store 6 rounds of ammo near the gun shield and another 36 rounds in the body of the chassis. This machine was selected amongst the three prototypes in May 1944 at Kummersdorf and an order was made for 100, of which 18 were meant to be ammunition carriers.

Due to shortages of Pak 43 guns and other materials, only 7 had been confirmed to be built in late 1944. It is unknown how many were eventually produced, but the Soviets found parts to complete six more in the Ardelt factory, but only one Pak43. Records say there were parts to complete 21 in the factory in December 1944, and should have been completed by January 1945. There was confirmed wreckage of two found in Berlin in April/May 1945, and another complete vehicle was captured by the Soviets, so it did see some action in the Berlin fighting.

By 1945 most Panzerjäger Companies assigned to the Infantry Divisions were Hetzers, but some lucky Divisions were supposed to have been given Pak43 Waffenträgers, like the Ulrich von Hutten Division. It was the final drafted Infantry Division in the Wehrmacht, and assigned to the 11th Army in March 1945, and then the 12th Army when it tried to relieve an encircled Berlin. It eventually surrendered to the US, while trying to avoid the Soviets, and escorting civilians west.

An abandoned Ardelt-Krupp Waffenträger, possibly the one captured by the Russians - Berlin 1945.

I will say this is probably my favourite unit in all of Berlin German, it's not perfect, but it will punch giant holes in almost anything it hits… it is definitely a winner for me! I only wish you could take more than one unit…. But I think that would be a tad unfair if you could!

Let’s have a look at the in-game stats, it is really a glass cannon, much like the Hornisse, except the Hornisse has a tad more armour. In fact, it is essentially a cut-price Hornisse, with worse movement and Cross Check value, and lacks the MG that the Hornisse has for close defence, looks like they didn’t fit in that MG after all…..

It has worse stats overall, a Motivation of 4+ (instead of Fearless 3+), a Trained Skill of 4+ (instead of Veteran 3+), but thankfully still only Hit on a 4+, so that is something! You can also only take 3 in the platoon, not the 4 you could take in the Hornisse Platoon. But you know none of that really matters much, as it still retains that massive Pak43 gun, and a long range of 48”, it will still reach over the table and punch great big holes in things, which is its main role.

So why should you take it?? Because it is 7 points cheaper than the Hornisse, and does the same thing, as long as you keep it at range and in concealment, and out of difficult terrain, it should be good. The real drawback is the Trained 4+, so makes it harder to use Stormtrooper to either duck into cover after shooting or blitz forward from cover to get in that juicy full RoF shots… You can still do it, it’s just less likely to succeed, or you just don’t put yourself in situations where you are relying on it.

I’ve made up a list that I thought really captured the ad-hoc thrown-together nature of the fighting around Berlin, with includes Volkssturm, SS, Heer and also Training tanks, and a captured T-34. Plenty of cheap platoons to hold objectives, with a veteran Panzergrenadier (late) Platoon to either anchor it or assault if needed. Lots of cheap gun teams, the great Volks Artillery 6-gun unit, and the Machine Gun Nest Command Card to stall enemy infantry.

The surviving Ardelt-Krupp Waffenträger – Russian Patriot Park

For anti-armour we have the mighty Waffenträgers, which you should try to position in good lanes of fire, but also with concealment or terrain to hide in. You also have the Hetzers, 7.5cm Pak 40s, and the Sd Kfz 234 (Pak 40). If used carefully, they can really threaten the flanks of enemy armour if they overextend, or don’t have enough other units to screen you. Don’t try to use them too aggressively, but certainly put them in a position to take advantage of a mistake if they can! The Looted T-34 is in for fun but is also useful for protecting your artillery from light armour. I think this will be an interesting and characterful list, a challenge to play, but also fun, which for me is most important! Happy Gaming, ~ Adam