The StuG III - Germany's deadliest AFV

"It's a complicated thing, politics." pats armored fighting vehicle

"please be forgiving of this model, I made it when I was 11" dude... when I was eleven I learned how to make lego cars!

Concrete on a Tank?! "Hans can we use our new Stug?" "No frank it has to cure at least 2 more days"

You didn't choose Stug life, the Stug life chose you.

Fiendishly clever of the Finns to disguise their Stug as a self propelled log cabin...

Oil - Germany's deadliest enemy.

"Be forgiving of the model he made when he was 11." I'm 31, and I WISH I had that kind of modeling skill

The logs are actually more to be used in cases where the tanks is getting stuck to roll under tracks for extra traction, rather than needing assistance to get out of a mess. Although they do provide minimal additional armor, not so much against high calibre but more against shoulder fired shaped charge weapons later in the war by creating a larger stand off distance from the armor. They do also protect to some degree from magnetic charges particularly grenades!

The StuG III is probably the reason I speak Finnish as a mother tongue instead of Russian

I was in a WW2 Re-enactment Group in California, that had a StuG III. We all fell in love with the suspension, that was so smooth, like riding on a boat, and the interior was roomy and nice. It was a late production StuG III from Finland.

3:11 Stug III: "Oh, Lindy, is that a Panzergranate in your trousers, or are you just happy to see me?"

You are one of very few YouTube content makers that don't nauseate the hell out of me with their cornball and mostly feeble attempts at humor. As I age, I find myself appreciating you more and more. Thank you for uploading this video as I have a fascination for the Stug 3's and 4's and variants. Unlike many men and boys I do not salivate over discussions of Panthers, Tigers and King Tigers. I much prefer the Stugs and Mk. 4 tanks as the true workhorses of the Wehrmacht.

3:50 - The reason Finnish (and some German) Stugs carried logs was not primarily to act as extra armour. Rather, they were to assist if the vehicle got stuck in mud or snow - and you get a lot of both in Finland. The idea was that you lashed a log cross-ways to the tracks, and this would provide sufficient grip for the the vehicle to pull itself forward one length (by which time the log would be at the rear and would have to be untied). Repeat as necessary. The reason why Stugs in particular had logs strapped to them was because they were turretless. Logs strapped to a true tank would get in the way of turret rotation. Of course, if you ARE going to carry logs (and the Finns were never short of timber), you may as well use them as extra armour - in much the same way that spare track links were often fastened to a tank's front glacis plate.

Zimmerit was placed on the metal fenders because an anti-tank mine placed there would blow off the track immobilizing the tank rendering it vulnerable.

Oh man, just when I was going to pull the trigger on E-Bay for one, that failure to neutral turn is a big show stopper. Thanks for the heads up. ;-)

I think that sweater could withstand significant punishment

My grandfather drove a Stug III in WW2, he actually named my mother "Sonja" after his particular tank.

I'm not finnish myself, but the whole thing about finland during WW2 really bugs me, they didn't start any war, they tried to be neutral, but got invaded by soviet union, they requested help from the allied nations since they didn't plan on joining hitlers war, but unfortunatly the rest of the allied nations like the US, England and so on refused to in any way help finland since it would upset the soviet union that they were suppose to be allied with to defeat the german threat. So finland did what anyone would have done and took what ever help they could, and this was only offered by the germans, so they recieved weapons and armoured viencles from the germans to fight off the soviet union and mannaged to do so quite well while the majority of soviets forces were facing off against Germany, ofcourse this benefitted germany making soviet have yet another front to fight alongside without sacrificing more german manpower. but Finland was only ever really defending them selves from an invasion, and successfully did so since they mannaged to not get claimed by the soviet union in the after match of the war much like most of eastern europe! how ever after the war finland got forced by the allied nations including US & England & France + Soviet union, to pay a war depth to the soviet union, a pretty hefty one at that even though they didn't start the war, neither did they ever invade anyone.. so yeah pretty big dick move by the so called " Heroes " of the WWII as many of those nations like to see them selves as..... Also Finland was also the only country that ever did pay their full dept back from the war aswell... so yeah.. There was one upside of this for finland, since most of the dept was agreed to be paid with industri productions to the USSR rather then finacial money, it did help finland get their industri going pretty quickly after the war, much faster then most other nations, and it helped them keep the industri much bigger and modernized compared to countries of same population in that area, and once the payment was done (think it was sometime in the 80's) from there on it was a big benefit for finland to already have a pretty hefty industri going on that they now could focus on making stuff for the free market and making some decent money.

The Stug also had the advantage of usually being on the defensive.

The StuG 3Gs served us very well in Finland. Partly thanks to them, Helsinki remained one of three European capital cities of the countries taking part in WWII, never to be invaded. The other two were London and Moscow.