Design
The started its life as a light tractor for airborne troops. The vehicle was designed to be delivered by aircraft, though not by parachute. The vehicle had the advantage of being the only gun tractor small enough to fit inside the hold of the , and was the lightest mass-produced German military vehicle to use the complex overlapped and interleaved road wheels used on almost all German military half-tracked vehicles of World War II. Steering the was accomplished by turning the handlebars: Up to a certain point, only the front wheel would steer the vehicle. A motion of the handlebars beyond that point would engage the track brakes to help make turns sharper. It was also possible to run the vehicle without the front wheel installed and this was recommended in extreme off-road conditions where speed would be kept low. The was designed and built by the at , Germany. Patented in June 1939, it was first used in theService
Most saw service on the Eastern Front, where they were used to lay communication cables, pull heavy loads and carry soldiers through the deep Russian mud. Later in the war, were used as runway tugs for aircraft, especially for the jet fighter, and sometimes the jet reconnaissance-bomber. In order to save aviation fuel, German jet aircraft were towed to the runway, rather than taxiing under their own power. The vehicle was also used in the North African theater and on the Western Front.Variants
Only two significant sub-variations of the were constructed. Production of the vehicle was stopped in 1944, at which time 8,345 had been built. After the war, production resumed at NSU. Around 550 were built for agricultural use, with production ending in 1948 (some sources say 1949).See also
* Springer (demolition vehicle) (), a one-use military engineering vehicle based on the s powertrain. * List of designationsReferences
External links
* * * * {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 World War II military vehicles of Germany World War II half-tracks Half-tracks of Germany Military vehicles introduced from 1940 to 1944