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The (german:
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.
* Springer (demolition vehicle) (), a one-use military engineering vehicle based on the s powertrain.
* List of designations
Sonderkraftfahrzeug
''Sonderkraftfahrzeug'' (abbreviated ''Sd.Kfz.'', German for "special purpose vehicle") was the ordnance inventory designation used by Nazi Germany during World War II for military vehicles; for example ''Sd.Kfz.'' 101 for the Panzer I.
Sd.Kfz. nu ...
2) is a half-track
A half-track is a civilian or military vehicle with regular wheels at the front for steering and continuous tracks at the back to propel the vehicle and carry most of the load. The purpose of this combination is to produce a vehicle with the cro ...
motorcycle with a single front wheel, better known as the (), shortened to (pl. ). It was used by the military of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
during the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
.
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 theinvasion of the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...
in 1941. Later in the war from also produced s under license, accounting for about 10% of the total production.
The came with a special trailer Sonderanhänger 1 () that could be attached to it to improve its cargo capacity. The trailer carried .
Being a tracked vehicle, the could climb up to 24° in sand and even more on hard ground.
Service
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 designations
References
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