Marder I

Marder I on display at the Musée des Blindés at Saumur.

The Marder I (Sd. Kfz. 135) was a German World War II tank destroyer, armed with a 75 mm anti-tank gun. Most Marder I were built on the base of the Tracteur Blinde 37L (Lorraine), a French artillery mover/armoured personnel carrier of which the Germans had acquired more than three hundred after the Fall of France in 1940.

History

Even in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht already felt the need for a more mobile and more powerful anti-tank solution than the existing towed anti-tank guns or self-propelled tank destroyers like the Panzerjäger I. This need became urgent in late 1941, with the appearance of the new Soviet tanks like the T-34 and Kliment Voroshilov.

As an interim solution, it was decided to use both obsolete tanks like the Panzer II and captured vehicles like the Lorraine as the base for makeshift tank destroyers. The result was the Marder series, which were armed with either the 75 mm PaK 40 anti-tank guns or the Russian 76.2mm F-22 Model 1936 divisional field gun, of which large numbers had been captured.

Development

The Marder I was developed in May 1942 and carried the 75 mm PaK 40 anti-tank gun, on a Lorraine chassis. The original crew compartiment superstructure was removed and the gun placed on top of the chassis. Around this a new, open-topped compartment was built, to give the gun and crew some protection from small arms fire.

Between July and August 1942, 170 Marder I's were built on the Lorraine chassis. Several other French or polish tanks were also used as a conversion base for the Marder I, including the Hotchkiss H39 and FCM 36, though these were only built in small numbers.

Combat history

The first Lorraine based Marder I vehicles were sent to the Eastern Front in 1942 to serve in the Panzerjager (tank destroyer) units of infantry divisions.

This is a list of Infantry Division, in Russia, known to have used Marder I's and the estimated time frame they were used

Division	Battalion	Time Frame
31.Inf. Div	Pz. Jg.Abt.31	Aug 42 - Dec 43
35.Inf. Div	2.Kp./Pz. Jg.Abt.35	Sep 42 - Dec 43
36.Inf. Div(mot)	4.Kp./Pz. Jg.Abt.38	Oct 42 - Jun 43
72.Inf. Div	3.Kp./Pz. Jg.Abt.72	Sep 42 - Dec 43
206th Infantry Division	1./Pz. Jg.Schn. Abt.206	Jan 43 - Dec 43
256.Inf. Div	5./Pz. Schnelle-Abt.256	Nov 42 - Apr 44