|Opening Salvo: sIG 33| |by Michael J. Canavan, Sr| Command
Sergeant Major US Army (retired) Prior to WWII, the German Army
realized the need for a self-propelled direct-fire support
weapon for their motorized infantry and armor formations. Many
of the artillery pieces in the German Army were cumbersome to
deploy and could not keep up with modern units in the field.
Even after the war started, much German artillery was still
horse-drawn. One of the first attempts to provide the new German
Army with self-propelled artillery was the sIG 33. This unit saw
action in Europe, North Africa and Russia. 15cm (150mm) sIG 33
auf GwI Ausf B The sIG 33 15cm infantry gun fired a 63 pound
(29kg) shell at 240 meters per second, with a range of 4,700
meters. The 15cm gun, introduced in 1936, was capable of firing
high explosive (HE), chemical, and anti-armor “stick bomb”
rounds. The "stick bomb" functioned like a large rifle grenade.
It had a range of 1.2 km, was highly inaccurate, and had to be
muzzle loaded. The round was g