![]() ![]() The Romanian Army was forced to rethink its strategy and focused initially on refitting the obsolete armored vehicles with improved anti-tank guns, later the Romanian experts started designing their own tank destroyer. It became obvious for the Romanians that their fighting vehicles were obsolete, totally inadequate for the fighting against heavy armored Soviet tanks. ![]() ![]() It is important to note, that most of the Romanian armored vehicles were not knocked in combat, but rather lost due to technical issues, and most of them had to be resent in factories for repairs.Īfter the major military defeat at Stalingrad, the Romanians suffered heavy losses in both soldiers and armored vehicle units( most of the 111 R-2 tanks, and 19 PzKpfw III and PzKpfw IV tanks provided by the Germans). After heavy fighting, at the end of August 1941, from a total of 105 Romanian AFVs(armored fighting vehicles), only 20 R-2 tanks were still operational.īy the end of the year, other 26 armored vehicles were also lost in combat, while 60 were broken down due to technical problems. Like their German Allies, the Romanians were also surprised by the effectiveness of the Soviet T-34 and KV-1 tanks. ![]() Most of its tank forces were of French or Czech origins.Īfter the start of Operation Barbarossa, Romania, who joined the Axis side, had to rely heavily on German support or captured Soviet AFVs to fill the lack of proper anti-tank vehicles. Since the start of WWII, the Romanian Army suffered from a chronic lack of anti-tank means. The Maresal Tank Destroyer represented Romania’s greatest ambition in developing and building its own modern light tank destroyer in WWII, capable of standing against the Soviet tanks. Inspiration for the Hetzer tank destroyer?.Maresal Tank Destroyer: Initial Project. ![]()
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