Hey Leg, don't forget the British A39 Tortoise heavy assault tank - it only weighed 79ton... only!
I too am a fan for the Hetzer, like unkated mentioned, there seems to be something about it. Competent is a good word, it's no too fussy in its design, uncluttered and still compact. Unsurprisingly it was a very good ambush weapon even though the troops didn't particularly like it - too cramped.
Hey unkated, did you mean Switzerland instead of Austria?
LT. Ox, the G13 was armed with a 75mm KwK 40 main gun, the same gun as mounted on the Panzer IV late model G and H & J models as well as on the StuG III F & G models and the StuG IV. AKA the 7.5cm KwK 40. The Swiss also removed the remote MG installation from the roof and placed the commander opposite to the German Hetzer (i.e. Swiss placed commander on the left, gunner & loader on the right). The Swiss also had a field telephone installed on the rear for external comms.
They got 158 G13 assault guns as well as some recovery vehicle models.
They also modernized some of the assault guns to G13D standard which included replacing the petrol engine with a diesel model.
However the interesting item is that the Czechoslovaks fielded a large number under the designation ST-I. They were either repaired or new build Hetzers and carried the original 7.5cm KwK39 main gun or were unarmed and used as training vehicles (called the ST-III). Some of the ST-IIIs had a superstructure built on while others retained the basic lines of the Hetzer. They built/rebuilt 50 to the ST-III spec for a total of 299 vehicles (249 ST-I & 50 ST-III). The Czechoslovaks used them till the mid 1950s and not much is known about them afterwards although they are believed to have been scrapped.
For game purposes however, there's no reason why they couldn't have kept them in their war reserve.
Apparently Israel was interested in buying 60 or 70 ST-I vehicles but they were too pricey, about twice the price of a Sherman tank, so they never bothered and got Shermans instead.
Crappy photo but the only one I could find...
ST-III
Although this drawing makes it clearer. ST-III
What's intriguing though, is that apparently the Czechoslovaks exported eleven ST-I vehicles & spares to Guinea, West Africa between 1959 & 1961.
The other interesting thing about the Hetzer, it formed the basis for for the WW2 Germans' first purpose made, fully tracked, APC, the Vollkettenaufklarer 38(t) "Kätzchen" AKA full-tracked reconnaissance vehicle 38(t) "Kitten". It would carry up to 8 troops and act in a similar role as the White Scout Car (or in modern terms, an M3 Bradley CFV without the 25mm and TOW).
Kätzchen wooden mock-up showing general height.
One of the working prototypes
As it probably would have looked in service
