Baxter, Ian German Self-Propelled Anti-Tank and Anti-Aircraft Guns, 1939-1945. Rare Photographs from Wartime Archives

Self-propelled armoured and anti-aircraft vehicles were a key element of the German army during the Second World War. Anti-tank weapons became very important at the outbreak of war as the combatants developed ever more effective armoured vehicles and tactics. Some were merely makeshift solutions, such as mounting the weapons on a tracked vehicle to increase mobility, while others were more sophisticated designs. Examples of the development of tank destroyer technology over the course of the war include the Marder, the Jagdpanzer 38 and the Nashorn. To provide much-needed firepower, vehicles such as the 5-tonne Sd.Kfz.6 half-track were fitted with Soviet 76.2 mm field guns. The Marder series, with its anti-tank guns, played an important role in supporting armoured operations. Anti-aircraft defence was crucial to protect the troops from the ever-increasing Allied ground attacks. The Germans also mounted anti-aircraft guns aboard half-tracked vehicles such as the Sd.Kfz.10/5 and 10/4, which were armed with 2cm anti-aircraft guns, and the Sd.Kfz.7/1 medium half-track, which was equipped with 2cm anti-aircraft guns, including quad anti-aircraft guns on certain modified vehicles. Later in the war there was the Flakpanzer 38 (t) with a 2 cm anti-aircraft gun, an Sd.Kfz.6/2 anti-aircraft half-track carrier and the Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind with a rotating anti-aircraft turret armed with quadruple 2 cm anti-aircraft guns.