About the Sturmgeschütz III
The Weald Foundation's Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. G (Fgst.Nr. 95825) was assembled by MIAG (Mühlenbau und Industrie AG) in Braunschweig in October 1943. Of the approximately 8,565 Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. G produced during the war, only 2,586 were built at MIAG, and the vast majority of surviving examples today are Alkett-built, making MIAG-built survivors significantly rarer than their Alkett counterparts. Fgst.Nr. 95825 is rarer still: it carries a Topfblende, the cast gun mantlet long assumed to be found exclusively on Alkett-assembled vehicles. The Foundation's own research refuted that assumption, making the combination of MIAG manufacture and Topfblende in a documented wartime survivor all the more exceptional.
Provenance
The vehicle was destined for the 191. Sturmgeschütz Brigade, the Büffel Brigade, one of the few armoured formations available to German forces on the Crimean Peninsula in late 1943. It never arrived. In November 1943 the vehicle was loaded aboard the German cargo steamer Santa Fé as part of a convoy bound for Sevastopol. On 23 November a Soviet submarine torpedoed the ship. Torn apart by internal explosions, the Santa Fé sank in 31 metres of water, taking all twelve Sturmgeschütz, two Jagdpanzer, and over 1,200 tons of military cargo with her.
Restoration
In the late 1990s divers located the wreck in the Black Sea and salvaged two of the Sturmgeschütz from the hold. The Weald Foundation subsequently acquired one, and it is from this remarkable recovery that the vehicle takes its 'Black Sea' name. The years spent on the seabed had taken a considerable toll: the hull floor was cracked and partially collapsed, the gearbox casing destroyed, all aluminium components lost, and the interior stripped bare as one would expect of a vehicle recovered from the sea. An original Maybach HL120 TRM engine was sourced along with other original parts that were missing. Where original components could not be sourced, they were fabricated from scratch, with each decision guided by period MIAG factory photographs and documentary research.
It is restored in Dunkelgelb base coat only, with no unit markings and no camouflage pattern, precisely as it would have left the MIAG factory in October 1943. Because the Santa Fé was sunk before reaching its destination, the vehicle never reached the 191. Sturmgeschütz Brigade, and the restoration reflects that exactly. The 'Black Sea' StuG is one of the very few surviving Sturmgeschütz that can demonstrate documented wartime German service through primary sources.
The restoration was completed in 2009, and the vehicle made its public debut at TANKFEST 2009, where it was showcased alongside other Weald Foundation vehicles and the famous Tiger 131.
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