Inside Track – The Weald Foundation https://www.wealdfoundation.org Sat, 04 Jul 2026 14:26:15 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.2 https://www.wealdfoundation.org/app/uploads/2026/05/cropped-Weald-Icon-1-32x32.png Inside Track – The Weald Foundation https://www.wealdfoundation.org 32 32 StuG III Ausf. G: Firing Trials Against the Schürzen https://www.wealdfoundation.org/inside-track/stug-iii-ausf-g-firing-trials-against-the-schurzen/ Sat, 04 Jul 2026 14:20:14 +0000 https://www.wealdfoundation.org/?p=30076 The skirts on our StuG III were not guesswork. A 1943 German firing trial, tested them against anti-tank rifles and shells. We look at what it found, and lay the anti-bazooka myth to rest.

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]]> StuG III Ausf.G: An Assault Gun That Hunted Tanks https://www.wealdfoundation.org/inside-track/stug-iii-ausf-g-assault-gun/ Sat, 20 Jun 2026 22:53:26 +0000 https://www.wealdfoundation.org/?p=30058 The Weald Foundation's StuG III Ausf. G, known as the 'Black Sea StuG', was lost at sea in 1943 on its way to an artillery unit in the Crimea. By then the type carried a gun that made it one of the war's most effective tank-killers, yet it was still designated a Sturmgeschütz, an assault gun, rather than a Panzerjäger or Jagdpanzer. Drawing on a wartime naming memorandum, this article explains why the German army let the name stand apart from the weapon's true role.

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]]> Sd.Kfz.250/3 Ausf.B: New Evidence from the Archives https://www.wealdfoundation.org/inside-track/sdkfz-250-3-ausf-b-new-evidence-from-archives/ Fri, 12 Jun 2026 14:18:33 +0000 https://www.wealdfoundation.org/?p=30037 On 23 August 1944, twenty-five leichte Schützenpanzerwagen departed for 6. Panzer-Division. On 28 and 30 September, another thirty followed. These dispatches, documented in the records of the Generalinspekteur der Panzertruppen, are the equipment inputs to a Vollausstattung programme due to complete on 15 October 1944. Part 3 of the revisited provenance research on the Foundation's Sd.Kfz.250/3 Ausf.B brings the three documents together and shows where they leave the chassis-to-unit link.

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]]> Leichter Schützenpanzerwagen Sd.Kfz.250/3 Ausf.B: Tracing the Vehicle Through 6. Panzer-Division https://www.wealdfoundation.org/inside-track/sd-kfz-250-3-ausf-b-tracing-the-vehicle-through-6-panzer-division/ Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:53:40 +0000 https://www.wealdfoundation.org/?p=30016 In Part 1 we read what the vehicle itself can tell us. Part 2 turns to the documentary record. Working through the Kriegsstärkenachweisungen that bracket where a Sd.Kfz.250/3 should sit within a Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung, the actual strength returns of Pz.A.A 6 showing four Sd.Kfz.250/3 on hand at the end of December 1944, and the path of 6. Panzer-Division from its summer 1944 refit through to Hungary and the eventual withdrawal to Austria in March 1945.

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]]> Leichter Schützenpanzerwagen Sd.Kfz.250/3 Ausf.B: The Survivor and Its Markings https://www.wealdfoundation.org/inside-track/sdkfz-250-3-ausf-b-survivor-and-markings/ Fri, 29 May 2026 15:36:05 +0000 https://www.wealdfoundation.org/?p=30009 The Foundation's Sd.Kfz.250/3 Ausf.B is returning to the workshop programme, and with it the provenance research Mike began in April 2016. This first instalment in a renewed series revisits what the vehicle itself can be made to tell us. The condition of the hull when it came out of the ground in Hungary. The data plate read by Tom Jentz, with chassis 410071, body 3617, and the lsb assembler code. The shield of the 6. Panzer-Division on the rear access door, in its particular orientation. Part 1 of the renewed series.

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]]> Militracks 2026: The Sd.Kfz.223 returns to Overloon https://www.wealdfoundation.org/inside-track/militracks-2026-the-sd-kfz-223-returns-to-overloon/ Fri, 22 May 2026 13:39:13 +0000 https://www.wealdfoundation.org/?p=29956 Our first return to Militracks since 2019 saw the newly camouflaged Sd.Kfz.223 run daily on the one mile track at the Oorlogsmuseum Overloon. We drew strong interest from visitors, trialled loaned radio equipment in the field, and met some wonderful enthusiasts along the way.

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]]> The Balkenkreuz on the Sd.Kfz.222: Orders and Practice https://www.wealdfoundation.org/inside-track/balkenkreuz-sdkfz222-orders-and-practice/ Fri, 15 May 2026 11:00:00 +0000 https://www.wealdfoundation.org/?p=29929 H.M. 1939 Nr. 770 was clear: white bars only, outline cross, no black. A review of period photographs of German armoured cars tells a more varied story -- two different interpretations of bar spacing, rear crosses smaller than ordered, and by around 1942, a black centre cross that no order ever specified. This article applies the regulatory chain to the Foundation's Sd.Kfz.222 and looks at what crews actually painted.

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