Nashorn

The Nashorn, first called Hornisse, was a German tank destroyer of the Second World War that put the long 8.8 cm Pak 43 anti-tank gun on a light, open-topped chassis. The Berlin arms firm Alkett designed it in February 1942 on its Geschützwagen III/IV chassis, which combined components of the Panzer III and Panzer IV, lengthening the hull and moving the engine from the rear to the centre to make room for the gun. It was presented to Hitler in October 1942, entered production in early 1943 and reached some 494 vehicles, most of them built in 1943, before the lower Jagdpanzer IV was favoured in 1944. Lightly armoured and tall, it was meant to give a powerful gun mobility rather than to fight tanks at close range, and its tungsten-cored round could penetrate 190 mm of armour at a kilometre. Six heavy anti-tank battalions used it, mostly on the Eastern Front and in Italy, and it first fought at Kursk. Two examples survive in museums, with a third privately restored in the Netherlands.