Thursday, April 19, 2012 This one's for you, Maxidyne! You mentioned assembling a SdKfz 251 in your comment to my previous post. Here come some statistics. The SdKfz 251 was developed by Hanomag and became the most produced and best known German half-track of WWII. Over 15,000 were produced. Production started in 1939 and continued to 1945. There were some 23 official variants, many of which were for special purposes. The SdKfz 251 ausf. C was the most manufactured model. The “Hanomag” was intended to bring a squad of panzer grenadiers to the battle front while protecting them from small arms fire and permitting them to fight from the vehicle, if needed. Support for the squad could come from the vehicle’s machine guns, which also had an anti-aircraft role. Due to its low profile, it was rather easy to conceal (which the US half tracks were not). The low profile also made it more stable (US half tracks had a tendency to tip over more easily). The long track base made for easy cross country performance (US half tracks had a shorter track base/higher ground pressure, thus less good cross country performance). However, the front wheels were not powered, making for difficult/heavy steering (US half tracks had powered front wheels and much easier steering cross country). Unfortunately for the German army, there were never enough of them, so many soldiers had to rely on trucks (which had no armor, no air defence, risked bogging down on poor roads or when driven off road). Length – 5.8 meters Width – 2.1 meters Height – 1.75 meters Weight – 7.8 tons Crew – 2, plus 10 passenegers Armour – 6 mm. to 14.5 mm. Armament – one or two MG 34 or MG 42 Engine – Maybach HL 42, 6 cylinders Horse power – 100 hp Power/weight ratio – 12.8 hp/ton Speed – 52.5 km./hour Range – 300 km. The photos are from January 17, 2005 and were taken indoors due to bad weather outdoors. Enjoy!