This refers to the SdKfz 164 which was called the Rhinoceros or the Hornisse. It represented a first for the German army as it was the first tracked self-propelled anti-tank gun to enter its service. It was fitted with a PaK 43/1 L/71 version of the 88mm gun. The mobile platform was designed specifically for this anti-tank gun and giving it the ability to be mobile. This platform was the Aug PzJg III/IV and 100 units were planned for May of 1943. The decision to build a mobile platform came from operational issues when it came to moving the 88mm, specifically towing the gun. This is not a new issue for the gun and the size and weight often resulted in difficulty when it came to moving and positioning the gun. This specific problem was existent since inception often exacerbated depending on the environment, a good example would be the Eastern Russian front, as the frozen snow and then wet melted soggy soil would hinder the movement of anything.
It must be noted that when speaking of Eastern front we are often referring to Russia and it is at this point we would like to take a little detour and say some thing about Russia. The impenetrability of the “Motherland” (Russia) is something that has kept the country and its people safe, from the days of Napoleon all the way to the Germans in the 1940s. This impenetrability isn’t the result, solely of the Soviet and/or Russian people or armed forces, though they are a hardy stock accustomed to a harsh landscape they can hold their own, no its not simply strategy or tactics of the Soviets or Russians, but the land itself or in this case “herself”.
“Mother Russia” is a formidable enemy, not simply the people or the nation state or its institutions but the land and earth that is there. It can entices with its wide open flat steppes that invite an invading army only to turn from flat land to muck and slowly mire the invaders making them prey to the Russian army. Even if progress is made this slog can rapidly wear away supplies with the army losing the war of attrition to the land.
It is a common theme in European conflict that Russia has been a stumbling block, and when the Germans went there with some of WWII’s best weapons it was no exception. While the 88mm had problems it was a formidable weapon in all its incarnations, and yet it was no match for Russia.
