The Hummel was designed in 1942 after the need for mobile artillery support for tank forces had been demonstrated during the invasion of the USSR. The self-propelled artillery already in service with the Wehrmacht had proven of limited value. The first option considered was mounting a 10.5 cm leFH 18 howitzer on a Panzer III chassis, rejected in favour of the same gun on a Panzer IV chassis. One prototype was built. This design was rejected in favour of mounting the more powerful 15 cm sFH 18 L/30 howitzer on the specially designed Geschützwagen III/IV, which combined elements of both the Panzer III and Panzer IV chassis. The same chassis was also used for the Nashorn tank destroyer. The engine was moved to the centre of the vehicle to make room for an open-topped lightly armoured fighting compartment at the Rear housing the gun and crew. Late models had a slightly redesigned driver compartment and front superstructure offering more room to the radio operator and driver.
Variants
Because the basic Hummel could carry only a limited amount of ammunition, the Munitionsträger Hummel was developed. This was basically a standard production Hummel without the howitzer and with racks fitted to hold the ammunition. When necessary, these could still be fitted with the 15 cm howitzer of the normal Hummel; this could even be done as a field conversion. By the end of the war, 714 Hummel had been built together with 150 ammunition carriers using the same design.
Combat history
The Hummel first participated in large scale combat at the Battle of Kursk, when some 100 served in armored artillery battalions of the Panzer divisions. They were formed into separate heavy self-propelled artillery batteries, each with six Hummel and one ammunition carrier.
Foreign use
Romania received one unit from the Red Armyafter the war ended. This was assigned to the 2ndArmoured Regiment with its military registration number as U069009. It was officially known as the Hummel TAs self-propelled gun in the army's inventory. The gun could not be used because it was missing the breech's lock. It was showcased to the public in a military parade in Bucharest of 10 May 1946 with Romanian markings. All German armour in Romania was later phased out in 1950 and finally scrapped by 1954, the army deciding on the wholly use of Soviet tanks and armoured fighting vehicles instead. Besides Romania, Syria was also another user of the Hummel post-WWII. Five were received from France, which captured several from Germany after the war, between the late 1940s and the early 1950s, with a limited supply of main gun ammunition obtained together with the vehicles. These saw service against Israel up until the 1960s and all were most likely scrapped shortly afterwards.
