Sturer Emil

Sturer Emil

Dicker Max

8,8 cm Flak 37 Sfl.

Sturer Emil

Dicker Max

8,8 cm Flak 37 Sfl.

Germany

III Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
4.3	4.3	4.3

Class:

Tank destroyer

Research:18 000

Purchase:47 000

Description

The Sturer Emil (officially 12,8 cm Selbstfahrlafette auf VK30.01(H) (12.8 cm Self-Propelled on VK 30.01 (Henschel)) is a Rank III German tank destroyer with a battle rating of 5.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.59 "Flaming Arrows".

The Sturer Emil is quite similar to the "Dicker Max"; no armor, excellent gun, great gun depression. Due to its limited horizontal gun traverse, it can be a little trickier to use in urban maps, but it can still be used to guard positions as long as cover is available. Being unarmored, always avoid being shot at.

General info

Survivability and armour

The Sturer Emil is typical of the German open-topped tank destroyers: fragile and particularly vulnerable to air attack. With a maximum of 50 mm of armour, the best protection is to not get shot at in the first place. On the plus side, the Sturer Emil cannot be hull-broken.

The sides of the superstructure are covered by ammunition and any clean hit on the Sturer Emil is likely to detonate the ammunition. The loader also stands in a particularly exposed position at the back of the tank destroyer, where he is very vulnerable to stray bullets or shrapnel. The rest of the crew is fairly spread out, which means that it is not easy to get a crew knock-out with one shot.

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	12 mm (83-88°) Front glacis 50 mm (10°) Driver/Co-driver ports 50 mm (12°) Lower glacis	20 mm	10 mm (47°)	12 mm
Superstructure	50 mm (16-17°) Front 50 mm (9-52°) Gun mantlet	30 mm (11°)	20 mm (0-12°)	0-10 mm

Notes:

• Suspension wheels are 15 mm thick while tracks are 20 mm thick.
• Belly armour is 10 mm thick.
• Superstructure roof armour barely covers the crew
• Tracks at the lower glacis and superstructure front provides +15 mm armour.

Mobility

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	28	6	36.5	440	591	12.05	16.19
Realistic	26	5		274	310	7.51	8.49

Based on the VK 30.01 (H) heavy tank chassis, the Sturer Emil has very lackluster mobility thanks to the weak engine. It is not very well suited to mobile, fast moving battles, and cannot relocate easily.

Armaments

Main armament

The 12,8 cm K 40 is easily the most powerful gun carried by any vehicle within the Sturer Emil's BR range, and it is a very deadly threat; it is capable of frontally penetrating any vehicle the Sturer Emil faces. On top of that, the APHE shells have a massive amount of explosive filler, all but guaranteeing a one-shot kill upon penetration. It should be noted, however, that the APHE shells have a 28 mm fuse threshold, and are likely to penetrate lightly armoured vehicles without exploding.

Conversely, the large size and weight of the 12,8 cm shells result in a long reload time. If the loader is knocked out, the reload time is massively increased, crippling the tank destroyer. The vehicle is also not very spacious, resulting in an ammunition capacity of only 15 rounds. The gun also has a limited amount of elevation and traverse, which can make it rather difficult to bring the gun to bear in some situations. This, combined with the lack of any machine guns, also renders the Sturer Emil virtually helpless against aircraft.

The Sturer Emil platform also provides the gun with an excellent gun depression angles, allowing the Sturer Emil to go hull-down on relatively steep slopes while exposing very little of the vehicle. The gun is mounted near the top of the superstructure as well, which allows the Sturer Emil to use its gun while exposing very little of the vehicle.

128 mm K.40
Capacity			Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance	Stabilizer
15			-15°/+10°	-5°/+6°	N/A
Turret rotation speed (°/s)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
Arcade	7.1	9.9	__.__	__.__	__.__
Realistic	7.1	8.4	__.__	__.__	__.__
Reloading rate (seconds)
Stock	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
23.6	__.__	__.__	__.__

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration in mm @ 90°
		10m	100m	500m	1000m	1500m	2000m
PzGr	APC	233	230	219	205	193	181
Sprgr. L/4,5	HE	37	37	37	37	37	37
PzGr 43	APCBC	248	245	234	220	207	195

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity in m/s	Projectile Mass in kg	Fuse delay in m:	Fuse sensitivity in mm:	Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent):	Normalization At 30° from horizontal:	Ricochet:
								0%	50%	100%
PzGr	APC	880	26.35	1.2	19	786.5	-1°	48°	63°	71°
Sprgr. L/4,5	HE	880	28	0.1	0.5	3,700	+0°	79°	80°	81°
PzGr 43	APCBC	880	28.3	1.2	19	786.5	+4°	48°	63°	71°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the Sturer Emil.

Full ammo	Ammo Part	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	Visual discrepancy
15	Projectiles Propellants	11 (+3) 7 (+8)	3 (+12) 1 (+14)	Yes

Usage in the battles

There are two ways one can use the Sturer Emil in combat:

Direct Engagement

In other words, how one would typically use a tank destroyer of this type - find a good vantage point, and use your gun's impressive long range pen stats to destroy even heavy tanks. When doing so, keep in mind to make as much use of your tank's depression as possible, and backing away from the open when reloading, as that is when most tanks will attempt to take you out.

Don't even think of trying to use the Sturer Emil in an "offensive" capability, the vehicle does not have the mobility nor armour to do so. Use it in an ambush-style method and conceal the vehicle before pouncing on the enemy. A spotted Sturer Emil is vulnerable to flanking maneuvres, artillery, and air strikes.

Indirect Fire

Step-by-step procedure to "Indirect fire", note how the Sturer Emil conceals itself past the hill slope while able to use the cannon to lob shells over to the enemies downrange. (View image if .gif is not playing)

One of the greatest capabilities of large caliber guns on vehicles like the Sturer Emils is that they allow you to take advantage of their high angle of projectile drop. This method works great beyond 1,000 metres, but varies depending on the type of terrain and hull-down positions are available on the map.

When on long range maps like Sands of Sinai or Maginot Line, drive to places where you are on the back slope of a hill relative to potential targets. From there, do not poke out and stay behind the hill slope to use it as cover and concealment against the enemy downrange. This way, the enemy has no way of spotting/engaging the Sturer Emil from their angle, but the Sturer Emil can still certainly see and hit the enemies. To do this, use the binoculars to look over the hill for long range targets. Adjust for the range to the target from behind the hill so when you fire, the round will essentially be fired over your cover (due to the necessary adjustment to your gun's elevation to hit targets at distance), with the rate of projectile drop creating a parabola trajectory for the round to come back down from over the hilltop into the target below, allowing you to essentially hit targets who cannot even see your position.

Another benefit of this method is being able to maintain position during reloading (as opposed to receding to cover as stated in the "direct engagement" section) meaning that while you wait for reload, you can correct your aim for range and target heading, allowing you to home into where you need to aim to make accurate hits.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Outstanding gun depression, same as the "Dicker Max"
• Extremely powerful gun with very lethal APHE shells
• Five fairly spread out crew members
• AP shells with HE filler will have little trouble doing damage
• Cannot be hull-broken
• Good gun placement high in the superstructure

Cons:

• Poor mobility
• Long reload time and limited ammunition capacity
• Exposed loader
• Very vulnerable to airstrikes due to open top
• Limited gun traverse and elevation angles
• Poor armour

History

The Selbstfahrlafette auf VK30.01(H), or better known as the Sturer Emil (Stubborn Emil), was a heavy self-propelled anti-tank gun developed by Nazi Germany sometime in 1941 and 1942. The Sturer Emil mounted the extremely large 12.8 cm gun on a extended chassis from the cancelled Henschel VK 30.01 armoured vehicle. The gun was laid on the back with the engine in the middle and the driver up front.

Not too much is known about the vehicle, only two were ever made in 1942, but they were involved in the Battle of Stalingrad. One was destroyed, but the other was captured during that battle in January 1943. When it was discovered, painting on the barrel indicates a score of 31 tank kills before its demise. The sole remaining Sturer Emil remains at the Kubinka Tank Museum in Russia.

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

Read also

[Devblog] Sturer Emil

Sources

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.