StuH42 (105 mm)

Description

The StuH 42 was a German gun used in World War 2. In 1942, a variant of the StuG Ausf. F was designed with a 10.5 cm howitzer instead of the normal 7.5 cm StuK 40 L/43 cannon. It was designed as an infantry support vehicle, and named the StuH 42 G.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• StuH 42 G

General info

The StuH 42 is a very capable cannon, and is able to take out most tanks at its rank with the Gr.39 rot HI/C HEAT round, which offers 115mm of penetration at all distances. Post-penetration damage is effective, however, the shells travel at a low velocity. This makes shooting at moving targets and from long distances harder.

Available shells

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration in mm @ 90°
		10m	100m	500m	1000m	1500m	2000m
PzGr	APHE	70	69	62	54	47	42
F.H.Gr.	HE	22	22	22	22	22	22
Gr.39 rot HI/B	HEAT	105	105	105	105	105	105
Gr.39 rot HI/C	HEAT	115	115	115	115	115	115

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	APHE	475	14	0.8	28	238	-1°	47°	60°	75°
F.H.Gr.	HE	472	15	0.1	0.1	1,750	+0°	79°	80°	81°
Gr.39 rot HI/B	HEAT	495	12	0.0	0.1	2,530	+0°	62°	69°	73°
Gr.39 rot HI/C	HEAT	495	12	0.0	0.1	2,550	+0°	62°	69°	73°

Shell types

• PzGr - Armour Piercing High Explosive - This is the main ammo type, use it whenever it has enough power to penetrate the target, as the explosive filler can make short work of a tank interior.
• FHGr - High Explosive - Another very useful kind of ammo, can obliterate any unarmored SPAAA vehicles or lightly armoured tanks.
• Gr.39 rot HI/B - High Explosive Anti-Tank - This one should be just skipped, it has no advantage over the better Gr.39 rot HI/C.
• Gr.39 rot HI/C - High Explosive Anti-Tank - This shell has the highest penetration, but it is prone to detonate prematurely on spaced armour, or some debris in the flight trajectory. Also, the shell travels at a low velocity, making aiming harder. The advantage is that it bounces less from sloped armour, and the high amount of explosive mass in the round will usually one-shot an enemy tank. Lastly, they don't lose any penetration over distance - carry only few of them in case they are needed.

Comparison with analogues

• USA - M4 (105 mm)

Usage in battles

The StuH42 (105mm) is best used at medium range combat. The long reload of 13 seconds makes it unviable for close combat, as most enemies at this rank can reload and fire off another shot whilst you are reloading. The Gr.39 rot HI/C shells, which is an HEAT round, doesn't lose penetration over long distances, making it suitable for ranged combat.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• HEAT shells has excellent penetration - 115mm at all ranges
• HEAT shell doesn't lose penetration over long distances
• Has a variety of ammunition to use
• APHE has good post-penetration damage

Cons:

• Very long reload time - 13 seconds
• Very low velocity of about 500m/s, makes shooting at moving targets harder
• Shells are inaccurate due to the low shell velocity and the high shell drop

History

The StuH42 (105mm) was a variant of the 10.5 cm leFH 18 howitzer, modified to be electrically fired and fitted with a muzzle brake. Production models were built on StuG III Ausf. G chassis. The muzzle brake was often omitted due to the scarcity of resources later in the war.

Media

An excellent addition to the article would be a video guide, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

External links

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• topic on the official game forum;
• encyclopedia page on weapon;
• other literature.