Life with the STuG

When Adolf Hitler and the “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei” (NSDAP – Nazi Party) came to power in 1933, one of their main goals was that of “Lebensraum”, the expanding of territory in order to support and increase the German “Aryan” population. After the mostly peaceful additions of Austria, Czechoslovakia and the Memel regions to the existing Third Reich German homeland, war quickly escalated when Hitler’s troops crossed the Polish frontier in a quest to take back areas lost at the end of World War I. Combat in this new era would be fought much differently than it had been during 1914-1918.

Hitler, who had served in the hellish and stagnant trenches of WW1 saw the need for “blitzkrieg”, or lightning war, which combined rapid air strikes with fast-moving infantry and armored ground attacks. The need for mobile armor to support the infantry brought about the development of the “Sturmgeschutz” (StuG) assault gun, which was an artillery-carrying, tracked and armored vehicle built on a tank chassis.

As with the then faster, updated tanks being developed, whose sluggish predecessors had crawled across no man’s land during WW1, StuGs played a major role, spearheading many of the battles that stretched far into the Western territories, and eventually those of the deadly East.

StuGs were first developed by the Daimler-Benz Company in the mid-1930s, but then turned over in 1937 to the ALKETT Company (Germany’s foremost producer of tracked vehicles for the Wehrmacht). Resembling tanks to some degree, the first models featured a short-barreled 7.5 CM Stuk 37 L/24 cannon in a solid non-moveable turret-like frame integrated into the base steel superstructure.

As infantry support artillery, the StuGs proved sufficient, firing low-velocity, high-explosive rounds to decimate enemy infantry and fortifications. Later, different models were produced, culminating in the StuG III, which carried an assortment of larger and longer guns over time with armor-piercing rounds to combat the Allied tanks they encountered. Weighing in at over 26 tons, the V-12 gas-powered engine gave the StuG III an operational range of about 100 miles. MG 34 machine guns were added to StuGs beginning in 1942 to ward off enemy infantry with a secondary firepower. Being substantially cheaper and faster to produce (due to the omission of a moveable turret) than the widely used Panzer III, more 11,000 StuGs in multiple variants of armor and dimensions were churned out and sent to all fronts spanning across Europe and North Africa.

While first developed to knock out enemy fortifications, StuGs and other tracked artillery pieces “Jagpanzer” (PgPz - tank hunter-destroyers) were later used primarily as anti-tank weapons to cover both the advancing and retreating troop movements. Claims were made that, by the spring of 1944, more than 20,000 Allied (mostly Russian) tanks had fallen to the fierce fire power of the StuG cannons.

The cramped interiors of the StuGs held a crew of four; a driver, gunner, loader and commander. All members had to be familiar with the vehicle’s armament and operation, as each might be called on to operate another crew member’s position in the event of someone being killed or wounded. In addition, repairs, if able to be done, were carried out by those on board if no help was available.

StuG soldiers wore a field grey wrap-around short jacket with red piping to designate their attachment to the “Heer” (army) artillery, army ranking collar tabs and shoulder boards. This was accompanied by matching wool slacks, gray collared shirt and black boots. The jacket waist was held tight with a black leather belt and standard army style rectangular buckle with eagle, swastika surrounded by “Gott Mit Uns” wordage. If assault gun soldiers were permanently assigned to a panzer regiment, they sometimes changed the collar backing of their tabs and boards to the pink color of the panzer troops to show their affiliation in their new comrades. Enlisted men were issued headgear consisting of peaked army gray visor caps with black leather (or fiber) bills, red piping and black leather chinstraps. Officers wore better quality caps without piping, substituting silver wire chinstraps for the leather enlisted ones. Gray overseas caps and standard army filed gray/green helmets were worn as the occasion merited. Dress sidearms while walking out or on parade (pre and early wartime) usually consisted of the standard nickel plated dress bayonets (for enlisted) or army daggers (for officers). As the war progressed, edged weapons gave way to sidearms to protect the carriers in occupied areas and keep them “combat ready”.

Medals earned while in the service, such as the Iron Cross first class or wound badges, would be attached to the left breast area of the assault gun tunic. When not represented on a ribbon bar, campaign or merit medal ribbons were often sewn to the left lapel of the wraps to show the soldier’s accomplishments. In 1940 a “panzerkampf abzeichen” (tank battle badge) in bronze was introduced for assault gun soldiers as well as those who fought in panzer-grenadier regiments, armored car crews and panzer medical personnel. These badges featured the image of an oncoming panzer surrounded by an oval oakleaf wreath topped by a close winged eagle perched on a canted swastika. Badges were fixed to the tunic left front with a long vertical pin and catch.

While in the field, StuG crews carried P-38s, P08s and a variety of other sidearms and machine pistols (such as MP-40s) in case they needed to fight outside of their vehicles. The use and storage of long arms was impractical in the cramped interiors of the StuG vehicles, so were typically not carried. In the StuG’s tight and dismal surroundings, many crew members preferred coveralls to their more formal uniforms for greater mobility and comfort during long campaigns.

As the fighting in the East, West and South battlefields turned the tides against Hitler’s regime, StuG crews and those in the other branches of the German military went on the total defensive, trying to save what was left of their homelands from the brutal bombings and allied onslaughts closing in around them. As effective as the StuGs were in battle, their casualty rates were enormous with more than 80 percent of crew members never returning to rejoin their families after Hitler’s dictatorship finally breathed its final gasp. 

Jan Zeiska was born in the Sudeten Deutsch area of Tussett, Czechoslovakia (then part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire) in 1914. As a young boy he held an intense fascination with anything mechanical, once building a home-made radio in a doll box which entertained many of the villagers in his small community.

After the Czech Anschluss by Nazi Germany in 1938, Zeiska, having completed eight years of training as a certified machinist, and still holding his interest in anything with a motor, found an avenue for his passion by joining the “Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps” (NSKK - Nazi vehicle corps). This gave him access to motorcycles, autos and trucks that would have then been unobtainable for his use before. Shortly after the European war began in 1939, Zeiska was conscripted into the German Army, and because of his mechanical background and interest in vehicles, assigned to the Sturmgeschutz artillery.

By 1941, Zeiska and his fellow StuG crew members were stationed on the Eastern front, deep in the Soviet landscape, where they would continue to fight and survive until late 1944. Left by themselves to cover a retreat, running out of fuel, low on ammunition and tired of almost four years of fighting in a lost cause, the crew decided to sink their StuG in a frozen river rather than let the approaching Soviets capture it. Once this was done, they started to follow the retreating German Army, only to then run into a large Soviet force. After all of his fellow crew members were killed in a firefight with the Russians, Zeiska was able to hide under some building wreckage while the enemy soldiers passed by. When they had finally moved on, Zeiska carefully crawled out and traveled as he dared, dodging the enemy and finding food, clothing and shelter with friendly civilians over the long trek back to his home and wife. Once in Tussett, he did not return to the army, but hid in the village, waiting for the war to end. Unfortunately, he was found by local Nazi authorities, taken to a house, tied to a chair and beaten severely. When the authorities temporarily left, his young wife, Gerta, snuck into the room where he was being held and untied him, allowing his escape from probable death.

When the war was ending and Tussett was overrun by the Soviets, Zeiska escaped west, later followed by his wife and their newborn boy. They would be placed in a Frankfort, Germany, misplaced persons detention center for three years and have a second child before finding a sponsor and being allowed to emigrate to the United States. There they resettled, both finding work, and having a third child while assimilating to their new home and laboring hard to attain the American dream. Ironically, when later leisure time allowed, Jan would become very popular in his new hometown, often playing the accordion at a local dancehall largely frequented by WWII U.S. veterans and their wives.