Schützenpanzer Lang HS.30: Difference between revisions

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Not an apc by role
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[[File:Schützenpanzer (lang) Hispano-Suiza HS 30.jpg|thumb|left|HS.30 as presented in the [[German Tank Museum]] in 2008]]
 
The HS.30 mounted a small turret with a [[Hispano-Suiza HS.820]] 20-mm [[autocannon]] and a 15×15 periscopic sight. The role of the 20-mm autocannon in German doctrine was to engage helicopters, anti-tank weapons, and light armored vehicles, thus freeing tanks to concentrate their fire against other tanks. Even with the turret, the HS.30 was fully two feet (0.6 m) lower in height than the M113 - nomaking smallit advantagea onsmaller an armored battlefieldtarget.{{cn|date=April 2021}} The vehicle had an onboard supply of 2,000 rounds of 20&nbsp;mm ammunition.<ref>Janes, p. 250.</ref> Frontal armor provided protection against 20-mm projectiles, which was better than comparable vehicles of other nations. The additional armor made the HS.30 four tons heavier than the M113, even though it could only carry half as many troops. For the squad members to fire their personal weapons while mounted, roof hatches had to be opened with the soldiers sticking up out of the hatches. The Germans considered this a significant disadvantage as their likely opponent, the [[Soviet Army]], was expected to use [[chemical agents]] in any war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
 
Despite the German army's insistence on a true infantry fighting vehicle rather than just an armored personnel carrier, the ''Panzergrenadier'' brigades included an infantry battalion that was carried initially on trucks and later with M113 APCs. This force composition likely resulted as much from cost considerations as it did from doctrine that called for one third of the ''Panzergrenadiere'' to be a motorized force.<ref>Haworth, p. 40.</ref>