FAST FACTS:
World War II brought unprecedented progress into the development of tanks and other types of armored fighting vehicles and it is logical that anti-tank weapons had to keep the pace. Unsurprisingly a new category of fighting vehicle specialized in destroying tanks appeared soon. A tank destroyer (or a tank hunter if you wish) was basically a self propelled anti-tank gun on a fully tracked chassis.
All German tank destroyers were turretless vehicles. The gun was fitted in a fixed (partly open or enclosed casemate) superstructure and had therefore just a limited traverse. The ideal combat scenario for a tank destroyer was to engage the enemy by ambush – a situation when the lack of a rotating turret was not particularly critical. Absence of turret generally allowed installation of a more powerful gun and made the production easier and cheaper.
The Germans distinguished two categories of tank destroyers. Their first designs were more or less simple installations of available anti-tank guns on the chassis of own obsolete light tanks or war-trophy tanks of other nations. These vehicles, called Panzerjägers (tank hunters), had a partly open fighting compartment and were just lightly armored, because the carrying capacities of used chassis did not allow for a full armor body. To compensate for this, they ussually carried a powerfull gun capable of destroying enemy tanks from safe distances without risking a close combat.
Later on more advanced designs came, based on the chassis of medium or even heavy tanks. These vehicles, called Jagdpanzers (hunting tanks) had a fully enclosed fighting compartment, so the level of crew protection was similar to tanks or, in some cases, even higher.
