Another superlative kit from Tamiya. An infantry support tank based on the Panzer Mk. IV chassis with 15 cm gun, the Brummbärs (‘growling bear’) were assigned to their own dedicated assault tank battalions and used at Kursk, Anzio and Normandy. They were also used to help crush the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944. Brummbär was the name given by Allied intelligence and not by the Germans themselves. Soviet documents of the time refer to it as ‘The Bear’ while German soldiers simply nicknamed it the ‘StuPa’, a contraction of ‘Sturmpanzer’ the official designation of the assault tank.
