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The Marshal Tank Destroyer
M-05 prototype
One of the most cost-effective as well as performance effective tank in theory for the Eastern front was the Marshal tank or in other words “Mareșal” tank destroyer. The tank was named after the Marshal of Romania Ion Antonescu during early 1944. Upon the victory of the Red Army at Stalingrad the tide of war has changed as the allies started, slowly but surely pushing the Germans back into their fatherland.
By 1942 the Soviet Union has integrated a new generation of tanks such as the T-34 (1942 model with 88mm gun) and the KV-1 which for the time was the heaviest tank preset in the eastern front with a frontal armor of 90mm. These Rusian tanks had replaced the BT-5 and other lightweight vehicles. These are the machines which helped the Red Army to push the axis back out of the motherland.
At the time Romania was still on the Axis side, therefore, they required a tank destroyer that would be cost-effective because of the weak economy of the country and have enough power to take out the new generation Russian tanks presented in the Eastern front. The task was given to the commandment of mechanized troops of Romania in partnership with German engineers.
Interesting enough the Marshal tank was an inspiration for the German Hetzer tank destroyer. The design is quite ingenious for the time being, in order to maintain a cost-effective factor the armor would only be 20mm thick in front and 10mm thick on the side and backside of the tank. However, the sloped armor at 50 degrees would make it very likely for shots to be bounced off and ricochet therefore giving the KV-1 and the T-34 a hard time to penetrate the tank, at least from the front.
A good tank destroyer does not require a large crew and in order to maintain the tank small enough for its cost-effectiveness, there were only 3 seats, one for the driver one for the reloader and the commander who would act also as the gunner. The main armament of the tank was a 75mm DT-UDR…
