Danielmellbin
Airman 1st Class
- 122
- Jun 22, 2008
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Eerr, it's lighter than the Chaffee by some 3 tons Juha...
Sorry Daniel but it is a tank, anything that is tracked and with armour a gun is a tank. There's a reason it's called a Jagdpanzer
As defined a tank is an armoured fighting vechicle on tracks, nothing more.
The Hetzer could was used as infantry support as-well.
As for recon work, well do you need a 75mm cannon for that ? No, it is then better to have a fast firing 20 - 40mm auto cannon and some MG's. The 75mm gun is too slow firing.
And ideal light recon tank would be the Pzkpfw. II Ausf.L Luchs with its 20mm KwK38 L/55 auto cannon firing at a very fast (for a cannon) 280 rpm, and then 2x MG-34's. It weighed a mere 11 tons and had a very fast 60km/h top speed. A much better recon vehicle than the M24 Chaffee.
Yea - however - with only one remotecontrolled machinegun and very poor visibility it cannot have been a role it excelled at. All in all it was a tank detroyer not a light tank - same as a Jagdpanzer IV was not medium tank or a Jagdtiger was not a heavy tank.
On the other point - yup - that was my primary reason for choosing the pzkw II - but people might argue that the Pz38t and Chaffee would be more likely to get out of a run in with enemy armour.