Polizei-Panzerkampfwagen ADGZ in the Sudetenland |
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The Polizei-Panzerkampfwagen ADGZ was an Austrian designed heavy armoured car that was used German police in Danzig in 1939 and then by the SS on the Eastern Front from 1942.
Work on the ADGZ began at Austro-Daimler in 1931, but the project was taken over by 1934. It was produced for the Austrian Army as the M-35, and twenty seven were delivered in 1935-37. It was an eight wheeled armoured car, powered by a 150hp Austro-Daimler 6-cylinder petrol engine. The superstructure had sloped armoured which was 11mm thick all round. It had a somewhat unusual arrangement of wheels, with single wheels on the front and rear and pairs of wheels on the second and third axles. It was armed with one 2cm cannon and one 7.92mm machine gun in a turret and two more machine guns in the hull. It was almost symmetrical to the front and back, with the turret centrally mounted. Only the extra space needed for the rear mounted engine made it clear which end was which.
Fourteen ADGZ armoured cars were taken over by the Germans after the Anschluss in 1938 and used by the SS and the police. These vehicles were used by police detachments in Danzig in September 1939, at the start of the invasion of Poland
Another batch of twenty five vehicles was ordered by Himmler and delivered early in 1942. These vehicles went to the SS and were used to fight partisans behind the Eastern Front. None remained in combat by 1944 and the surviving vehicles were used for training.
Stats
Production:
Hull Length: 6260mm
Hull Width: 2160mm
Height: 2560mm
Crew: 6
Weight: 12 tonnes
Engine: 150hp Austro-Daimler M612 6-cylinder petrol engine
Max Speed: 70km/ hr
Max Range: 400km (road), 225km (terrain)
Armament: One 2cm KwK 35 L/45, two or three 7.92mm MG 34
Armour: 11mm
German Half-Tracks and Wheeled Vehicles 1939-1945, Alexander Lüdeke.
Looks at the armoured cars and half-tracks used by the German Army before and during the Second World War, focusing on the development and technical descriptions of each type and its major variants. Each type gets one or two pages, supported by photos of the vehicle. A useful short reference book on these essential vehicles, covering both the many types developed in Germany and the smaller number of captured vehicles pressed into service. [read full review]
Polizei-Panzerkampfwagen ADGZ from the front