Trumpeter 09538 Sd.Kfz.8 (DB9) Half-Track Artillery Tractor

Sd.Kfz. 8 (German: Sonderkraftfahrzeug 8) was a German half-track transporter from the Second World War. The first prototypes were built in 1934, and serial production continued in the years 1937-1945, ending with the production of about 4,000 copies of this vehicle. The drive was provided by a single engine Maybach HL 85 TUKRM with 185 HP. Sd.Kfz. 8 did not have fixed armament as standard.

First work on the progenitor of Sd.Kfz. 8 took place at the beginning of the 1930s at the Military Automotive Department. Later, they were transferred to the Daimler-Benz company, which in 1934 developed the first prototypes, but it was not until 1936 that a version was developed, which became the basis for serial production. The Sd.Kfz vehicle. 8 was characterized by the possibility of transporting up to 12 soldiers, good terrain properties and high mobility. In the German armed forces, it was most often an artillery tractor for heavy artillery, for example: the 15 cm Kanone 18 cannon or the 10.5 cm FlaK 38 anti-aircraft gun. Ten transporters of this type were armed with FlaK 18 guns and turned them into mobile anti-tank artillery. They took part in the fighting in Poland, France (1940) and in the initial period of the war with the USSR (1941). Sd.Kfz cars. 8 were used on all fronts of World War II in 1939-1945, both by the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe.