the 88mm anti-everything gun

The Nashorn used the 88 mm Pak 43, the same used on the KingTiger. The Shell had twice the propellant than the 88 mm shell used by the Tiger l. Was the most Powerfull AT gun of war. A real Beast.

I can't remember how many times I've reread Panzer Aces, but Albert Ernst's story has always been my favorite.

I'd never heard of the Nashorn until now. Thanks for posting. From the old Aussie.

My Opa was a Panzerjager. He was in the 43rd Abteilung 1 company in the 8th Panzer Division. His vehicle was the Marder (which you can see in the opening scene of the video). He ended up in the Panzerjager IV L/70 towards the end of the war. He said his unit “borrowed” a Hetzer that never found its way home.

0:23 nashorn and marder in same frame ! Very cool to see

Patience was everything to that commander.

The Nashorn was built on the III/IV Geschützwagen (as was the Hummel ) which married parts from both vehicles to make it a Sonderkraftfahrzeug ( special purpose vehicle ).

The correct German pronunciation is “naz-horn”, which means “nose horn”, which is the German name for the rhinoceros. Yes, the Germans named it the rhinoceros, or rhino, presumably because the 88mm gun stuck out so far in front of the chassis. It could also have been because a charging rhino is so dangerous and deadly. Anyway, it is NOT pronounced like the English “sh” sound, as in “shape”.

We scale modelers thank you immensely.

Thank you for this very informative vid. Never knew much about the Nashorn, let alone the ace mentioned. Learned a lot. 👍

I've always thought these were some of the coolest tank destroyers of WWII.

Interesting and informative. Excellent photography job enabling viewers to better understand what/whom the orator was describing. Professional class A research project!!! Special thanks to the veteran tank crews. Sharing personal information/combat experiences making this documentary more authentic and possible. Fighting/perishing/surviving knowing certain death/debilitating wounds were often times possible. Yet still advanced forward regardless of the consequences. That's true grit style determination to succeed.

There was a lot of WWII footage here that I've never seen before and I've seen quite a bit. Well done.

Thanks for the Update

Did exactly this in a game of Squad Leader in the 80s... I took out a whole column of T-34s with my three Nashorn! It was a great game that one...

Thanks guys for making these great videos!

Never seen that footage of nashorn

Good to see some different/new footage of the Nashorn and other AFVs. Some channels keep rehashing the same tank footage (eg a field full of King Tigers on manoeuvres), whether it’s relevant to the narrative or not. Nice job here, although not so keen on the AI voiceover.

Such a great Channel here !

How a video with so much information even exsist is beyond me!! How the old Film and text became aviable is almost impossible!! So much details!!

Nashorn also took down the early deployed Pershing, just proves 88 was truly unrivaled at that time.

Great footage, awesome narration.

Prounced as Nas-horn vs Nash-orn.

Hummel and Nashorn An often forgotten Tank destroyer in ww2, overshadowed by something like Jagtiger, JagPanther and stugs

Fascinating documentary story-telling here OP, also I think the editing job is right on the money as well. And repeatedly during the war on the Ostfront, a smaller number of German tanks were able to run large formations of T-34's in circles and blow them up one by one... so seldom is there a flattering picture of the expertise of Russian tank units big or small. But the Russian T-34, while an excellent tank overall, had many designed in impediments for most of the war. Maybe one T-34 in 5 had a radio, the rest had to play follow the leader. Also in the T-34, the turret floor did not revolve with the turret. This meant every time the turret was turned, the commander and gunner remained stationary and had to scootch in their seats, all the while trying to load, aim and fire! The T-34 saved Russia but of course, it was far from perfect.

Insightful look into the deployment of early TD's.

Vitebsk, notable in my mind for two other things -- During World War II, the city came under Nazi German occupation (11 July 1941 - 26 June 1944). During Operation Barbarossa, 22,000 Jews, or 58% of Vitebsk's Jewish population, managed to successfully evacuate to the interior of the Soviet Union, thus saving themselves from the impending Holocaust. Much of the old city was destroyed in the ensuing battles between the Germans and Red Army soldiers. Most of the remaining local Jews perished in the Vitebsk Ghetto massacre of October 1941. The Soviets recaptured the city during the June 1944 Vitebsk-Orsha Offensive, as part of Operation Bagration. Also, Vitebsk is where the Red Army intelligence services first discovered German archives detailing the heroic defence by its garrison of the Brest Fortress --- which was one of the places that took the brunt of the opening offensive of Barbarossa. Previous to this STAVKA in Moscow was unaware that the Brest Fortress held out much longer than they had previously thought.

Great video 👍🏻

Albert Ernst would live to be 73, He passed away in 1986. Why do you not include this sort of information?

Great account of the battle!

Man these guys had balls of steel! To sit in there in an open top TD with the engine off while shells rain down. It's incredible that when a round penetrates a tank, not everyone will necessarily die and they can fight on. There is a movie called T-34 Iron Fury where a round goes through and kills the bow gunner but they get it together and fight on and win.

When well employed and with good tactics the Hornisse was an outstanding weapon.

Exciting narration had me in suspense.

Please observe is pronounced Nas-horn, not Nash-horn!!! Otherwise my favorite tank!!!

The long barreled 88mm on the Nashhorns, Kraut tank killers were absolutely lethal to all Allied tanks at what deadly out to 3 000 meters.

First shot kill from 1,800m. !!

I believe a Nashorn scored the only kill against a Pershing tank on the western front. Was early 1945.

Great job!

I can not imagine the cold, maybe they just got used to it after a while

The German was a excellent warrior with there technology and fighting nouse they were a good foe!

The tall siloette and thin Armor made it a dangerous vehicles in more than one way - the other dangerous thing was the 88/ l 71 gun - a real killer

Great video

Lesson learned. I been wondering why i had been so bad at WarThunder lately

Not like an Elephant, but like a Nashorn. ; )

It had a hybrid Panzer III/IV chassis. The Hummel (150 mm gun) used the same chassis.

"Those things could put a round in your hip pocket. ' a comment on the accuracy of the 88mm from an old fiend who had the extreme bad luck to be under fire from them.

God Bless Him!

Fun fact. The average lifespan of a Russian t-34 was not even one full tank of fuel. That's right, on average, t-34s were destroyed or incapacitated via breakdown on average before they consumed one full tank of diesel

I saw an 88 at the WWII museum, it was overwhelming.

Great footage. The only remark - Vitebsk was not a village but a medium-sized town by that time.

Vitebsk isn't a village. It's a town/city.

Flake 88 mm gun recorded a great and successfully printed finger designed gun during WW2

Interesting piece, even if the narration was awkward and poorly delivered. At least it was AI.

I wish I was half as much of a man as my grandfathers were

nice

Pz IV engine could not be described as powerful.....but great video 👏 with good narrative.

Fascinating account!!

"Unstoppable"? It is really light armoured and have a very high silhouette. They only had a chance at long range and/or in ambush position. Still a formidable weapon when used with its drawbacks in mind. There is one running Nashorn in the Netherlands (one of only three complete ones still existing).

It's not the Flak36/37 or Tiger 1's 88 mm, it's the Kwk43, like in the Jagdpanther or Königstiger

Great AFV but too few were made. Also had no overhead protection, the VT fuse in an artillery barrage would have been a serious emotional event for the crew.

I appreciate the work that people put into making these videos possible. My chief complaint is that I'm sick of AI voices. I would rather hear a human being fumble and bumble, delivering the best narration he/she can. Maybe other people will agree with me when I say a genuine effort sounds better than a computer. I would be happy to lend my voice.

just a small correction: Nashorn is the German name for rinoceros, and its pronounced nas horn, where letters s and h are pronounced distinguishly, and not as sh.

My grandfather died at Auschwitz. He fell out of the guard tower.

Fun fact: Michael Wittman’s Stug was nicknamed “buzzard” as well

A "prehistoric elephant" is called a mammoth (Mammut in German). A Nashorn (rhinoceros) is a contemporary animal. And "S" and "H" are always pronounced separately in German. What is "SH" in Englisch is spelled "SCH" in German.

The Nashorn has the longest tank kill record.

I would say the Nashorn resembles a triceratops rather than an elephant. Otherwise, excellent work.

My time to shine

It’s not NASH HORN, it’s NAS HORN, translated Nose Horn, the German word for Rhino.

Outstanding work. Shame the didn't have better leadership.

Strangely the Germans thought the Nashorn was not a Successful design, could have made thousands of em instead of big Cats.

Great video mate👍🇦🇺👍

When u as a WoT player find out the nashorn was actually an op tank😂

Monstro

A: What shall we call our new tank destroyer? Admittedly, it looks a bit like an elephant. B: Ok, then let's call it rhino.

There are several stories of Herr Ernst and his men .

Less than 500 Nashorn were ever produced. Like everything with late war Germany not enough produced, not enough spares, not enough fuel, not enough aircover. When knocked out or abandoned rarely recovered and lost.

wonder weapons.....even the MG42 was a wonder weapon of Arian Genius...Yamato Japanese are of ancient Arian Royal Pure Bloods

hell ya

Don't you mean prehistoric Rhino not Elephant?

Anyone else here love the Nashorn on World of Tanks? I did!

I like to see the white uniforms, they look cool and clean.

The Nashorn looked like an elephant.. which is odd for something called a Rhino.....

Vitebsk, one of the oldest and fourth-largest Belarus city (fouded 974 AD) is not a village, nor was in 1943.

I know that it is impossible to have actual film footage of thee encounters and it’s wonderful to having moving pictures suggesting the events unfolding but as the video can’t match the narrative and that the film used shows winter conditions followed immediately by non snowy footage, it does become a bit confusing. Full marks though for a well presented piece and thanks for making the effort to source the archives for the material shown.

They were the best

Nas - Horn.....Nose - horn....:)

Though their gun was awesome,they stood really unprotected to shelling or airbursts,and their armour could ony protect them from small infantry projectiles.Not a mean feat of courage.Distance and sloping was their main advantage.Very useful in open European plains.Mostly useless at close quarters.Can't but stand in awe to their courage,marksmanship and professionalism.

Naz-horn. As in "nose horn", their word for "rhinoceros". The Germans use "sch" to represent the sybillant sound like "Schule" or "Schuh" or "Schmuck"

At the start of video a t34 was running along it sounded like it was runing very smooth purring right along

Fantastic clip thanks, kind regards roy Bennett from Wollongong Australia

AI commentary ?

Very well documented, written and synchronised with pictures ! You would have been hired by one of propaganda reals, depending on your nationality. Congratulation for good job !

Nas-Horn

I mistook this thing as a mobile howitzer cause it looks like the Hummel

Trivia: "Nashorn" is German for "rhino". Get it? One big horn sticking out the front to hurt people.

Ernst's feat in here is featured in PSX game Panzer Front. You can play as him (Falken Unit) with the Adler/Eagle unit, although the Buzzard is nowhere to be found.

“The Importance of being Ernst”

I suspect the success of these Nshorns led to developing the Jagdpanther