The Marder I "Marten" (Sd.Kfz. 135) was a German World War II tank destroyer, armed with a 75 mm Pak-40 anti-tank gun. Most Marder Is were built on the base of the Tracteur Blindé 37L (Lorraine), a French artillery tractor/armoured personnel carrier of which the Germans had acquired more than three hundred after the Fall of France in 1940. History From the early stages of Operation Barbarossa the Wehrmacht became aware that their ability to combat some of the Soviet tanks was inadequate. The lighter tanks then in general service, such as the Panzer II and the Czech built 38(t), were under-armoured and did not mount an adequate gun to deal with the newer Soviet tanks. In addition, the standard towed anti-tank gun of the Wehrmacht, the 37 mm 3.7 cm Pak 36, was both difficult to get into position quickly and lacked the ability to penetrate the heavy sloped armour of the new Soviet tanks. What was needed was a more powerful anti-tank gun that was mobile. The Germans possessed such a gun in the 75 mm 7.5 cm Pak 40. They also had come into possession of a large number of captured Soviet 76 mm F-22 Model 1936 divisional field guns. The Germans had experience in taking the chassis of an under-gunned tank to provide mobility to a heavier gun. The Panzerjäger I is such an example, where the turret was removed for an open conversion to allow the gunners the necessary room to operate the gun. With the shock of having units overrun by new Soviet T-34 medium tanks and KV-1 heavy tanks, the need for a heavier-gunned German tank became urgent. As an interim solution, it was decided to use captured French vehicles such as the Lorraine, and less effective German tanks such as the Panzer II and Panzer 38(t) as the basis for makeshift tank destroyers. The result was the Marder series, comprising the Marder I, Marder II, and Marder III respectively. These vehicles provided mobility to either the 7.62 cm Pak 36(r) (a conversion of the 76 mm F-22 Model 1936) gun or in later versions the German 7.5 cm Pak 40 anti-tank gun. Due to the weight and space constraints of the small chassis, the Marder series were not fully armoured. Thin upper armour protection was provided only for the front and sides against shrapnel and small arms only. All Marder series had