page_title: Marder I
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Marder I / Development
context_page_description: The Marder I "Marten" 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, a French artillery tractor/armoured personnel carrier of which the Germans had acquired more than three hundred after the Fall of France in 1940.
context_section_description: The Marder I was developed in May 1942 by Major Alfred Becker.  It carried the 75 mm PaK 40 anti-tank gun on a Lorraine chassis.  As the gun was relatively large, the original crew compartment superstructure was removed to create the space needed to work the gun.  This was done at Baustokommando Becker.  The gun was then mounted atop the chassis. Alkett, working in conjunction with Becker, produced the angled armour shielding for the crew compartment. The shielding was relatively light, and was open from above.  The shielding provided the crew with protection from blast and small arms fire, but was not intended to stop armour piercing rounds. The vehicle's primary function was to provide mobility to the anti-tank gun. It was not intended as a replacement for a tank.
  Between July and August 1942, 170 Marder I's were built on the Lorraine chassis.  Later, several other French and Polish tanks were used as the conversion base for the Marder I, including the Hotchkiss H39 and FCM 36. These conversions were also completed at Baustokommando Becker, though fewer of these were built. The Marder Is initially served in infantry divisions on the Eastern Front and met with good success. They later made up a significant component of the armoured fighting vehicles of the reformed 21st Panzer Division in Normandy.
caption: Marder I of the 21st Panzer in Normandy, converted from Hotchkiss, 1944.
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