Jagdpanzer IV

[[ The Jagdpanzer IV was the German response to the more widespread introduction of both allied tank destroyers and heavy Soviet tanks. It was a solid design and resembled in many ways the Stug and Hetzer assault guns.

IRL

The Jagdpanzer was ordered in the wake of the Battle of Stalingrad, because apparently winning that battle was a strategic concern and not a giant ego fest (it actually was a strategic issue, taking Stalingrad would have given the Germans control of the Volga River and cut Russia off from its primary oilfields in the Caucasus). The new design called for a fuck ton of armor and 7.5 cm AT cannon like the ones mounted on the Panzer V. The solution? Modify a Panzer IV chassis, eliminate the turret, install a gun into the hull, strengthen the armor, rework the internal design, and boom! New tank! Oh, and don't forget the Coaxial MG34 to prevent soldiers from zerg rushing you.

Surprisingly, the Jagdpanzer IV performed well, despite the efforts of Hitler, who insisted it needed a bigger gun for some fucking reason, because apparently a gun that can utterly destroy everything short of heavy tanks wasn't good enough. Some of its advantages were its low profile, armor, and gun. Given that the war was no longer so much about maneuvering as slowing the Soviets down by any means possible, the gun was not the worst problem.

Funnily enough, despite being explicitly designed to replace the StuG III as an assault gun, the Jagdpanzer IV was a terrible assault gun. Heinz Guderian, perhaps one of the more competent German generals, hated the design because it screwed with his ability to continue production on Panzer IVs and saw it as a waste of resources. Though he was probably just butthurt that his pet project the Panzer IV was being converted from regal and proper tanks into MEHTAL BAWKSES with phallicly large guns.