Source: Author's collection
Most likely a publicity photograph, one gets a good view of the business end of a Bundeswehr Panzerhaubitze M109G self-propelled gun (SPG). Between 1964 and 1972, the Bundeswehr purchased a mixture of M109A1 and M109A2 SPGs from the United States. In two waves, the SPGs were sent to Rheinmetall AG who performed a myriad of improvements and adaptations to make them suitable for German service. The original 155mm howitzer was replaced with a Rheinmetall version which featured a new barrel, fume extractor, two-chamber muzzle brake, and a flat wedge breech block. The exterior appearance of the new gun still bore a resemblance to the original M109's short M126 155mm howitzer. The panoramic telescope and sighting scope were replaced with German optics while the M109G's commander was provided with a cupola and vision blocks taken directly from the M113 armored personnel carrier which was in use by the Bundeswehr. Other changes included replacing the 12.7mm M2 heavy machine-gun with the German built 7.62mm Maschinengewehr 3 (MG 3) and fitting German smoke grenade dischargers to the turret front.
The M109G had a crew of six which consisted of the commander, driver, gunner, two loaders, and two ammunition handlers. The M109G was powered by a 450hp Detroit Diesel 8V71T turbo 8-cylinder, water-cooled engine paired with a 6-speed (4 forward, 2 reverse gears) Allison XTG-411-4A hydro-mechanical manual transmission. This was enough to move the M109G along at a top speed of 35mph with an operational range of 216 miles. The German howitzer had a maximum range of a little over 11 miles and a trained gun crew could sustain a rate of fire of one round every minute. The need for four men to feed the gun was due to the ammunition coming in two separate components; the shell and the bagged powder charge. Because of this, the M109G was only able to carry 28 rounds and thus relied on ammunition carriers to resupply it in the field as the onboard ammunition could be easily expended in a short period of time. Thus, having the extra hands allowed the M109G to be quickly replenished from ammunition carriers.
As the M109G continued in service, it received one major upgrade in the early 1980s and that was to the M109A3GA1 standard. The gun was replaced with a longer barreled howitzer derived from the towed Feldhaubitze FH155-1 (which gave a maximum range of 15 miles), onboard ammunition capacity was increased to 35 rounds, IFAB (Integrierte Feuerleitmittel Artillerie Batterie) fire control system integration was added, and the installation of the AURORA (Autonome Richt- und Orientierungsaustattung Rohrartillerie; Autonomous Straightening and Orientation Equipment, Tube Artillery) targeting system enhanced the strike capability of the M109A3GA1. By the 1990s, the M109G was being phased out and replaced with the Panzerhaubitze 2000 but it was seen that the PzH 2000 would not be available in enough numbers to quickly replace the M109G and so 262 of the M109A3GA1 were given a further upgrade to the M109A3GEA2 standard. This included expanding the IFAB capability, improving the communication equipment, and incorporating the M109 into the ADLER (Artillerie-, Daten-, Lage- und Einsatz-Rechnerverbund; Artillery, Data, Situation and Deployment Computer Network) system. The ADLER system is a radio assisted artillery command, control, and weapon deployment network. To ease the burden of the loaders and ammunition handlers, a lifting aid and automatic loader was fitted but proved unreliable and so they were often disabled by the crew. The M109 was finally retired from German service in mid-2007.
The content on the left side of the lower hull is the military symbology for the M109G's unit. The rectangle, called the frame in military terms, represents a unit. The squashed oval with the dot in the center represents a self-propelled howitzer or gun. The line to the right of the oval represents “gun system equipped” while the little line on top of the frame designates a battery. The number 4 is the battery the M109G belongs to while the 145 designates the battalion the battery belongs to. Thus, the unit would the 4. Batterie, Artillerielehrbataillon 145. This unit is no longer in existence with the current artillery units being Artillerielehrbataillon 131, Artillerielehrbataillon 295, Artillerielehrbataillon 325, and Artillerielehrbataillon 345. With the exception of Artillerielehrbataillon 295 (which is under the Franco-German Brigade), the other units are division level assets.
