Sd.Kfz. 251

Sd.Kfz. 251
Sd.Kfz. 251/1 Ausf. A armoured personnel carrier. Unter den Linden, Berlin, 1 January 1940
Type	Half-track armored personnel carrier
Place of origin	Nazi Germany
Service history
In service	1939–1945
Used by	Nazi Germany Kingdom of Romania Kingdom of Hungary Italian Social Republic French Army Independent State of Croatia Czechoslovak Army Yugoslav People's Army
Wars	World War II
Production history
Designer	Hanomag
Designed	1937–1938
Manufacturer	Hanomag, Adlerwerke, Horch, Škoda, Borgward
Unit cost	22,560 ℛ︁ℳ︁
No. built	Approx. 15,252
Specifications
Mass	7.81 tonnes (8.61 short tons)
Length	5.80 metres (19 ft 0 in)
Width	2.10 metres (6 ft 11 in)
Height	1.75 metres (5 ft 9 in)
Crew	2 crew+10 passengers
Armor	6–14.5 millimetres (0.24–0.57 in)
Main armament	MG 34/42
Engine	one Maybach HL42 6-cylinder petrol engine 100 metric horsepower (99 hp)
Power/weight	12.8 hp/tonne
Suspension	Overlapping torsion bar (track) Leaf spring (wheels)
Operational range	300 kilometres (190 mi)
Maximum speed	52.5 kilometres per hour (32.6 mph)

The Sd.Kfz. 251 (Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251) half-track was a World War II German armored personnel carrier designed by the Hanomag company, based on its earlier, unarmored Sd.Kfz. 11 vehicle. The Sd.Kfz. 251 was designed to transport the Panzergrenadier (German mechanized infantry) into battle. Sd.Kfz. 251s were the most widely produced German half-tracks of the war, with at least 15,252 vehicles and variants produced by seven manufacturers. The utility of this vehicle led the German Army to develop the similar looking but shorter and lighter Sd.Kfz. 250 as a supplement.

Some sources state that the Sd.Kfz. 251 was commonly referred to simply as "Hanomags" by both German and Allied soldiers after the manufacturer of the vehicle;^[1] this has been questioned, and may have been only a postwar label.^[2][3] German officers referred to them as SPW (Schützenpanzerwagen, or armored infantry vehicle) in their daily orders and memoirs.