Assault gun

[4] Although they could approximate the firepower of a tank, assault guns mostly fired high explosive shells at relatively low velocities, which were well suited for their role of knocking out hard points such as fortified positions and buildings.

[6] The United States never developed a purpose-built assault gun during the war, although it did modify preexisting armored fighting vehicles for that role, including the M4 Sherman (as the M4(105)), the M5 Stuart (as the M8 Scott), and the M3 half-track (as the T19 Howitzer Motor Carriage).

[10] In Soviet and Eastern European armies, the traditional assault gun was primarily superseded by tank destroyers, such as the SU-100, which is capable of supporting either infantry or armor.

[8] Since the 1980s, the multi-purpose assault gun concept has seen a resurgence, mainly in the form of turreted wheeled designs, such as the South African Rooikat and Italian B1 Centauro.

Early in the war, the Germans began to create makeshift assault guns by mounting their infantry support weapons on the bed of a truck or on obsolete tanks with the turret removed.

[11] Independent battalions were also deployed as "stiffeners" for infantry divisions, and the StuG III's anti-tank capabilities bolstered dwindling tank numbers on the Eastern and Western fronts.

US and UK forces also deployed vehicles designed for a close support role, but these were conventional tanks whose only significant modification was the replacement of the main gun with a howitzer.

The AVRE version of the Churchill tank was armed with a spigot mortar that fired a 40 lb (18 kg) HE-filled projectile (nicknamed the Flying Dustbin) 150 yards (140 m).

The Soviets went on to develop an improved airdroppable assault gun, the ASU-85, which served through the 1980s, while their SU-100 remained in service with Communist countries, including Vietnam and Cuba, years after World War II.