Alfred Becker
Alfred Becker was a German engineer and artillery officer who served during the First and Second World Wars. During the Second World War he took captured British and French vehicles and refurbished and rebuilt them to supply the German army with armoured fighting vehicles. With his engineering and organizational skills, he converted the Hotchkiss plant on the outskirts of Paris into a vehicle modification and fabrication center. He used the vehicles to motorize German guns, rocket launchers and mortars. Working with Altmärkische Kettenwerk Gmbh, steel shielding was shipped from Germany to armour the vehicles. The men from his artillery command did the metal work and conversion on 1,800 recovered vehicles.
During the winter of 1943-44 Becker's work focused on equipping the 21st Panzer Division. He used the tracked carriages of French light tanks to mobilize the 7.5 cm Pak 40 anti-tank gun and the 10.5 cm leFH 18 howitzer. Becker had the tank turrets removed, mounted the guns upon the chassis and placed steel plates around the crew compartment to give them some measure of protection. The vehicles were formed into a fire support unit, the Sturmgeschütz Abteilung 200. Becker was made the commander of this motorized assault gun battalion, and led the unit during the battles in Normandy. Some of Becker's unit escaped the encirclement at Falaise and they retreated across France and into Belgium. Becker was captured in Alsace on the French/German border in December 1944.
First World War
Becker was born and raised in Krefeld. At the outset of The Great War, Becker volunteered at the age of 15. He served in the artillery and became an officer. He was awarded the Iron Cross for his actions at Verdun and again at Cambrai. He was injured by poison gas a few weeks before the end of the war.Interwar period
Following the armistice Becker attended university and earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering. He worked as a designer in the textile industry and was co-owner of the company Volkmann & Company in Krefeld. He also formed a small manufacturing firm, Alfred Becker AG of Bielefeld.World War II
Battery chief
On 28 August 1939 Becker was called up to serve in the 227th Infantry Division "Rhine-Westphalian", drawn from the Krefeld area during the 3rd wave mobilization. Becker was made an officer in the division's 15th Artillery Regiment, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Edgar Feuchtinger. He was rapidly promoted to the rank of captain and made Batterychief of Battery #12. When Germany invaded Poland the 227th Infantry Division was on the western frontier with the 5th Army performing border protection in the Eifel region, near Belgium.In December 1939 Becker's division was reassigned and became a part of Army Group B under command of Generalfeldmarshall Fedor von Bock, in preparation for Fall Gelb. Becker's artillery regiment was re-numbered the 227th Artillery Regiment. On 10 May 1940 the division engaged in the offensive into the Netherlands and Belgium as part of the 18th Army. Becker's artillery battery provided fire support as the division made its way through Enschede and Deventer. All the guns in Becker's artillery regiment were pulled by horse drawn limbers and caissons, the standard practice for infantry divisions of the Heer. Becker's division reached the Grebbe line, where it was held up for three days. An attack on 13 May supported by artillery fire was unable to break the line. That night the Dutch forces withdrew under the cover of night. When the 227th went in to resume the attack the next morning they found the positions abandoned. Becker and the 227th crossed the Leie and continued the advance, taking Amersfoort just before the Dutch capitulation on 19 May 1940.
While his unit was at Amersfoort Becker came across the abandoned motor transport of a well-equipped Dutch artillery regiment. There were a large number of heavy vehicles which he believed he could use. To pull the artillery pieces, a battery such as Becker's depended on the use of 126 horses. To replace them, Becker chose the large wheeled Brossel TAL artillery lorry. Becker used other captured Belgian trucks to motorize the field piece transport of his division's reconnaissance battalion, thereby increasing this unit's mobility as well. The limbers were left behind, and later transported to France by rail. Motorizing the transport for his battery made it far more mobile, allowing his battery to keep up with the advance of the division's lead elements.
Early conversions
Following the German victory in France in July 1940 the 227th Division was assigned occupation, security and coastal defense duties along the Normandy coast near Le Havre. There Becker came across many discarded British light tanks and light personnel carriers. After achieving improved mobility by use of motor tractors, Becker considered the benefits that could be derived from mounting the guns directly onto the abandoned motorized carriages. Becker selected the light but reliable British Light Tank Mk.VI, more than 300 of which had been left behind, for the undercarriage. The design of this British light tank made them suitable for use as artillery self-propelled guns, since the motor, transmission, steering assembly and drive wheels were all grouped together in the front of the chassis, leaving the rear of the vehicle available for the gun and crew. The superstructure and turret of the tanks were removed, replaced by the installation of an artillery gun. The vehicle used a four-man crew.Though the men in his battery had occupation duties, like Becker they were from Krefeld, an area with a strong manufacturing heritage. Many of his men had worked in manufacturing jobs and were skilled metal workers. Recruiting the men of his battery and working by shift day and night, he set about his project. Becker had the machine gun turret removed and mounted a 10.5 cm leFH 16 howitzer upon the chassis. The lightweight chassis of the Mk VI did not provide much mass to act as a counter to the heavy gun. To stabilize the howitzer when firing, Becker arrived at the solution to direct the recoil forces to the ground through a lowered rear spur. Becker's personal relationship with Deutsche Edelstahlwerke Gmbh in Krefeld secured the 20 mm thick armor plates used to protect the crew compartment. In six months his unit succeeded in creating a complete battery, mobilizing twelve of the battalion's 10.5 cm leFH 16 howitzers to make the 10.5 cm leFH 16 Geschützwagen Mk VI 736, and he mounted six of the larger 15 cm sFH 13 guns on a larger chassis. In addition, he built twelve munitions-carrying versions of the Mk.VI, several munitions-carrying versions of the Bren gun carrier and four armoured command tank versions of the Mk. VI.
By mobilizing his guns Becker had built the first battery of self-propelled artillery. This marked the start of a development that led to the creation of a separate tank artillery, and was a significant contribution to the further development of the panzer division. The battery's initial test firing was done at the range at Harfleur near Le Havre, France. The complete battery was tested at the training grounds at Beverloo, Belgium. For his work on mobilizing the artillery pieces Becker was awarded the German Cross in Gold.
In June 1941 the German army invaded Soviet Russia. In September Becker and his 227th Infantry Division were transferred to Army Group North. His was the only infantry division on the Eastern Front to have a motorized artillery battery. By December the division had become involved in fighting near Leningrad. Becker's homemade self-propelled guns of the 12th Battery proved successful. Due to its mobility, Becker's unit was used as a fire brigade to reinforce areas that were in distress.
Over the course of the campaign it became apparent that German infantry formations had great difficulty defending against Soviet tank attacks. The standard anti-tank gun in use, the 3.7 cm Pak 36, did not have the penetrative power to stop the larger Soviet tanks, and the high mobility of the Soviet tank forces made it difficult to get the higher caliber weapons to where they were needed. Alkett had earlier made a conversion vehicle when they mounted a 4,7 cm Pak anti-tank gun on a French Renault R35 chassis, and from May to October in 1941 had produced 174 of these Panzerjäger Geschützwagen. They also used the Renault R35 to produce the Führungsfahrzeuge ausgeliefert, which simply was the R35 with the turret removed to make a tractor. They produced 26 units of the tractor version.
Becker was ordered back from the east front to the Alkett company to consider a means by which they might mobilize the 7.5 cm Pak 40 anti-tank gun. Becker and the Alkett consultants worked closely together on the solution of the overall concept. Among the vehicles they considered for the project was the French built Lorraine tractor, about 360 of which had fallen into German hands. Due to its reliability, the Lorraine was well suited to the maneuver warfare battles the Germans favoured. The captured tractors had been first used by the Germans to pull artillery pieces, and were renamed the Lorraine Schlepper. These tractors provided the German army with a fully tracked vehicle to carry supplies or tow artillery pieces. Such a vehicle was badly needed due to the extremely poor road conditions in Russia, all the more so as the Germans had not yet produced such a vehicle themselves. The Lorraine chassis looked to be a good choice, as unlike German tank designs, the engine in the Lorraine was housed in the front of the vehicle, leaving the rear portion open for the housing and operation of the gun.
On 25 May 1942 a presentation of a self-propelled gun based on the Lorraine tractor was made. The presentation was successful and the decision made that all 160 Lorraine tractors still available should be converted into self-propelled guns, with 60 of them mounting the 7.5 cm Pak 40. On 4 June 1942, a final decision was made by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel on the 78 Lorraine tractors repaired at the HKP Bielitz, and another 24 tractors were released for mounting of the 7.5 cm Pak 40. This became the Marder I tank hunter that was used initially to provide a mobile anti-tank defense for infantry divisions in the east.
In August 1942, one of the Becker-designed vehicles was withdrawn at the request of the German Army High Command, the Oberkommando des Heeres, and shipped to Berlin. On 2 September 1942 it was presented in the garden of the Reich Chancellery by Becker and one of his crews to Adolf Hitler and officers in charge of the Army Ordnance Office. The demonstration was a success. The OKH chose Alkett in Berlin-Spandau to create more of these self-propelled artillery pieces. The Army Ordnance Department had made use of the Alkett plant in Berlin for this kind of work previously due to their manufacturing flexibility and workers skilled in solving problems in tank construction. Becker was transferred to this company and given access to their experience and expertise.
Becker's assignment at Alkett was to create mobile field pieces for Rommel in North Africa. The battles of the open desert placed a premium on mobility. Becker chose the French Lorraine Schlepper ammunition carriers as the platform for a self-propelled 150 mm sFH 18 heavy field howitzer. The Lorraine chassis, with its forward engine design, lent itself to this conversion. This vehicle, known then as 15 cm sFH13/1 auf Geschützwagen Lorraine Schlepper, met with great approval from the OKH. The vehicles were shipped to North Africa for use with the Afrika Korps.
After Becker had completed this project he was ordered by Hitler to return to France, take an inventory of all remaining British and French armored vehicles, and determine if they were suitable for German requirements. He was then to collect them and convert them to practical German use. The order required Becker to create enough usable equipment to form "at least" two panzer divisions.