a Syrian Hummel - who else could'a used these - Africa ?
Foreign use of the Hummel was extremely limited. During WWII the Soviet Union deployed captured vehicles. Post-war only two nations are known to have acquired the gun, Romania (a single chassis with an inoperable weapon) and Syria (five, captured guns received from France).
Romania received one unit from the Red Army after the war ended. This was assigned to the 2nd Armoured Regiment with its military registration number as U069009. It was officially known as the Hummel TAs self-propelled gun in the army's inventory. The gun could not be used because it was missing the breech's lock.[3] It was showcased to the public in a military parade in Bucharest of 10 May 1946 with Romanian markings. All German armour in Romania was later phased out in 1950 and finally scrapped by 1954, the army deciding on the sole use of Soviet tanks and armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) instead.
Syria received five Hummel from France between the late 1940s and the early 1950s. Only a limited supply of main gun ammunition was provided (supplemented some time later by the Soviet Union, which had produced a sizeable quantity of compatible 150mm rounds domestically). These saw service against Israel up until the 1960s and all were most likely scrapped shortly afterwards. Are we playing by Historical Constraints? If so except for Portugal, there were no African countries that operated the 15 cm sFH 18 and most of Africa was still within the Western European sphere immediately post-WW2. Missing the breach block, only folks who already operated the 15 cm sFH 18 guns would find this of trade interest.
The Soviets could have sent a couple of their Hummels to North Korea along with their 15cm guns and the only reason we don't know about that could be that the flatbed rail cars they were on were obliterated by a B-29 raid.
Romania dumped their German ordnance by 1954. Guatemala was buying up Czech ordnance depot sweepings right up until 1954, when the CIA put the kybosh on all of that. The Romanians could have had their Hummel already loaded on a freighter and then diverted it. But to who?
https://countrystudies.us/romania/56.htmFinland was a post-war user of the Mk IV Panzer, so that's a no-brainer. Finland trades whatever they had for export then - reindeer meat, pine products, ad nauseum. Finland also had 48 of the same guns as mounted on the Hummel. Might even have a camo pattern like this -
So would Bulgaria, as a long range fires bunker on the Turkish border set behind their screen of dug-in Mk IVs. The Bulgarians used those 15cm guns.
After 1945, Bulgaria incorporated its surviving Panzer IVs into defensive bunkers as strongpoints along its border with Turkey, along with Soviet T-34 turrets. This defensive line, known as the "Krali Marko Line", remained in use until the fall of communism in 1989
A Bulgarian Bunker Hummel could leave you with a spare MkIV chassis to play with as 'something else'.
