A history of the Steyer, the Flak 103/38.
The Steyer was also manufactured as a light truck, that is the same bonnet and wheel, but with a truck type cab and a wooden drop sided cargo tray. This was the Steyer 1500/02, later in the war the vehicle was reclassified as a 2-ton vehicle and redesignated as Steyer 2000A.
The 3-cm Flak 103/38 was developed by taking the 3-cm 103 (the gun from the Kugelblitz) and fixing it into an off the shelf 2-cm Flak 38's carriage, and the addition of a large fixed magazine to house the 3-cm belted ammunition. It was dubbed the Fighter Bomber Scarer (Jaboschreck).
At this time the Germans had a vehicle known as the "Troop Air Defence Truck" which was the standard Opel blitz 3-ton truck, cut down, mounting the 2-cm Flak 38. A unique vehicle in the German air defence stable the truck has been stripped to a bare minimum for providing a mobile platform for the flak mount. Nothing interferes with the traverse of the gun, the cab has been cut down to the height of the bonnet (doors removed) and the same has happened to the wooden sides on the tray.
December 1944, an order was issued for the delivery of 1000 Flak 103/38's to be delivered by March 1945. The method of mobilising them was the Steyer 2000A in a similar configuration of the Opel above, that is cab and tray cut down to bonnet height with the 103/38 in the back.
So to summarise, it's a chopped up overloaded truck mounting a rigged gun/carriage, in the best German style.
It is a very hot looking Flak wagon, lean and mounting the gun with that great muzzle brake, Spielberger's 'Gepard' book has all the details.
There is some information that a number of older Bussing-NAG Type 900 tank transporters were converted in a similar manner to the Vomag 8.8cm trucks. They are supposed to have been used in Budapest at the time of fighting in that city.
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