Another great thread Panzerknacker!
Looking forward to the rest on the Panzer III,the work horse for most of the war for the Germans!
Thank you, thank you.
Ausf F.
The following variant was in fact no much different of the early E. The main advantage was the finally the later tanks had the 50 mm L/42. Unfortunately of the Panzerwaffe, none of the 50mm armed tank were available for the “fall Gelbe” operation, invation of France campaing.
The 50 mm tank had one of its coaxial MG 34 removed.
Ausf G.
Variant introduced in October 1940. Standarization of the 50mm gun and the emplacement ( not always) of smoke dischagers in turret sides.
The base 30mm armor was reinforced with aditional 20 mm thick plates in front turret and glacis, plus 20mm spaced “vorpanzer” in the drivers/ mg gunner front.
Good close up to the aditional armor.
Inside turret, view from the loader seat. ( the loader in the german tanks seated at the right of the gun, so he need to use its left hand to guide projectiles into the chamber)
The tank carried 99 cartrigdes for the 50 L42 gun, 3700 for the 2 MG 34 and 320 for 9mm submachinegun.
Models ausf E, F and G were mostly manufactured by MAN, Henschel, MIAG and Daimler Benz.
What does that have to so with anything up there?
You…
Firepower of the K.w.K 50 mm.
Penetration table for the “short” L42 gun. The muzzle velocity of the panzergranate 39 Armor Piercing balistic caped high explosive tracer was 690 meters per second.
Fortunately for the Panzerwaffe there was still a good provition of tugsten core ammo, The panzergranate 40 APCR-T ammunition left the barrel at 940 meters per second and that kind of ammunition amounted for the 25% of the magazine in the Panzer III.
View of the KwK L42, note the spent case bag and the coaxial MG34. the breech was semiautomatic, meaning that it automatically opens after the shot cocking the firing pin and it closes when the cartrigde is introduced.
Image of the cartrigde used by KwK 50mm L42. The case was aproximately 290 mm long. Projectile weight varied between 1,15 to 1,4 kg.
This 50mm round really looks mingy if compared with a 75mm or even the 88mm shells.
Tauchpanzer III
The preparation in late 1940 for the invation of the UK involved the modification of several tank for special purposes.
The tauchpanzer III was intended to operate up to 15 meters deep, air was supplied by a floating snorkel attached to a hose. The tank was fully sealed by inflatable rubber joints. It was succesfully tested ( there was some minor leaks buty nothing important) in late 1940 and early 1941.
After the cancellation of the Operation Sealion the Tauchpanzers were directed to the East.
2 more photos of the Tauchpanzer III, the color pic is of a tank crossing the river Bug in the Polish-Soviet border june 1941.
PzKpfw III Ausf G/H mit Schachtellaufwerk
The german tongue breaking word “schachtellaufwerk” indicates that this small series of tanks had an interleaved roadwheel suspension. That teorically saved material ( the return rollers were deleted) and improve the tank speed over bad terrain.
Some internal components of the tank were new, like panzer IV final drive and transmition.
There are several sources wich asignated to this model the name “panzer III/IV” but that is incorrect, the pz III/IV was a chassis, not a tank, used in the Hummel, Nashorn, Versuchsflakwagen and some other prototipes.
This variant is also know as “panzer III with FAMO suspension” wich is a bit more accurate because the interleaved wheels were in fact developed by the firm FAMO, but the tank was not manufactured by this factory.
Between 20 to 25 tanks were manufactered between 1941-42, most of them remained in Germany for troop training, a small batch was send to the eastern front where it proved to have an excellent mobility but the short L42 gun was no more suitable for that teather of Operations.
Here you can see a PzKpfw III / Ausf. L [you see the pistol self-defense openings beside the storage box on the turret] behind a Tiger tank [note the barbed wire to the sides of the Tiger - i got some more pictures] at the Eastern Front.
A Pz III / Ausf. M from the 11. PzRgt 6 at Kursk
The same tank - the Pz III Flamm in real
A Pz III / Ausf. L in Afrika
Pz III / Ausf. D in Afrika
A impact of a boys projectile at the commanders cuppola of a Pz III
Eastern Front - Near Karkov?
Pz III’s with Tigers
A PZ III of the ‘Das Reich’ Division
On the grill 
That picture is one of my favorites of the PzKpfw III.
(In case it doesn’t upload, it’s the top pic in post #31)
BTW…those are some nice pictures you added there Splinter…thanks.
Yeah.
The Panzer III, Ausf. L in the fist picture looks kind of like a Panzer IV…
Yup!
6+2=8 Road wheels+ engine deck+ exhaust & muffler system+ double door turret access hatches= PZKFW IV F1
Paul
Very good gallery, thank you. Quite lucky the german panzer commander in not being killed by the Boys shot.
Pz III / Ausf. D in Afrika
Ausf N actually.
2 more images
Panzer III with interleaved roadwheels cleaning up rubble in Berlin.
Daimler Benz production line, june 1940
Panzerknacker, do you know of any reason that they (Germans) didn’t implement the use of the FAMO suspension on the PzKpfw III? If it had better performance as your earlire post suggested. Or why they didn’t use it on the PzKpfw IV?
I am not quite sure, maybe they prefered to concentrate money expenditure in improve the gun and armor, and not the suspension.
The same goes for the Panzer IV, and the panzer IV did need more desperately a better suspension because it used simple leafsprings, wich gave a hard ride above bad terrain. 2 prototipes of the panzer IV were equipped with Schachtellaufwerk.
