No, sorry.
This pic was taken in a Rhein/Ruhr Area city
Oh… Well then - what actually we had down there in the Ruhrgebiet during the WW2 connected with the armored vehicles production? If I remembered that well, Deutsche Eisenwerke AG at Duisburg had there truly disproportionate concentration of armored vehicles production - Sturmpanzer IV Brummbär (Sd.Kfz.166), [i]Flakpanzer IV Möbelwagen /i, 15cm Schwere Panzerhaubitze Hummel (Sd. Kfz. 165)… just to mention some well known examples. 
If our mysterious production facility really was located there… well, then my next guessing will be that we are observing a welding procedure of the Sturmpanzer IV Brummbär. 
Sturmpanzer IV Brummbär is wrong.
Gee, what a pleasant surprise… Well, here we go again: perhaps Hummel, my dear Mr. Tom? 
O.O Librarian got one wrong!?!?!?
I never thought that would happen…
:shock:
Hmm… for s reason I can’t see the picture.
Mr Tom, would you be so kind to post it again so we could all take a shot at this mystery?
Hello, y’all!
Just dropping a message to “re-muddy” the waters, so to say!
Thanx for the compliment Tom, I’ll have to do some digging for a book or two and hopefully I can come up with an answer for your puzzler!
I hope everyone had a good holiday, and will have a Safe, Healthy, Happy, and Prosperous New Year!
Russ
FAA Airman
Proud son of Rose and Wes
As I understand there is no question hanging right now… so here is one for you:
WTF is this???
Befehlspanzer III (command tank) with wooden main gun dummy.
Erhhh… I do not know… all right except… is it not a “Befehlspanzer (command tank)” according to my source…
You got the dummy woden gun right, of course.
It’s a Befehlspanzer all right. Just look at the oddly shaped antenna visible to the right of the picture that is unique to command vehicles. (If I remember correctly, the German name for it is “Stabantenne”)
It is an armored observation vehicle – “Panzerbeobactungswagen”. Nar Budapest, Hungary, March 1945.
I guess it is not the same as “Befehlspanzer”, is it?
In fact the Panzerbefehlswagen III Ausf H and the Artillerie-Panzerbeobachtungswagen III were remarkably similar vehicles: both had a dummy gun, extra 30mm armour plates on the front, turret mounted MG34, lack of hull mounted MG and long range FUG 8 radio (the one with the distinctive star antenna), and both vehicles were conversions of regular tanks, so it is really hard to tell the two apart at first glance, unless you are looking from behind, because the command tank had an even more distinctive frame antenna on the rear deck.
The main differences lie in the internal equipment - besides the FUG 8, the observation tank had a normal FUG 4 station and an extra retractable periscope, while the command vehicle had a FUG 6 or FUG 13 installed (that used the already mentioned frame antenna) and had the turret bolted in place.
The reason I believed the mystery photo was the Befehlpanzer III H rather than the Beobachtungswagen is the fact that although the FUG 8 antenna is visible in the picture, there is no whip antenna for the FUG 4 (as can be seen in the following picture)
However, a closer look at the mystery photo reveals the extra periscope in extended position just above the MG mount, so yes, this vehicle is more likely to be an artillery observation machine for a Hummel or Wespe battery.
I havent been on here for some time…
So, why did theyr emove the guns and replace them with dummies?
With the main gun missing there was more room for radio/signals stuff etc.
Ah, I see…
yes, indeed.
On early Panzerbefehlswagen III they experimented with replacing the main gun with a wooden dummy and keeping the coaxial MG for close defense, but since the frame antenna on the rear deck required the turret to be bolted in place the resulting vehicle had almost no ability to transverse the machine gun other than turning the whole tank around, so after a few less then successful experiments to offset the MG to the right of the turret, from the “H” version onwards, the dummy gun was moved to the right and an MG 34 on a ball mount was fitted in its stead, a configuration that was kept for the Artillerie-Panzerbeobachtungswagen III as well.
From the “J” (Sd Kfz 141) version of the Panzerbefehlswagen III onwards however, all command tanks were fitted (or in cases retro-fitted) with a 50mm KwK L/42 main gun and coaxial MG, in effect being little more than regular Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf Js with an ammunition rack removed to make room for extra radio equipment (Typically FuG5 with either FuG7 or FuG8)
And coming back to the game - who’s turn is it to post a riddle?
Well, with my “Befehlspanzer III” I screwed up…
So did I, since I also favoured the Panzerbefehlswagen rather than the correct Beobahtungspanzer.
If you ask me, it’s Egorka’s turn again, since he provided us with the answer in the end.