Panzer, series of battle tanks fielded by the German army in the 1930s and ’40s. The six tanks in the series constituted virtually all of Germany’s tank production from 1934 until the end of World War II in 1945. Panzers provided the striking power of Germany’s panzer (armoured) divisions throughout the war.

In the period following World War I, the German army had been prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles from using tanks. After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, however, the army began to rebuild its tank forces, secretly at first and then openly from 1938 on. This late reentry into tank manufacturing actually conferred a distinct advantage on the German army, which entered World War II without being hampered by masses of obsolescent tanks, as was the case with France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. The German army began issuing specifications for its first tank, the Pz. I, in late 1933, and specifications for models II through IV were issued in the following three years.

Pz. I
The Pz. I was a light tank intended as a training vehicle for the new panzer divisions until the more powerful Pz. II, III, and IV tanks could be put into service. The Pz. I went into production in 1934. It was lightly armed, with two 7.92-mm machine guns mounted on its turret, and was likewise lightly protected by armour only 15 mm thick. The tank weighed 5.4 tons, had a top road speed of 39 km (24 miles) per hour, and was manned by a crew of two. The Pz. I first saw combat in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), and an improved version, the IB, was used in large numbers by the German army in the invasions of Poland (1939) and France (1940). The lightly armed and armoured IB performed adequately in these campaigns because it was used in massed formations and because opposing forces made poor use of antitank weapons. By the time Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the IB’s vulnerability to light artillery and heavier enemy tanks had rendered it obsolete for any role except reconnaissance. About 2,000 Pz. IBs were built, of which about 1,450 fought in the campaign against France in 1940.

Pz. II
The Pz. II was larger and more heavily armed and armoured than the Pz. I, but it was still a light tank. It was nevertheless the mainstay of the panzer divisions in the first two years of the war, because of delays encountered in building the more powerful Pz. III and IV. The Pz. II went into full production in 1937. It carried a 20-mm gun and one machine gun and was protected by armour with a maximum thickness of 30 mm. The tank weighed 10 tons, had a top road speed of 40 km (25 miles) per hour, and was manned by a crew of three. The German army used about 1,000 Pz. IIs in each of the invasions of Poland, France, and the Soviet Union. By early 1942, however, the Pz. II was clearly outgunned by Soviet and British tanks armed with 50- or 75-mm weapons. To remedy this, the IIF version of the tank was equipped with a larger gun and thicker armour, but its combat performance in Russia and North Africa was disappointing, partly because its six-cylinder engine could not cope with the tank’s increased weight. With its design limits reached, production of the Pz. II was discontinued at the end of 1942. More than 3,500 Pz. IIs were manufactured, with the later models specifically designed for use as reconnaissance vehicles.

Pz. III
The first medium tank developed by Nazi Germany was the Pz. III, which did not enter active service in large numbers until 1939. The Pz. III was initially armed with a 37-mm antitank gun and two machine guns. It weighed about 20 tons, had a top road speed of 40 km (25 miles) per hour, and carried a crew of five. About 100 Pz. IIIs fought in the Polish campaign and about 350 in the invasion of France. The need for greater firepower and more protection was apparent by 1941, so newer versions were given a 50-mm gun and fitted with armour 30–50 mm thick. The Pz. III could accommodate these improvements because it had been designed with a larger turret and a 12-cylinder, 300-horsepower engine. The 1,500 Pz. IIIs that took part in the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 outfought most Soviet tanks but were in turn completely outclassed by the new Soviet T-34, which had a lethal 76.2-mm gun, sloping armour, and excellent speed and mobility. Even Pz. IIIs fitted with a high-velocity 50-mm gun and protected by armour 50–70 mm thick could not cope with the T-34, so the tanks were taken out of service on the Eastern Front, though they continued to fight in the Mediterranean theatre into 1943. By the time production was halted early that year, about 5,660 Pz. IIIs had been built.

Pz. IV

German tanksGerman Pz. IV (foreground) and Pz. III (background) tanks, 1942.
Though originally intended as an infantry-support tank, the Pz. IV (along with the Pz. V, described below) formed the backbone of Germany’s panzer divisions from 1943 to the war’s end. The tank had the same engine and general appearance as the Pz. III, but the Pz. IV had a larger turret and gun, thicker frontal armour, and better cross-country mobility.

It mounted a 75-mm gun and two machine guns and was protected by armour ranging in thickness from 30 to 80 mm. It weighed 25 tons, had a top road speed of 40 km (25 miles) per hour, and carried a crew of five. The first Pz. IVs went into active service in 1939 with a short-barreled gun and were extremely successful until confronted by Soviet T-34 tanks in late 1941. To cope with this threat, the Pz. IV was given thicker armour and refitted with a long-barreled, high-velocity gun that could better penetrate the T-34’s armour. The improved Pz. IV could engage the T-34 on nearly equal terms and was superior to the U.S. Sherman tank in many respects. The Pz. IV was the only tank made by Germany throughout the course of the war, from 1939 to 1945. More than 8,000 Pz. IVs were built, making it the most numerous of all German tanks. Its inexpensive, mass-produced chassis, like those of its three predecessors, was used as a platform for various types of antitank, assault, and self-propelled guns and also functioned as an armoured personnel carrier.

Pz. V
Germany had experimented with heavy tanks as early as 1935, but these efforts acquired a new urgency after German medium tanks encountered Soviet T-34s in late 1941. A crash program was undertaken to design a tank that would incorporate the advanced features of the T-34, and the result was the Pz. V, or Panther, which entered production in November 1942 and active service soon afterward. With the possible exception of the T-34, the Panther was probably the finest tank built by any country during the war. At 45 tons it was a heavy vehicle, but a 12-cylinder, 700-horsepower engine enabled it to reach a top road speed of 45 km (28 miles) per hour, and an excellent suspension system gave it unusually good cross-country mobility for a German tank. Its long-barreled, high-velocity 75-mm gun had good range and penetrating power against most enemy tanks, and the Panther’s armour—80 mm thick at the front and 40–45 mm on the sides and rear—was sloped so that shells would ricochet off it.

The Panther’s combat debut in the Battle of Kursk (July 1943) was not auspicious: transmission, suspension, and cooling-system problems brought most of the tanks to a halt before they could even reach the battle zone. Once these defects were resolved, however, Panthers operated with great success on both the Eastern and Western fronts. They were especially effective against U.S. Sherman tanks and British Cromwell tanks in northern France during the Normandy campaign, though they remained vulnerable to attack by Allied aircraft. More than 5,000 Panthers were built during the war.
Pz. VI
The last and largest tank used by Germany in the war was the Pz. VI, or Tiger. Like the Panther, the Tiger was hurriedly developed in response to the Soviet T-34. It went into production in August 1942 and, like the Panther, first entered combat in large numbers at Kursk. The Tiger emphasized to an extreme the German preference for firepower and survivability at the expense of speed, agility, range, and reliability. Its long-barreled, high-velocity 88-mm gun, adapted from the Germans’ formidable antiaircraft (Flak) and antitank (Pak) guns, could penetrate even the most heavily armoured Soviet tanks at extremely long range.

The History of Militarical Vehicles

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