Panzer III vol3

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First German battle tank was genuine designed by Daimler-Benz and presented at the end of 1936, at training grounds in Kummersdorf and Ulm PzKpfw III. It was created under assumptions that introduced in the mid-thirties, by Colonel Heinz Guderian. He predicted that in the future each battalion of armored regiments and armored divisions will come in three companies armed with antitank and relatively lightly armored medium tanks – that is, the later PzKpfw III. In addition, for the composition of battalion had come one company of heavy tanks, better armored and armed with a larger caliber gun (PzKpfw IV). Initially, in order to keep secret project Panzer III was hidden under the codename Zugführerwagen (ZW) – platoon commander’s car.
Panzer III was the most dynamically-down model serving in the army of the Third Reich. Armament first specimens, built in 1937, were the caliber of 37 mm. Because they are not checked against Allied tanks, already in 1940, they started to produce tanks equipped with a 50 mm caliber cannon (both short- and long-gun). In mid-1942 began rearming cars in the short-gun of caliber 75 mm. Also limited their role to directly support their own infantry and heavy tanks Tiger shield against enemy infantry. In the middle of 1943 completely stopped their production, and by the end of next year, the tanks PzKpfw III almost completely disappeared from the front line affiliates. On the basis of PzKpfw III also built command vehicles Panzerbefehlswagen III. Initially, they were armed only with machine guns and had a fake of plots, but during the war it was equipped with a cannon caliber 50 mm. At the beginning of 1943 100 PzKpfw III Ausf. H rearmed with flame-throwers and called Flammpanzer III. They later took part in Operation Citadel. Before the planned invasion of Great Britain, 168 PzKpfw III Ausf. F / G / H adapted for overcoming obstacles to a depth of water 15 m. The construction was called Tauchpanzer III and was used in Operation Barbarossa to force Bug River. There were also production of 262 self-propelled artillery fire control tanks Beobachtungswagen III. Older types of tanks, armored divisions withdrawn from disarmed and processed for self-propelled transporters ammunition Munitionschlepper III, the armoured recovery vehicle Bergepanzer III, or vehicle Pionierpanzerwagen III of engineering units. The best-known vehicle uses Panzer III chassis has been reinforced Sturmgeschütz III. Interestingly in total were produced more guns StuG III than the Panzer III.
Wehrmacht medium tank Panzer III. Official Wehrmacht designation was Panzerkampfwagen III Sd Kfz. 141 (abbreviated PzKpfw III).
Max armor: 70 mm. Main armament: 1 × 3.7 cm KwK 36 Ausf. A-F; 1 × 5 cm KwK 38 Ausf. F-J; 1 × 5 cm KwK 39 Ausf. J-M; 1 × 7.5 cm KwK 37 Ausf. N. Engine: 12-cylinder Maybach HL 120 TRM
296 HP (220 kW). Production: 5774.