The previous article looked at German light tanks during the interwar period. Having gained experience in the development process in the second half of the 20s of the first post-war German tank "Grosstraktor", designed like the British "diamond-shaped" tanks of the First World War, and taking into account a lot of comments on the results of its tests at the Soviet "Kama" training ground in 1929-1932 years, the German military leadership in 1933 launched the Neubaufahrzeug project for the development of a multi-turret medium tank. Similar multi-turret tanks were being developed at this time in England, France and the Soviet Union.
The basis for the creation of a multi-turret tank was the concept of a tank with powerful cannon and machine-gun armament, spaced across several towers, providing independent circular fire from various types of weapons. The tank had to have sufficient mobility and fight against tanks, enemy fortifications, artillery and infantry.
Medium tank Neubaufahrzeug (Nb. Fz.)
An order for the development of the Nb. Fz tank. was housed in Krupp and Rheinmetall. Each company proposed its own project, and the first samples of tanks were made, which did not fundamentally differ. Based on the results of their tests, it was decided to manufacture the hulls of Rheinmetall tanks. towers from Krupp. In 1935, the first three samples of the tank were manufactured, and within two years the tanks were successfully tested.
The tank was a three-turret of the classic layout with cannon-machine gun armament and bulletproof armor. The weight of the tank reached 23.4 tons, the crew was 7 people (commander, driver, gunner, loader, two gunners in machine-gun turrets and a radio operator).
In the front of the hull there was a control compartment, where the driver was located on the left. The fighting compartment was located in the middle of the hull and encompassed the main turret and two slightly modified machine-gun turrets from the Panzer I light tank, one in the bow in front of the main turret and the second in the back. The engine compartment was located in the stern.
Two twin cannons were installed in the turret: a 75mm KwK L / 24 cannon and a 37mm Tankkanone L / 45 cannon. In the Rheinmetall samples they were installed one above the other, in the Krupp samples they were installed in a row. Three 7, 92mm MG13 machine guns were used as additional weapons. One each in two machine-gun turrets and one in the turret ball mount.
The hull of the tank was of a riveted-welded structure of a complex configuration, the upper and lower frontal armor plates of the hull had significant angles of inclination. The upper frontal armor plate was 15mm thick and the lower 20mm, and the armor plates of the sides, stern, bottom and roof were 13mm.
The engine "Maybach" HL 108 TR with a capacity of 280 hp was used as a power plant, providing a speed of 30 km / h and a power reserve of 120 km.
The undercarriage of the tank, applied to one side, consisted of ten double rubberized road wheels of small diameter, interlocked in pairs in five bogies. The carts were hinged to the body by means of balancers. The role of elastic elements was played by spiral springs. To eliminate the sagging of the caterpillar, four supporting rollers were installed, the drive wheel was located at the back, and the guide wheel in front.
Tank Nb. Fz. was not mass-produced and practically did not participate in battles, its characteristics did not satisfy the military, but it became a very successful "weapon of German propaganda". By the beginning of World War II, he was one of the most controversial German tanks, constantly participated in exercises and parades, his photographs were regularly published by all famous newspapers of that time. Three tanks Nb. Fz. in 1940 they were sent to Norway, where they were constantly demonstrated to everyone and propaganda created the appearance that Germany had many heavy tanks in Norway.
Tank Nb. Fz. its layout was close to the multi-turret tanks of that time - the British Vickers "Independent", the Soviet T-35 and the French Char-2C, which also turned out to be too complicated and clumsy and did not have the characteristics required in the upcoming war.
In the mid-30s, the leadership of the Wehrmacht revised its views on the role of tanks in the upcoming war and began to proceed from the "blitzkrieg" strategy, according to which the army needed completely different maneuverable tanks, while more importance was attached to the mobility of the tank than to its firepower and security. Based on this strategy, multi-turret tanks of the Neubaufahrzeug type did not fit into the battle formations in any way, they were not needed by the Wehrmacht and work on these tanks was stopped. The main attention was paid to work on the creation of medium tanks PzIII and Panzer IV (and the last one) became the main tank of the Wehrmacht.
Medium tank Pz. Kpfw. III
In parallel with the development of the light tank Pz. Kpfw. II, armed with a 20-mm cannon, insufficient to effectively combat fortified enemy defenses and artillery, taking into account the experience in creating the Nb. Fz. in 1934, the development of a more powerful medium tank, the Pz. Kpfw. III, armed with a 37 mm cannon, began.
The tank had a layout with the location of the engine compartment in the stern, the transmission compartment in the front, and the control compartment and the fighting compartment in the middle of the tank. The tank, depending on the modification, weighed 15, 4-19, 8 tons. The tank's crew consisted of five people: a driver-mechanic, a radio operator-gunner, who were in the control compartment and commander, a gunner and a loader, located in a three-man turret.
The hull of the tank was welded from rolled armor plates, individual parts of the hull were bolted together. In the front upper part of the sides of the hull, glass blocks were installed for observation, which were closed by armored flaps. In the frontal sheet of the hull on the left was a viewing device for the driver, which included a glass block closed by an armored shutter and a binocular periscope observation device.
The turret was welded hexagonal, placed symmetrically relative to the longitudinal axis of the tank. A gun, two machine guns and a telescopic sight were installed in the frontal sheet of the tower in a mask. On the right and left for observation, glass blocks were installed, which were closed by armored flaps. There were hatches on the sides of the turret for boarding the crew members. A commander's cupola with a hatch was installed in the rear of the turret roof.
The armor of the tank on the first samples was insufficient. On modifications A, B, C, D, the thickness of the armor of the forehead and sides of the hull and turret was 15 mm, the roof was 10 mm and the bottom was 5 mm. On modifications T, F, the thickness of the armor of the forehead and sides of the hull and turret was 30 mm, the roof was 12-17 mm and the bottom was 16 mm.
The armament of the tank consisted of a 37 mm KwK L / 45 cannon from Rheinmetall-Borsig and two 7, 92 mm MG 34 machine guns from Rheinmetall-Borsig paired with it. The third MG 34 machine gun was installed in the frontal sheet of the hull.
The power plant was a Maybach HL 108TR 250 hp engine. or Maybach HL 120TR with 300 hp, providing a speed of 35 (70) km / h and a cruising range of 165 km. The chassis of the tank was seriously changed during the modernization process.
From 1938 to 1940, several modifications of this tank were developed and produced: A, B, C, D, E, F. The Pz. Kpfw. III Ausf. A modification featured a chassis with five large-diameter road wheels with individual suspension on vertical springs and two supporting rollers on each side. The weight of the tank was 15.4 tons, the speed was lower than the customer's requirements and was only 35 km / h.
The PzIII Ausf. B modification had a chassis that had 8 small-diameter road wheels on each side, interlocked in pairs in bogies, suspended on two groups of leaf springs and equipped with hydraulic shock absorbers. A number of less significant changes were also made to the design of the tank.
Modification of the PzIII Ausf. With a modified suspension, 8 rollers on each side were arranged in three bogies - the outermost two rollers and the middle one of four rollers suspended on leaf springs, the outer bogies were on shock absorbers. In addition, the power plant units were improved, primarily the swing mechanism and final drives.
Modification of the Pz. Kpfw. III Ausf. D was distinguished by a modified aft hull and a new commander's cupola, as well as changes in the power plant.
The PzIII Ausf. E modification featured a new undercarriage, which included six double rubberized road wheels per side and a torsion bar suspension. Shock absorbers were installed in the suspensions of the first and sixth road wheels. The tank was powered by a new Maybach HL 120TR 300 hp engine. with. and a ten-speed gearbox, as well as a course machine gun in a ball mount. Evacuation hatches appeared in the lower side plates of the hull between the upper branch of the tracks and the road wheels.
Modification of the Pz. Kpfw. III Ausf. F had protection for the turret ring from bullets and shrapnel, additional outdoor lighting devices and a new commander's cupola. A batch of 10 tanks was armed with a new 50mm KwK 38 L / 42 cannon, and the frontal part of the turret was redesigned and one coaxial machine gun was installed instead of two.
Modifications of the Pz. Kpfw. III series G, H, J, L, M were developed and produced during the Second World War.
From mid-1941 to early 1943, the PzIII was the backbone of the Wehrmacht's armored forces and, despite the fact that it was inferior to the modern tanks of the anti-Hitler coalition countries, made a significant contribution to the success of the Wehrmacht of that period.
In terms of its mobility, security and crew comfort, the Pz. Kpfw. III was on par in its weight class (16-24 tons). On the whole, the Pz. Kpfw. III was a reliable, easy-to-operate vehicle with a high level of comfort for the crew, but in the adopted tank concept it was not possible to install a more powerful cannon and, as a result, the Pz. Kpfw. III was outperformed by the more advanced Pz. Kpfw. IV.
Medium tank Pz. Kpfw. IV
The Pz. Kpfw. IV tank was developed in addition to the Pz. Kpfw. III tank, as a fire support tank with an anti-tank gun, capable of engaging anti-tank defenses beyond the reach of other tanks. In 1934, the military issued requirements for the creation of such a machine with a weight not exceeding 24 tons, and in 1936 prototypes of the tank were made.
The Pz. Kpfw. IV tank had a layout that became "classic" for all German tanks with a turret gearbox and a transmission and a drive wheel located in front. Behind the transmission there was a control compartment, a fighting compartment in the middle and an engine compartment in the stern. The tank's crew consisted of five people: a driver-mechanic and a radio operator-gunner, located in the control compartment, and a gunner, loader and tank commander, who were in a three-man turret. The weight of the tank, depending on the modification of the series A, B, C, produced before World War II, was 18, 4 - 19 tons.
The hull of the tank was welded and did not differ in a rational slope of the armor plates. A large number of hatches made it easier for the crew to board and access various mechanisms, but at the same time reduced the strength of the hull. The driver and radio operator had observation devices providing them with satisfactory visibility.
On the modification of the Pz. Kpfw. IV Ausf. A tanks, the armor resistance was low. The thickness of the armor of the forehead and sides of the hull and turret was 15mm, the roof was 10-12 mm, and the bottom was 5mm. On the PzIV Ausf. B and Ausf. C modifications, the armor thickness of the hull and turret forehead was increased to 30mm, and the sides to 20mm. Additional protection was provided by anti-cumulative screens installed on the sides of the tank.
The tower had a multifaceted shape and made it possible to upgrade the armament of the tank. A commander's cupola with five observation devices with armored flaps was installed on the roof of the tower at the back. There were also observation slots in the side hatches of the turret and on both sides of the gun mask. Hatches on the sides of the turret improved crew habitability, but reduced armor resistance. The tower could be rotated manually and electrically. The commander's place was located directly under the commander's cupola, the gunner was located to the left of the breech of the gun, the loader - to the right. The tank provided good conditions for habitability and visibility to the crew of the tank, there were perfect observation and aiming devices at that time.
A short-barreled 75mm KwK.37 L / 24 cannon was installed as the main armament on all modifications of the tank, as an additional armament on the Ausf. A series there were two 7, 92mm MG-34 machine guns, one coaxial with the cannon, the other course in the hull. On modifications Ausf. B and Ausf. C only one coaxial machine gun.
The engine was located in the engine compartment longitudinally, with an offset to the starboard side. The Ausf. A modification was powered by the Maybach HL 108TR 250 hp engine. sec., providing a speed of 31 km / h and a power reserve of 150 km. The Ausf. B and Ausf. C versions had a Maybach HL 120TR 300 hp engine. sec., providing a speed of 40 km per hour and a power reserve of 200 km.
The chassis of the Pz. Kpfw. IV, applied to one side, consisted of eight double rubberized road wheels, four double carrier rollers, a front drive wheel and a sloth. The road wheels were interlocked in pairs on balancers with suspension on elliptical leaf springs.
Modifications of the Pz. Kpfw. IV series D, E, F, G, H, J were developed and produced during the Second World War.
The Pz. Kpfw. IV was created as an infantry support tank and an effective anti-tank weapon, proved to be a long-liver and survived not only other pre-war tanks, but also a number of tanks developed and mass-produced during World War II. It turned out to be the most massive tank in the Wehrmacht; in total, from 1937 to 1945, 8686 of these tanks of various modifications were produced.
It should be noted that the Pz. Kpfw. IV was developed within the framework of the "blitzkrieg" concept and the main attention was paid to its mobility, while the firepower and protection were insufficient already at the time of the creation of the tank. A short-barreled gun with a low initial velocity of an armor-piercing projectile did not provide an effective fight against tanks of a potential enemy, and the weak thickness of the frontal armor, only 15 (30) mm, made the PzIV an easy prey for anti-tank artillery and enemy tanks.
In the course of hostilities, experience was accumulated in improving the tank, a long-barreled 75-mm cannon with a barrel length of 48 calibers was installed on the modifications of the war years, and the tank's protection was seriously improved, the frontal armor reached 80 mm, but the mobility characteristics deteriorated significantly. As a result, by the end of the war, the PzIV was seriously inferior in its characteristics to the main medium tanks of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition.
