In the second half of 1934, the tactical and technical requirements for the new Wehrmacht combat vehicle were formulated. The 6th Department of the Armaments Directorate believed that the German army needed a tank weighing 10 tons, armed with a 20 mm cannon. As in the case of the Pz. I, it received the misinformation designation LaS100. Its prototypes on a competitive basis were created by three firms: Friedrich Krupp AG, Henschel und Sohn AG and Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nurnberg (MAN). And in the spring of 1935, the Commission of the Armaments Directorate reviewed the finished projects.
Improvements and innovations
The Krupp company presented the LKA-2 tank - in fact, an enlarged version of the LKA tank (prototype Pz. I) with a new turret and a 20-mm cannon. Henschel and MAN only developed the chassis. At the same time, the Henschel chassis had six road wheels interlocked in three bogies, and the MAN chassis used the design of the British company Carden-Loyd - six road wheels were interlocked into three bogies suspended on quarter-elliptical springs, and it was chosen for mass production. The body was manufactured by Daimler-Benz. The assembly of LaS100 tanks was to be carried out at the factories of MAN, Daimler-Benz, FAMO, Wegmann and MIAG.
At the end of 1935, the first ten vehicles were built, which received the army designation 2 cm MG Panzerwagen (MG - Maschinengewehr - machine gun). The tanks were equipped with 130 hp Maybach HL 57TR gasoline engines. with. and a six-speed ZF Aphon SSG45 gearbox. The maximum travel speed reached 40 km / h, the cruising range on the highway was 210 km. Reservation - from 5 to 14.5 mm. The armament consisted of a 20 mm KwK30 cannon, which was a version of the Flak30 anti-aircraft gun shortened by 300 mm and adapted for installation in a tank (180 rounds of ammunition in 10 magazines) and an MG34 machine gun (1425 rounds of ammunition). According to the unified designation system for Wehrmacht vehicles introduced in 1936, the vehicle received the Sd. Kfz.121 index. At the same time, a new army designation was introduced, in accordance with which the first 10 tanks were named Pz. Kpfw. II Ausf.a1. The next 15 vehicles - Ausf.a2 - received minor changes in the generator cooling system and the ventilation of the fighting compartment. On 50 tanks of the Ausf.a3 version, an engine partition appeared, and in the bottom of the hull there were hatches for access to the fuel pump and oil filter. In addition, the machines of versions "a2" and "a3" differed from the first ten in the absence of rubber tires on the carrier rollers.
In 1936-1937, tanks of modification "b" (25 units) were produced. The improvements introduced to them mainly affected the chassis. The track and carrier rollers are wider, while the latter are slightly reduced in diameter. Suspension elements and drive wheels have changed somewhat in design. The biggest innovation was the 140 hp Maybach HL 62TR engine. with.
Tests of modifications "a" and "b" revealed significant shortcomings in the design of the undercarriage of the tanks. Therefore, in 1937, a completely new type of chassis was developed for the Pz. II tank. The undercarriage of modification "c" included, with respect to one side, five rubberized road wheels of medium diameter, suspended on quarter-elliptical leaf springs. The number of carrier rollers has increased to four. Drive and guide wheels have been upgraded. Off-road ride comfort and highway speed have improved. The changes introduced resulted in an increase in the dimensions of the machine: the length increased to 4810 mm, width - up to 2223 mm, height - up to 1990 mm. The tank has grown heavier by 1 ton - up to 8, 9 tons.
Modernization of "twos"
In 1937, the production of "mass" modifications of the Pz. II began. The production of the first of these, the Ausf. A, allegedly began in March 1937 at the Henschel plant in Kassel, and then continued at the Alkett plant in Berlin.
Ausf. A machines received a ZF Aphon SSG46 synchronized gearbox and a 140 hp Maybach HL 62TRM engine. with., as well as new viewing slots with armored dampers for the driver and an ultra-shortwave radio station (previously used shortwave).
Variant B tanks differed slightly from A variant tanks. The changes were mainly technological in nature, simplifying mass production.
On combat vehicles of modification "C", the engine cooling system was improved and armored glass with a thickness of 50 mm was installed in the viewing blocks (for "A" and "B" - 12 mm). The production rates of the Ausf. C tanks were extremely low. Suffice it to say that nine cars were assembled in July 1939, seven in August, five in September, eight in October, and only two in November! The production of the tank was completed in March-April 1940. This can be explained, apparently, by the fact that even before the end of production, the modernization of combat vehicles of this modification and, in parallel, options "c", "A" and "B" began. The fact is that by this time the Reich had completed an analysis of the experience of the Spanish Civil War. And although the Pz. II did not participate in it, they were inferior to the Soviet T-26 and BT-5, supplied by the USSR to the Republicans, and the tanks of potential opponents (French R35 and H35, Polish 7TP) in armament and armor.
The Germans refused to modernize the weapons of the Pz. II - usually this is due to the small size of its turret. Indeed, of the larger-caliber cannons, only the 37-mm KwK L / 45, which the Pz. III was equipped with, "fit" into the turret of this tank, but then it became too crowded in the turret of the "two" and there was practically nowhere to place the ammunition. Subsequently, these guns were installed in the Pz. II turrets used in fortifications, where these problems were easily solved (the MG34 machine gun was dismantled at the same time). However, it is completely incomprehensible why the standard turret could not be equipped with a 20-mm cannon with a 1300 mm long "anti-aircraft" non-shortened barrel. In this case, the initial velocity of the armor-piercing projectile increased from 780 to 835 m / s and, accordingly, the armor penetration increased. Apparently, it was decisive here that the barrel of the gun went beyond the dimensions of the tank, which at that time was universally considered unacceptable.
<tank table
In short, the modernization of the Pz. II boiled down mainly to increasing armor. The frontal armor of the turret was reinforced with sheets of 14, 5 and 20 mm thick, the hull - 20 mm. The design of the frontal part of the hull has also changed. On top of the standard bent 14, 5-mm armor plate, two were welded, connected at an angle of 70 °. The top sheet was 14.5 mm thick and the bottom 20 mm thick.
On the Ausf. C vehicles, instead of a double-leaf hatch in the roof of the tower, a commander's cupola was installed, which made it possible to conduct circular observation from the tank. The same turret appeared on some of the tanks of previous modifications. Since the changes were made during the overhaul, not all cars were affected.
After the Polish campaign, almost all "bads" of the early issues were brought to the Ausf. C. standard. New improvements followed, in particular, the shoulder strap of the tower in front and behind was protected by a special armored rim, which protected the tower from jamming when hit by bullets and shrapnel.
In 1938, Daimler-Benz developed a project for the so-called fast tank (Schnellkampfwagen), intended for tank battalions of light divisions. In appearance, this car was sharply different from other modifications of the "two". Only the turret with weapons was borrowed from the Ausf. C, the chassis and hull were redesigned.
The Christie-type undercarriage used four large-diameter road wheels per side, new drive and idler wheels. The hull was almost the same as that of the Pz. III. The combat weight of the vehicle reached 10 tons. The Maybach HL 62TRM engine allowed the tank to reach a maximum highway speed of 55 km / h. The Maybach Variorex VG 102128H gearbox had seven forward speeds and three reverse speeds. The Pz. II Ausf. E differed from the Ausf. D with a reinforced suspension, a new track and a redesigned sloth.
In 1938-1939, Daimler-Benz and MAN produced 143 tanks of both versions and about 150 chassis.
On November 27, 1939, a decision was made to produce a series of modernized Ausf. F vehicles - the latest modification of the "classic" Pz. II. This was due to the shortage of tanks in the Wehrmacht, which did not allow the newly formed tank formations to be completed.
The Ausf. F received a redesigned hull with a vertical front plate. In its right part, a mock-up of the driver's observation device was installed, while the real one was on the left. The new shape of the viewing window covers in the installation mask has increased its armor resistance. Some vehicles were equipped with a 20 mm KwK 38 cannon.
The production of Ausf. F developed very slowly. In June 1940, only three tanks were assembled, in July - two, in August-December - four! They managed to pick up the pace only in 1941, when the annual production was 233 cars. The following year, 291 Pz. II Ausf. F. left the workshops. In total, 532 tanks of this modification were manufactured - mainly at the FAMO factories in Breslau, Vereinigten Maschinenwerken in occupied Warsaw, MAN and Daimler-Benz.
Unfortunately, as in the case of most other German combat vehicles, it is not possible to indicate an absolutely exact number of Pz. IIs produced.
Most of the questions are caused by cars of variants "c", "A", "B" and "C". Both in domestic and foreign literature, their production is characterized by a total number of 1113 or 1114 units. Moreover, a breakdown by individual modifications, as a rule, is not given. If we take this figure on faith, then the total number of Pz. II produced (excluding flamethrower tanks) will be 1888 (1889) units, of which 1348 (1349) were built before the start of World War II.
On the battlefields
Pz. II in March 1938 took part in the operation to annex Austria to the Reich - Anschluss. There were no battles, but during the march to Vienna, up to 30 percent of the "twos" were out of order for technical reasons, mainly due to the low reliability of the chassis. The annexation of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia in October 1938 was also bloodless. Losses in materiel became significantly less, since Faun L900 D567 (6x4) trucks and two-axle trailers Sd. Anh.115 were used to transport the Pz. II to the concentration sites.
The Sudetenland was followed by the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia. On March 15, 1939, Pz. II from the 2nd Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht were the first to enter Prague.
Along with Pz. I, Pz. II made up the majority of Panzerwaffe combat vehicles on the eve of the Polish campaign. On September 1, 1939, German troops had 1,223 tanks of this type. Each company of light tanks included one platoon (5 units) of "twos". All in all, the tank regiment had 69 tanks, and the battalion - 33. Only in the ranks of the 1st Panzer Division, better than others equipped with Pz. III and Pz. IV vehicles, there were 39 Pz. IIs. In two-regiment divisions (2nd, 4th and 5th), there were up to 140, and single-regiment - from 70 to 85 Pz. II tanks. The 3rd Panzer Division, which included a training battalion (Panzer Lehr Abteilung), had 175 Pz. II. Least of all "twos" were in the light divisions. The vehicles of modifications "D" and "E" were in service with the 67th tank battalion of the 3rd light division and the 33rd tank battalion of the 4th light division.
The armor of the "doubles" was effortlessly penetrated by shells of 37-mm anti-tank guns wz.36 and 75-mm field guns of the Polish army. This became clear already on September 1–2 during the breakthrough of the positions of the Volyn cavalry brigade near Mokra. The 1st Panzer Division lost eight Pz. IIs there. Even more damage - 15 Pz. II tanks - was suffered by the 4th Panzer Division on the outskirts of Warsaw. In total, during the Polish campaign until October 10, the Wehrmacht lost 259 vehicles of this type. However, only 83 of them were included in the list of irrecoverable losses.
To participate in the capture of Denmark and Norway, the 40th Special Forces Battalion (Panzer Abteilung z.b. V 40) was formed, consisting of three companies, each of which, unlike the regular organization of the Panzerwaffe, consisted of only three platoons. The battalion was armed with light tanks Pz. I and Pz. II, as well as command vehicles Pz. Bef. Wg.
The invasion of Denmark began on April 9, 1940. Danish troops offered little or no resistance, and the fighting ended before noon. Soon the "ones" and "twos" of the 1st and 2nd companies of the 40th battalion paraded through the streets of Copenhagen.
Meanwhile, the 3rd company was heading for Norway. On the evening of April 10, the Antaris H transport was torpedoed by a British submarine and sank with five tanks on board. Another steamer, Urundi, ran aground and arrived in Oslo only on 17 April. As compensation for the losses incurred, two days later, the battalion was assigned a platoon of three heavy three-tower tanks Nb. Fz. By April 24, two other companies of the battalion arrived on the Scandinavian Peninsula. Now it included 54 tanks: 3 Nb. Fz., 29 Pz. I, 18 Pz. II and 4 commanders. They were used to support the infantry in battles against the British and French troops who had landed in Norway after the Germans. The 40th battalion lost 11 tanks, of which two Pz. II Ausf. C.
By the beginning of the offensive in the West on May 10, 1940, the Panzerwaffe had 1,110 Pz. II vehicles, 955 of which were in combat readiness. The number of these tanks in different formations varied significantly. So, in the 3rd Panzer Division, operating on the flank, there were 110 of them, and in the 7th Panzer Division of General Rommel, located in the direction of the main attack, 40. Against the well-armored French light and medium tanks, the "two" were practically powerless. They could hit enemy vehicles only from close range to the side or stern. However, there were few tank battles during the French campaign. The main brunt of the fight against French tanks fell on the shoulders of aviation and artillery. Nevertheless, the Germans suffered very significant damage, in particular, they lost 240 Pz. II.
In the summer of 1940, 52 "two" from the 2nd Panzer Division were converted into amphibious tanks. Of these, two battalions of the 18th tank regiment of the 18th tank brigade (later deployed into a division) were formed. It was assumed that together with prepared for movement under water Pz. III and Pz. IV "two" will take part in the operation "Sea Lion" - the landing on the coast of England. The crews were trained to move afloat at the training ground in Putlos. Since the landing on the shores of foggy Albion did not take place, Schwimmpanzer II was transferred to the East. In the first hours of Operation Barbarossa, these tanks crossed the Western Bug by swimming. Later they were used as conventional combat vehicles.
Pz. II tanks of the 5th and 11th Panzer Divisions took part in hostilities in Yugoslavia and Greece in April 1941. Two cars were delivered by sea to Crete, where they supported the German paratroopers who landed on this Greek island on May 20 with fire and maneuver.
In March 1941, the 5th Panzer Regiment of the 5th Light Division of the German Afrika Korps, which landed in Tripoli, had 45 Pz. IIs, mainly of the "C" model. By November 1941, after the arrival of the 15th Panzer Division, the number of "twos" on the African continent reached 70 units. At the beginning of 1942, another batch of Pz. II Ausf. F (Tp) was delivered here - in a tropical version. The transfer of these vehicles to Africa can be explained, perhaps, only by their small weight and dimensions in comparison with medium tanks. The Germans could not help but realize that the "deuces" were unable to withstand most of the tanks of the 8th British Army, only their high speed helped them get out of the British shelling. However, in spite of everything, the Pz. II Ausf. F was used here until 1943.
As of June 1, 1941, the Wehrmacht had 1,074 combat-ready Pz. II tanks. Another 45 cars were under repair. In the formations concentrated on the borders of the USSR, there were 746 vehicles of this type - almost 21 percent of the total number of tanks. According to the then staff, one platoon in the company was to be equipped with a Pz. II. But this provision was not always observed: in some divisions there were many "twos", sometimes in excess of the staff, in others there were not at all. On June 22, 1941, Pz. II were in the 1st (43 units), 3rd (58), 4th (44), 6th (47), 7th (53), 8th (49), 9th (32), 10th (45), 11th (44), 12th (33), 13th (45), 14th (45), 16th (45), 17th (44), 18th (50), 19th (35) and 20th (31) Panzer divisions of the Wehrmacht. In addition, line "deuces" were also in the 100th and 101st flamethrower tank battalions.
Pz. IIs could easily fight against Soviet light tanks T-37, T-38 and T-40, armed with machine guns, as well as armored vehicles of all types. Light tanks T-26 and BT, especially the latest editions, were struck by "twos" only from relatively close distances. At the same time, German vehicles inevitably had to enter the effective fire zone of Soviet 45-mm tank guns. They confidently pierced the Pz. II armor and domestic anti-tank guns. By the end of 1941, the German army had lost 424 Pz. II tanks on the Eastern Front.
Nevertheless, in 1942, a number of vehicles of this type were still preserved in the combat units of the Wehrmacht and the SS troops. True, in some compounds their presence was purely symbolic. So, on the eve of the German summer offensive on the Eastern Front, there were still Pz. II in the 1st (2 units), 2nd (22), 3rd (25), 4th (13), 5th (26), 8th (1), 9th (22), 11th (15), 13th (15), 14th (14), 16th (13), 17th (17), 18th (11), 19th (6), 20th (8), 22nd (28), 23rd (27) and 24th (32) tank divisions. In addition, they were in the 3rd (10), 16th (10), 29th (12) and 60th (17) motorized divisions, in the "Great Germany" division (12) and the SS motorized division " Viking "(12). During 1942, the German army lost 346 Pz. II in all theaters of combat.
In 1943, the "two", gradually ousted from combat units, were increasingly involved in patrolling, guarding headquarters, intelligence and counter-guerrilla operations. Losses for the year amounted to 84 units, which indicates a sharp reduction in the number of Pz. II in the troops. Nevertheless, by March 1945, the Germans still had 15 such tanks in the active army and 130 in the reserve army.
In addition to the Wehrmacht, "two" were in service with the armies of Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. At the end of the 40s, several cars of this type (apparently, former Romanian) were in Lebanon.
The Pz. II was considered by the Armaments Directorate and the leadership of the Wehrmacht as a kind of intermediate model between the training Pz. I and the truly combat Pz. III and Pz. IV. However, the real situation upset the plans of the Nazi strategists and forced to put in the army not only the Pz. II, but also the Pz. I. It is surprising how much the German industry in the 30s was unable to develop mass production of tanks. This can be judged by the data given in the table and testifying to how scanty was the production of tanks even in the last five months before the war.
But even after the outbreak of hostilities, when the Reich industry switched to wartime, the production of tanks did not increase significantly. There was no time for intermediate models.
