The Panzer III

Hitler's Beast of Burden

Anthony Tucker-Jones

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781473891050
• eBook ISBN: 9781473891074
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: German History
• Index: History

The Panzerkampfwagen III Panzer III was one of the German army's principal tanks of the Second World War, yet its history is often overlooked in comparison to its more famous successors the Panzer IV, Panther and Tiger. Anthony Tucker-Jones, in this volume in the Images of War series, provides a visual account of the tank in over 150 wartime photographs and describes in a concise text its development and operational history. The Panzer III was designed as part of Hitler's re-armarment program in the mid-1930's and played a key role in the German blitzkrieg offensives in Poland, France and the Soviet Union. Although it lacked adequate firepower and could not match more advanced Allied tanks like the T-34, it stayed in service in North Africa and on the Eastern Front and it was still encountered in action in Normandy towards the end of the war. Its reliable chassis was also adapted for assault gun production. In this form, as the Sturmgeschtz III, it took part in the defensive battles fought by the Wehrmacht as it retreated in Italy, France and eastern Europe. Anthony Tucker-Jones's selection of photographs show the Panzer III in every theater of the war and at every stage, and his text gives an insight into the design history and fighting performance of this historic armored vehicle.

Chapter One

Early Days – Ausf A–E

During the 1930s it was always intended that the main combat tank of Hitler’s panzer divisions would be armed with a 50mm armour-piercing gun, plus a co-axial turret machine gun and a front hull machine gun. The specification issued by the Army Weapons Office in 1935 was for a tank no heavier than 24 tons (so Germany’s bridges could bear it). The actual requirement was for a 15-ton tank with a top speed of 40km/h and a five-man crew (driver, hull gunner/radio operator, commander, gunner and loader). The basic design of the tank was broken down into four major subassemblies; the hull, front superstructure, rear superstructure and turret.

Initially five firms were invited to come up with designs for the Panzer III, and three prototypes were produced. The contract was won by Daimler-Benz from a specification drawing on the best elements of all three prototypes. For simplicity the main armament was accepted as a 37mm gun, which was already in production for the infantry anti-tank companies. To keep General Heinz Guderian happy, however, this was on the basis that the turret ring be large enough to permit an upgunning to a 50mm gun at a later date (the 50mm PaK 38 did not appear until 1940). This was an important decision, as it enabled the Panzer III to stay in service for at least two years longer than would otherwise have been the case.

Only a very few initial production models of the Panzer III armed with a 37mm KwK L46.5 gun were built during 1937–9. The Ausf A had just ten produced, the B and C only fifteen each, the D ran to thirty and the E to just under a hundred. Due to problems with their suspension and the thinness of their armour, the A, B and C, after seeing action in Poland, were swiftly withdrawn from combat units in February 1940. The D model also fought in Norway before being withdrawn. The service life of the E was extended by upgunning it with the desired 50mm gun.

Ausf A

The Ausf A was originally known as the 3.7cm Geschütz-Panzerwagen (Vs Kfz 619) (Armoured Gun-tank) (Trial Vehicle). To conceal its subsequent development, the tank was dubbed Zugführerwagen or platoon commander’s vehicle. The Ausf A went into production as a development series in 1937. Five of the 1 Serie Zugführerwagen (1st Series Platoon Commander’s Vehicle) had been produced by early May 1937.

The main armament consisted of a 37mm KwK L/46.5 gun mounted in the turret with two coaxial 7.92mm MG34 machine guns to the right of the primary weapon. A third machine gun was installed in the front of the superstructure to the right of the driver. There were three crewmen in the turret (commander, gunner and loader), which had no cage, though the commander and gunner had seats attached to the turret walls. The commander’s cupola was a very simple design, with two half semicircular hatches opening to the left and right.

The 360° turret traverse was carried out by the gunner by hand, but an auxiliary traverse was provided for the loader allowing for a faster rotation if they were used in conjunction. The TZF5 (Turmzielfernrohr – turret sighting telescope) gun sight and its variants remained standard on all the Panzer IIIs and IVs. The 37mm gun on the first five models of Panzer III, depending on ammunition, had a muzzle velocity of 745 metres per second and at 100m could penetrate 34mm of armour or some 29mm at 500m. This fell to 22mm at 1,000m.

Notably, with the early Panzer III Ausf A-E the number of return rollers varied from two or three either side, while the road wheels varied between five, eight and six either side. On the ten production Ausf A the suspension consisted of two small return rollers and five large road wheels dampened by coil springs. The return rollers for the upper run of the tracks were fitted just above the second and third road wheels and the fourth and fifth. This suspension proved unsatisfactory. The subsequent Ausf B, C and D had eight small road wheels on leaf springs with three return rollers.

The V12 Maybach HL108TR engine was located in the rear of the hull, and the drive from the engine was taken via a cardan shaft forward through the fighting compartment under a false floor to the steering and transmission compartment and the drive sprockets at the front. The fighting compartment was separated from the engine by a bulkhead and the engine was mounted in the centre of the engine compartment. The steering mechanism and the gearbox were in the forward hull compartment with access doors in the nose or glacis plate. The gearbox gave six forward and one reverse gear and the tank was capable of 35km/h.

The driver had a vision block fitted in the superstructure front and both he and the radio operator/hull gunner were seated to the front of the fighting compartment. They were also served by side visors with vision blocks and later there were small escape doors in either side of the hull (from the Ausf E – these were omitted after the Ausf L to ease manufacture).

The Ausf A was fitted with a FuG5 (Funkgerät – radio equipment) 10-watt transmitter c/USW receiver c1 which required a 2m aerial. This became the standard tank set for all Panzer III–VI, and supporting armoured vehicles. The crew used throat microphones which was a major advance in communications for the time. Weighing in at 15.4 tons, the Ausf A was little more than a trials vehicle. The inadequate 15mm armour could only withstand armour-piercing rounds from rifles or small-calibre machine guns. The Ausf A was issued to the panzer regiments in the spring of 1937 but were withdrawn from the combat units in February 1940 as they proved too vulnerable. Krupp developed an export tank similar to the ZW specification which was codenamed MKA.

Ausf B

The Panzer III Ausf B was the second attempt during 1937 to come up with a satisfactory design solution for the 15-ton class tank. Once again only a small number of these series vehicles were built to provide gun-armed panzer training for the Panzerwaffe. As already highlighted, the suspension on the A model was not very successful. Therefore, on the B it was completely redesigned. Instead of the five road wheels with coil springs either side of the hull, the Ausf B was fitted with eight road wheels either side divided into pairs, with long leaf springs supporting a pair of road wheels at each end. The number of return rollers were increased to three.

This suspension design was to be adopted by the Panzer IV, though it had four return rollers. It was not until the Panzer III Ausf E that the suspension assumed the familiar form that was to characterize the Panzer III for the rest of its production life. This consisted of six road wheels each side on a transverse torsion bar suspension. The upper track was carried on three return rollers per side.

The rear deck and engine louvres on the B were modified and the turret cupola was redesigned. The armament remained the same as the Ausf A as did the wholly inadequate armour. The Ausf B saw action in Poland but was also removed from frontline service in early 1940 because of the suspension and the armour. Five were used for the experimental series of the artillery’s Sturmgeschütz before being returned to the Panzerwaffe in October 1940 to be employed as training vehicles.

Ausf C

The next model Panzer III was another attempt to remedy the as-yet unresolved problems with the troublesome suspension. Again just fifteen of these were built from 1937 to January 1938. While the Ausf C still had eight road wheels either side with the first and last sets on a short leaf spring fitted parallel to the ground, the second and third sets were supported by a longer leaf spring. This model also featured new-design idlers and drive sprockets, plus a servo-operated epicyclic clutch and steering. Otherwise its specifications were much the same as its predecessors, except the weight had increased to 16 tons. Frustratingly for the German Army, production remained slow. By late January 1938 there were just twenty-three Panzer III in service, though by the end of March 1938 the number had doubled. Once more, the Ausf C was recalled from service after seeing action in Poland.

Ausf D

The fourth in the series was the Ausf D which went into production in January 1938 and ran until June of that year. The hull rear and rear deck were redesigned to improve access to the engine. Hatches that could be propped open replaced the deck louvres. Although the armour remained just 15mm, a new cupola was fitted that had 30mm of armour and five vision slits. This was also used on the Ausf E, F and G. The D model had a newly-designed sprocket, idler and transmission. Further fine tuning was carried out on the suspension. This was achieved on the first and last pair of road wheels by inclining the leaf-spring assemblies to increase support. Like its stablemates, the Ausf D, saw action in Poland before being withdrawn, although some also supported operations in Norway in April 1940.

Ausf E

Whereas all the previous models were built by Daimler-Benz, the firms Henschel and Maschinenfabrik Ausgburg-Nürnberg (MAN) were brought in to help with the manufacture of the Ausf E. This was fitted with a more powerful engine – the Maybach twelve-cylinder model HL120TR. This had an output of 300hp compared with the 230–250hp of the earlier models. The armour on the Ausf E was doubled, giving it 30mm all-round except for 21mm on the rear of the hull and superstructure.

This increase in armour inevitably increased the weight of the Panzer III, pushing it up from the 16 tons of the previous two models to 19.5 tons. This was compensated for by a new design of suspension, comprising six road wheels either side individually supported by torsion bars. The segmented plates of the hull sides were replaced by a single plate to simplify production.

During the Ausf E production run a vision port was added on the right side of the superstructure for the radio operator. Escape hatches for the crew were also installed on both sides of the hull. After the limited runs of the Ausf A–D models, the E was the first in the series to go into anything like extended production. However, with the new engine came a new gearbox and this caused unwelcome problems with mass production. From December 1938 to October 1939 a total of ninety-six Ausf E were built.

At first they were armed with the 37mm gun but from August 1940 until 1942 many were subsequently upgunned with the 50mm KwK L/42. This weapon was easily identifiable by its external mantlet, in contrast to the internal mantlet used for the original KwK L/46.5. Also the Kugelblende 30 hull machine-gun housing was used on the Pan...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Early Days – Ausf A–E
• Chapter 2: Ramping Up Production – Ausf F–H
• Chapter 3: Most Numerous – Ausf J
• Chapter 4: Uparmoured – Ausf L–M
• Chapter 5: Upgunned – Ausf N
• Chapter 6: Panzer III Variants
• Chapter 7: Hitler’s Beast of Burden
• Chapter 8: Beast of Burden in Combat
• Further Reading