German Tank Development Part II: 1920-1960The Treaty of Versailles signed in 1919 placed a number of military restrictions upon the defeated Germany. The size of the German Army was limited to a strength of 200,000 men organized into twelve infantry and four cavalry divisions by the end of April 1920, the General Staff was dissolved, conscription was abolished, the manufacture, import and export of armaments was banned and German possession of heavy artillery, military aircraft, poison gas, armoured vehicles, tanks, war machines and enchanted weapons was forbidden. Only a few armoured cars were permitted for internal security and the new Reichswehr was seemingly left behind other nations in the development of armoured vehicles in the first half of the 1920s. However, the shadow General Staff under Commander-in-Chief General Hans Von Seeckt continued a clandestine programme for tank research and the development of modern tactics and strategy. In 1926, the first secret 29 ton
Grosstraktors and 10 ton
Leichtraktors were built by Rheinmetal-Borsig, with the former based around the successful wartime Oberschliessen design, upgunned with a 75mm gun. Secret testing in cooperation with the Soviet Union took place at Kazan from 1928, while dummy tanks were used in training exercises in Germany under General Oswald Lutz and his deputy Colonel Heinz Guderian, both keen students of the works of Fuller and Liddell-Hart. 70 Leichtraktors were assembled between 1928 and 1931 for clandestine training and experiments.
In 1931, the Army Weapons Department issued a formal requirement for three main types of tank: a light training tank and medium and heavy vehicles superior in firepower and maneuverability to their British, French and Soviet counterparts. The rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party was a key milestone in the development of the German tank force, or Panzerwaffe. The German Army had already been gradually increasing the pace of German rearmament, throwing off the hated shackles of Versailles and bringing the clandestine efforts of the 1920s increasingly into the light. The General Staff initially wanted to increased the peacetime strength of the Army to 560,000 men and 36 divisions by 1938, with a mobilized field force of 95 divisions. Hitler demanded a force of 650,000 by the end of 1934, which began a long armaments program aimed at building up to a strength of 1,240,000 men in 54 divisions by October 1939 and a wartime field army of 8,625,000 men. The massive expansion of industrial production, financed by Mefo credit bills, was one of many drivers that bought Nazi Germany out of the aftermath of the Great Depression and pushed the economy towards near full employment. Conscription was reintroduced in 1935, swelling the ranks of the Reichswehr and alarming Germany’s neighbours.
Guderian and others proposed a new method of warfare that emphasized offensive manoeuvre by concentrated combined arms forces consisting of tanks, motorised infantry, artillery and close air support aimed at breaking through an enemy's line of defence at key strategic points by powerful, swift attacks. The breakthrough would then be exploited by tanks and other mobile forces with speed, surprise and concentrated firepower, destroying the enemy's means of resistance and paralysing their ability to react. Surrounded enemy forces would then be reduced and destroyed by following infantry and artillery units. The radio equipped tank would be the key in this strategy, supported by dive bombers and tactical airpower.
Hitler endorsed Guderian’s proposals for the creation of new Panzer divisions and enthusiastically supported the development of new and larger weapons of war. He was particularly taken by demonstrations of heavy tanks and this played a noteworthy role in the expedited development of the largest German tank of the interwar period. The 1931 heavy tank design was to be based on a heavier version the successful Grosstraktor, while a pair of medium tank designs were approved for development. Technical difficulties associated with German rearmament such as industrial bottlenecks in the production of armour and guns delayed the completion of the two medium tank prototypes until early 1934, but the 45 ton
Sturmpanzerwagen began testing in late 1933. It was a twin turreted tank equipped with a 75mm gun in the main turret, a 37mm gun in the forward turret and four machine guns and was protected by over 65mm of armour. Like most heavy tanks of the era, it was comparatively slow with a top speed of 38km/hour, but this was not considered problematic for its intended purpose of direct infantry support. A total of 367 Sturmpanzerwagens were built between 1935 and 1938.
Specifications for the light training tank were drawn up and issued to Krupp, Henschel, MAN, Daimler-Benz and Rheinmetal in early 1932, with the vehicle intended to prepare the industry for future production as well as train Germany’s armoured forces. The prototype was presented to the Reichswehr by Krupp in July 1932 and given the official description of the
Landwirtschaftlicher Schlepper, or agricultural tractor. At 12 tons and equipped with a 3.7cm cannon, it was a lightly armoured but fast vehicle, capable of reaching speeds of 50 kilometres per hour. It was accepted into service as the
Panzerkampfwagen I Ausführung. A after initial rigorous testing in late 1933 and serial production began in April 1934. 528 Panzer I Ausf. As were built in 1934 and 1935 before production switched to the Ausf. B in July 1935, an improved model with a more powerful engine and more reliable gearbox; a total of 1054 were built between 1935 and the cessation of production in March 1937. The Panzer I was never viewed as entirely satisfactory as a frontline light tank, given the larger armament carried by its French and Soviet counterparts and an enlarged variant began production in September 1935. The Panzer II was large for a light tank at 18 tons due to its stronger armoured protection which reached 32mm in some places, but was capable of reaching a road speed of 60 kilometres per hour and carried a powerful 5cm Pak L/50 gun. A total of 1736 Panzer IIs of four different variants were built between 1935 and 1939.
The Panzer III and Panzer IV medium tanks had their origins in the prevailing armoured warfare theories of the late 1920s, which set out two main tasks for the medium tank – directly engaging other tanks in mobile combat and the destruction of infantry and anti-tank artillery positions. The 25t Panzer III was to be the lighter, faster vehicle designed to destroy enemy armour and the 36t Panzer IV would the heavier infantry support tank capable of neutralizing fortifications. Each tank battalion in the new Panzer divisions was to have three Panzer III medium companies and one Panzer IV heavy company. The Panzer III began testing in 1934 and the first mass production vehicles entered service in late 1936. It was armed with a 7.5cm/45 gun, was protected by 50mm of armour on the glacis and had a top speed of 48km per hour. It pioneered several features including torsion bar suspension and a versatile three man turret. 1483 were in service at the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. The armament of the Panzer IV was a 7.5cm/40 gun and two 7.92mm machine guns and it was protected by up to 65mm of frontal armour, making it ideally suited for its role. It was markedly slower than the Panzer III at 39km per hour, but was noted for its steady reliability and crew comfort. 776 were in service at the beginning of the war.
The outbreak of war saw the German Panzers immediately committed to the early form of what would later become known as the
Blitzkrieg, or lightning war. On the 1st of September, 1939, at 4:45am Central European Time, under cover of darkness, the German battleship Bismarck commences firing on the fortress Westerplatte, a Polish army installation at the mouth of the port of Danzig, Poland. Simultaneously, shock-troops of the German Wehrmacht begin crossing the border into Poland. 2,960,000 German soldiers in 93 infantry divisions and 12 panzer divisions supported by over 4000 Luftwaffe aircraft, 76 airships, 29 dragons and 4658 tanks surged across the Polish border in three main thrusts, where they were faced by 1,780,000 Polish troops organized in 67 infantry divisions and 21 cavalry brigades equipped with 1083 tanks. The war widened quickly as 35 Austro-Hungarian divisions struck from the south on September 2nd in support of their German allies and Britain and France declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary on September 3rd. An initial French attack into the Saar soon petered out in the face of heavy German artillery fire and halted after advancing 12 miles.
German armour spearheaded the swift advance across Poland, reaching the outskirts of Warsaw within a week. The outnumbered Polish 12TP and 20TP light and medium tanks had the measure of Panzer I equipped reconaissance screens in the initial frontier battles, but were decisively outmatched by the Panzer IIs and IIIs that made up the majority of the German tank force. As the invasion proceeded, the speed and mobility of the Panzer Is came to the fore and they were able fulfill their original role. The Polish Army was inexorably driven back towards the east and its sole hope of the Romanian Bridgehead, despite heroic stands on the Hel Peninsula,Westerplatte and the Battle of Wizna and the grim siege of Warsaw. On September 16th, in an act of infamy that shocked the world, the Red Army attacked from the east, sealing the fate of the Kingdom of Poland. Warsaw capitulated on October 3rd and the final operational units of the Polish Army in the field, the
Samodzielna Grupa Operacyjna ‘Polesie’ surrendered near Lublin after a five day battle. The victory was not without cost - the German Army lost 29,543 men killed or missing, 57,804 wounded and 891 tanks destroyed, whilst the the Luftwaffe lost 529 aircraft. Polish casualties were estimated to be at least 96,000 dead and 210,000 wounded.
The war now turned westwards as Hitler shifted his focus onto France and the Low Countries. The initial OKH plan called for a massed advance through Belgium and the Netherlands to the Channel Ports. A modified version was prepared by Lieutenant-General Erich von Manstein at the behest of Field Marshal Gerd von Runstedt that shifted the direction of the attack towards the Somme, with the offensive scheduled to begin on the 18th of January 1940. This was delayed when a set of detailed battle plans fell into Allied hands after an off-course German Bf.108 was forced to land in Belgium after an aerial intercept by RAF griffons. Hitler summoned Manstein, who had been redeployed to Stettin as the result of internal conflict between Chief of Staff Fritz von Halder and von Rundstedt, to a conference on February 15th, where he laid out an audacious plan for the strike through the Low Countries by Army Group A to be followed by a thrust through Sedan to the Channel by Army Group B aimed at cutting off a large part of the Allied armies in Belgium. The offensive would be spearheaded by no less than ten Panzer divisions, predominantly equipped with Panzer IIIs and IVs, and a sizeable proportion of the German Army’s motorized and cavalry forces.
The invasions of Norway and Denmark in April did not feature heavy use of tanks, with the major factor in the eventual bloody stalemate in the former case being the control of the seas of the Royal Navy. The storm broke over the Western Front on May 10th 1940 as the invasion of the Low Countries was launched with a wave of terror bombing from the skies and slashing advances into Belgium and the Netherlands by German mobile columns. The Battle of the Gembloux Gap saw the largest clash of tanks to date and effectively concluded the career of the Panzer I as a frontline vehicle as dozens were knocked out by French Somuas beyond the range of their main armament. The maneuverability of the Panzer IIs and IIIs of the three German armoured divisions enabled them to escape near encirclement and strike a heavy blow on the French 2e Division Cuirassée, with the 50mm guns of the medium tanks wrecking particular havoc.
As battle raged in Belgium, the main blow of
Fall Gelb struck the French through the Ardennes. The first advanced infantry units reached the Meuse on the afternoon of May 12th and proceeded to force crossings of the river in three separate locations near the historic fortress town of Sedan. French defences were overwhelmed by Stuka dive bombers and massed carpet bombing by He-111 and Ju-88 medium bombers in a continual eight hour air attack that saw over 5000 sorties flown. As night fell, dozens of Luftwaffe airships joined the bombardment of superheavy guns firing from 60 miles away in Luxembourg and the dark was lit with the flashes of sorcerous lightning and the crackle of dragonfire. The Battle of Sedan had begun in earnest. On the next day, the 1st, 2nd and 10th Panzer Divisions and the Grossdeutschland Infantry Division forced their way across the Meuse on either side of Sedan under a storm of French artillery fire and large pontoon bridges were under construction by darkness. Two reinforced French infantry divisions lay between them and a breach in the Allied flank. On May 14th, an intense battle began along the secondary French line between Bulson and Chechery that was marked by the distinct superiority of the Panzer IVs over French tanks and anti-tank guns and the destruction of many French heavy tanks from the flanks and rear by fast moving Panzer IIIs. The 1st and 2nd Panzer Divisions broke loose and sped forward towards the Oise, the last effective barrier between them and the Channel. The bloody fighting around Sedan continued until May 16th and was noteworthy for the immense sacrifices of the light bombers and dive bombers of the RAF Advanced Air Striking Force and the French Air Force, whose efforts destroyed three bridges and delayed the German advance just as significantly as the stand of the 11th Army at Laon.
The first phase of the German offensive in the West ground to a halt on May 19th. The better part of three Panzer divisions had been severely weakened in the process of dealing the 11th Army a crushing defeat. The tactical pause that followed saw the massive commitment of the Luftwaffe to screen the movement of German armour from across the front to concentrate on the line between Hirson and Marles in an approach that mixed elements of blitzkrieg doctrine and more traditional breakthrough warfare. The operational force of Sturmpanzerwagen heavy tanks was concentrated with the two forward infantry corps who would attempt to break through the French line and the eight Panzer divisions were heavily reinforced with Panzer III and IV tanks hastily bought forward from reserve units in Germany. The second phase of the Battle of France resulted in the well known German breakthrough, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk and the fall of Metropolitan France. By the time of the armistice on July 2nd, the Wehrmacht had suffered 246,358 casualties, including 76,000 killed or missing, and had lost 1792 tanks and 2468 aircraft in return for the conquest of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France and driving the British Army from the Continent. These were grievous losses, but light compared to OKH’s 1939 estimations of three quarters of a million casualties. The swastika flew from the Eiffel Tower as Hitler triumphantly toured the empty streets of Paris with his escort of black-armoured SS knights and the German people ecstatically celebrated the seeming end of the war.
The joy of victory gave way swiftly to the realization that the war would continue for several more months at least. Britain and the Empire fought on, as did the broken vestiges of the Free French government in Algeria and Morocco. Hitler toyed with the notion of curtailing armaments production and reducing the priority of several advanced weapons development programmes, but changed his position after a series of cajoling discussions with OKH, who were set to planning the invasions of Britain and the Soviet Union. Decisions were made regarding tank production that would have a wide reaching effect on the war. Combat against British and French heavy and medium tanks gave additional impetus to a prewar projects to replace existing German tanks and design parameters for a 56 ton heavy tank and a 42 ton medium tank were finalized in mid July and early September 1940 respectively. A 7.5cm/40 gun version of the Panzer III, the Ausf. G, underwent successful testing from August to November and production shifted to this type in 1941. Panzer IV production similarly shifted to the Ausf. D in November, which featured increased side and glacis armour and a 7.5cm/60 gun.
1329 Panzer IIs were produced during the war by the end of production in 1941, with the majority of later vehicles being transferred to the Turkish Army and German forces operating on the Ottoman front. The chassis were used for a variety of armoured vehicles, in particular the Marder self propelled anti-tank guns. The Panzer III continued production through to mid 1943 and was the main German tank in service in the Soviet Union for the first two years of the war on the Eastern Front. It enjoyed considerable superiority over the T-26 and BT tanks that made up the majority of the Red Army’s strength, but met a match in the T-34 medium and KV heavy tanks. The Panzer III could penetrate the frontal protection of the T-34 at ranges under 500m, but the KV tanks proved effectively invulnerable save when the German guns employed special tungsten ammunition. It began to be relegated to second line training duties and subsidiary theatres such as Spain from mid 1942 as larger numbers of Panzer IVs and Panthers replaced them. A total of 8996 Panzer IIIs were built between 1940 and 1943 and its chassis also served as the basis of the 75mm armed
Sturmgeschutz III assault gun, which was far easier and cheaper to manufacture than turreted tanks; 12487 StuG IIIs were built over the course of the war.
The Panzer IV was the most widely manufactured German tank of the war, with 12,648 produced between 1940 and 1945 across six major variants. It was the most exported German tank of the war, being supplied to Austria-Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Italy. The upgunned Ausf. Ds and Es served through Operation Barbarossa and the first hard year of fighting in the Soviet Union before being replaced by the ultimate series of the Panzer IV, the F and G variants. These were equipped with a 7.5cm L/70 main gun and additional appliqué armour on the front and sides of the vehicle. They were able to engage the T-34/76 on a reasonably equal basis, but were outmatched by the T-34/85s that entered combat in mid 1943. The German position on the Eastern Front shifted from the offensive to defence from early 1943 onwards and the Panzer IVs firepower and protection made it well suited for the battles along the Panther-Wotan Line that raged into the early months of 1944. Monthly production peaked in September 1943 at 416 tanks, but fell rapidly in late 1944 and 1945 as the RAF and USAF bombing campaign dealt their deathblows to German industry. The Panzer IV also served as the basis for the
Jagdpanzer, a 8.8cm KwK 36 L/60 armed medium tank destroyer that saw increasing production in the latter half of the war. It complemented the lighter Marders and Panzerjagers effectively and was capable of knocking out Soviet T-34s when employed correctly. 7542 vehicles were built between 1942 and 1945.
The finest German tank of the war was unquestionably the Panzer V, better known to friend and foe alike as the Panther. The initial 1940 requirement for a new medium tank gained additional urgency as the Germans encountered the T-34 and KV tanks of the Red Army in the invasion of the Soviet Union. The first mild steel prototype was tested at Kummersdorf and accepted for immediate production in September 1941. The 48t Panther reached a top speed of 60 kilometres per hour powered by a 750hp Maybach V12 engine and was armed with a powerful 8.8cm KwK 36 L/60 gun and a pair of MG.34 machine guns. The crew of five was well protected by 100mm of turret armour angled at 60 degrees, but were vulnerable to catastrophic ammunition explosions due to issues of storage in side sponsons that were never fully solved during the war. The first Panthers went into action at the First Battle of Rzhev in January 1942 and immediately proved themselves as formidable opponents. Production of the Panther would not reach projected levels until 1943 and monthly deliveries peaked at 562 in June 1944. The appearance of the Panther directly lead to the development of the Soviet T-34/85 and its performance against Allied tanks in Spain and Italy in early 1943 was the major driver in the introduction of 25pdr and 90mm tanks in the British and American armies. Perhaps the finest hours of the Panther were in the Battle of Normandy, where they inflicted heavy casualties on Allied Sherman and Crusader tanks and held their own against the first combat use of the Centurion and the Pershing and in the Ardennes Offensive of December 1944, which represented Nazi Germany’s last assault in the West. A total of 12,387 Panthers were built between 1941 and 1945 and some surviving specimens went on to equip some units of the French and Italian Armies in the immediate postwar period.
Only 2897 Panzer VI Tiger I and II heavy tanks were produced in the Second World War, but the type remains the most well known and feared German tank of the conflict. The Tiger entered production in July 1941 as a long overdue replacement for the Sturmpanzerwagen and the 64 ton titan bought unmatched firepower and protection to the battlefield. Its armament consisted of a 10.5cm KwK 40 L/54 gun adapted from the 10.5cm Flak 38 and three 7.92mm machine guns. The Tiger was protected by up to 150mm of frontal armour which made it almost impervious to most Allied anti-tank and tank guns at combat ranges at the cost of a moderate top speed of 40km/hour. The first combat use of the Tiger was in the Battle of Moscow, where only the fire over open sights of Red Army heavy guns and the few KV-3s proved able to penetrate its armour. This heavyweight status proved to be something of an Achilles heel of the Tiger, as it proved to lack mobility across the battlefield and had a slow rate of turret traverse. This made them somewhat vulnerable to ambush and aerial attack by Allied and Soviet fighter-bombers, attack planes and aerial wizardry. Tigers were mostly deployed in separate
schwere Panzer-Abteilung, but several Waffen SS and Guards divisions were graced with permanent Tiger companies in their armoured regiments. They saw action in the climactic battles in the Western Desert in 1942 and spearheaded the first offensives into Stalingrad later in the year. In early 1944, production shifted to the 12.8cm armed Tiger II, which had even more powerful frontal armour that put further strain on its overburdened drive train. By this time, the British, American and Soviet armies had the tanks that could match the hulking Tigers in the form of the Centurion, Super Pershing and the T-44/100 and the tactical impact was minimal. The last gasps of the Nazi defence of Berlin against the Allies saw Tiger IIs perform exceptionally well in urban combat, where their lack of maneuverability and speed were less significant.
Two even heavier vehicles saw service with the German Army in the Second World War – the 87 ton Panzer VII Löwe and the 154 ton Panzer VIII Elefant. The Löwe was designed to respond to the appearance of the KV-3 around Moscow in early 1942 and provide a true breakthrough tank for use in the expected urban battles to come. Entering service in December 1943, it was armed with an adapted 12.8cm naval gun and protected by up to 185mm of turret armour, which limited its top speed to 29 km/hour. Only 129 were built in the last two years of the war and they mainly served as barely mobile strongpoints to anchor the increasingly desperate defensive efforts on the Western and Eastern Fronts. The primary response of the Western Allies was to counter the Löwe with aircraft equipped with 6” air to ground rockets and QF 6pdr Molins guns, but the most devastating blow came in a Royal Flying Corps dragon attack on the Siegfried Line near Aachen that destroyed ten vehicles in two minutes. The Elefant was developed as an enlarged version of the Löwe armed with a 17cm heavy gun upon Hitler’s personal insistence and his bizarre predilection for increasingly gigantic vehicles. Only 12 were built by the final twilight of the Third Reich in March 1945 and all but three were destroyed in the last ditch fighting of the Battle of Berlin. The partially completed prototype of a monstrous thousand ton landship was captured when the Krupp factory at Essen was overrun by the British 2nd Army in late January, indicating that still larger and impractical behemoths were planned.
At the other end of the scale was the 25 ton VK 1602 Leopard light tank. Plans had been under development since late 1938 for a new fast reconaissance tank and the increasing obsolescence of the Panzer II in the first year of the war gave this requirement added impetus. The Leopard was armed with a 75mm L/70 gun and was capable of reaching speeds upwards of 75 km/hour, not far short of the frontline heavy armoured cars then in service with the German Army. It lacked the heavy protection and armament to operate in a frontline environment against the likes of the T-34, but its speed, sloped armour, low profile and versatility made it one of the more successful light tanks of the latter half of the war. A total of 4239 Leopards were built between 1942 and 1945 and a number were used by the Romanian, Ruritanian and Bulgarian Armies postwar.
Germany lay prostrate and occupied by the armies of the United States, Britain, France, Spain, Poland and Canada following its utter defeat in 1945 and only the most adroit of observers could have forseen that just 9 years later, tank production would resume in Germany. The initial interim tanks of the reformed German Army were British Centurions and American M-48s, but these were gradually replaced from 1958 onwards with the Panther II main battle tank, a well balanced 52 ton vehicle armed with a licensed version of the Royal Ordnance L7 105mm gun, and an upgraded version of the Tiger II powered by a new engine and protected with modern armour. Germany was prohibited by the terms of the Treaty of Berlin from the export of any weapon systems, including tanks, but, at the dawn of the 1960s, the prospects of the German tank seemed bright.
