Panzer IV Ausf. H version 2

Description

The Panzer IV, often referred to as the “workhorse of the German Army,” was the only German tank to have a service life spanning all of World War II. As the Panzer III becoming outclassed by its adversaries in terms of armour and armament ,  it was the Panzer IV that took the responsibility of serving as Germany’s main medium tankfrom 1942-onward. From the Ausf. F2 and G variants armed with the L/43 to the later H and J versions equipped with the slightly-longer L/48 cannon, the Panzer IV was capable of defeating the armour of all but the heaviest Allied and Soviet tanks up until the end of the war.

The design of the Panzer IV throughout all of its versions was straightforward and reliable. The medium tank used leaf spring suspension, which was simple to manufacture, easy to maintain in the field. Being an interwar design, the hull armour plates are mostly unsloped/vertical, with the sides of the hull’s upper superstructure extending over the tracks in the form of sponsors. This characteristic of the Panzer IV was a major contributor to its long service life, as the wider upper hull allowed the turret ring to have an increased diameter, which in turn made it possible to mount the long-barreled 75mm cannons as the war progressed. The Panzer IV was also able to serve as a versatile platform on which anti-aircraft vehicles, armoured recovery vehicles, and self-propelled guns could be built.

Panzer IV Ausf. H medium tank of 29th Regiment of German 12th Panzer Division on the Eastern Front, Jul 1944. Source: German Federal Archive (Bundesarchiv)

While all versions of the Panzer IV saw production throughout the entire war, the Ausf. H variant stood above all the others as the most-produced version, with 3,774 tanks being manufactured between April 1943 and July 1944 . This was because the Panzer IV H was generally regarded as the “best” version of the tank, as it had the greatest armour protection while maintaining the most useful features out of all the variants. While all of the Panzer IV variants were superficially similar in appearance, the H version had a few distinguishing features. First was the single-piece 80mm upper frontal hull plate, where the driver’s viewport and bow machine gun were positioned;  Second was the single-piece round hatch on top of the commander’s cupola on the turret, which opened up to the left;  The final major distinct feature of the Ausf. H was the inclusion of solid steel Schürzen spaced armour skirts on the hull sides and around the turret. These skirt plates were 5mm thick on the hull sides and 8mm thick around the turret, which were primarily intended to provide protection to the Panzer IV’s thinner side and turret rear armour from Soviet anti-tank rifles.