When the German armed forces overran Europe at the start of World War II, their Blitzkrieg tactics relied on close co-operation between airpower and highly mobile land forces. Just like the deadly Stuka aircraft, the name Panzer struck terror into the hearts of civilians and soldiers alike. Although the word Panzer just means armoured¹, it became associated with German tanks and was the name that the Americans and British soliders referred to them by.

While many of the other major powers treated the tank as primarily an infantry support weapon, the Germans used it, supported by close air cover, at the forefront of battles. With tactics developed in the Spanish Civil War, the German Army, headed by their armoured units, conquered much of Eastern and Western Europe at the start of the war.

Superior tactics were not their only advantage. In the Panzer IV, they had the best tank in terms of a combination of speed, armour and fire-power at the start of the war. So confidant in the Panzer IV were they that had no plans for any improved models, in stark contrast with the other powers who were all too aware of their tanks limitations. Given the Panzer IV's abilities, it was more surprising that the German factories wasted time building the much less able Panzer II and Panzer III well into the war. After encounters with the Russian T-34², German high command drew up designs for some of the most fearsome tanks to take the field.

These tanks were much more complex and over engineered than their rivals. Combine this with an industrial base that was under constant attack from the RAF and the US 8th Airforce, and there was no way that German armour could be produced at a rate anywhere near the same as the allied powers. Germany produced 47,000 armoured fighting vehicles during the war against the 28,000 British Tanks, but America and the USSR produced 88,000 and 105,000 respectivly. Much of the manufacturing was done by men from occupied countries, forced to work by the Nazi state. Military historians and tank reconstructors have found much evidence that these workers were happy to sabotage tanks so that they were as poorly made as a product of the 1970s British Leyland car company.

The Panzer Series

The Panzer series of tanks were the back-bone of the German armoured force. They were certainly more famous and evocative than the Tank Destroyers and Assault Guns. Their full names were Panzerkampfwagens (armoured fighting vehicle)

Panzer I

Designed in the early 1930s as a training vehicle, this tank saw a surprising amount of service considering it was outclassed by almost everything on the battlefield. Carrying just a commander and a driver and weighing in at a little over 5 tonnes, it was just armed with twin machine guns³. It was obviously of no use against armour, but with a decent turn of speed, was relativity effective against infantry at the start of the war, when anti-tank weapons were not in great supply.

Panzer Is were engaged in most of the early battles of the war. It saw service in Poland, Belgium, France and North Africa. By the time of the invasion of Russia, it was limited to towing around supplies. Just over 800 were made.

Panzer II

The Panzer II came into being as a stopgap while the heavier Panzer III and IV were sorted out. Based on the Panzer I, but this time it actually looked vaguely recognisable as a tank, this light tank appeared in 1936 and formed the bulk of the German Tank Force at the start of the war.

It pushed the scales at 7.2 tones when it first came out and had a quick firing 20mm gun, which was pretty handy against most things that weren’t tanks. A machine gun was also fitted to the tank. Originally it had 14mm thick armour, which provided little protection against anything heavier than a machine gun. This, combined with a reasonably high speed, led it to be mainly used as reconnaissance duties as the war carried on.

While it was removed from frontline duty in 1942, production only ceased in 1943, four years after the Panzer III arrived. Given the scarcity of materials later on in the war, it may well have been better, in hindsight, to have finished production much earlier and concentrated on the heavier tanks.

Panzer III

The Panzer III and Panzer IV medium tanks were designed to work in partnership. The III, built by Daimler-Benz, would engage enemy tanks and other armoured vehicles while the IV would provide infantry support. A big step up on the Panzer II in terms of size, it weighed in at 23 tons and had armour up to 70mm thick. To increase share of parts with the infantry, the Panzer III was fitted with a 37mm main gun, although once they came up against the Russian T-34s, this was upgraded to a 50mm, then finally a low velocity 75mm cannon for its new role in infantry support.

The production run started in 1939, so few were in use during the Polish and French campaigns, but they were the largest tank type by number when the Russian invasion came along. Having a three person turret meant that the tank commander was free to command the tank rather than man the gun, this gave it an advantage in combat. This didn’t really matter that much when they came up against newest Russian tanks which were markedly better than the Panzer. 5774 were built, but it became clear that the Panzer IV was a better tank in terms of upgradability and resources were concentrated on that. The Panzer III was the basis of many assault guns, including the Russian SU-76i, on which the Russian gun was mounted on a captured chassis. Including all the Assult guns and Tank Destroyers based on the chassis, the total run was over 16,000.

Panzer IV

While Panzer was the general term for all German tanks, the Panzer IV was the model that was generally referred to as the Panzer.

Krupp’s⁴ Panzer IV was designed for infantry support, so it was fitted with a short barrelled 75mm gun that was effective against buildings, but not as much against tanks. After the shock of how good the Russian tanks were, the Panzer IV was upgraded to use a longer antitank 75mm cannon.

In terms of armour (up to 80mm), gun and speed (26mph), this 25 ton tank was the best tank design of the early war and remained a major threat, especially to US and British tanks, till the end of the war. It was the most produced German tank of the war, almost 8,900 Panzer IVs were built, with over 6,000 of them coming in 1943 and 1944 when better tanks were also being built. It could be argued that the very success of this design and its Panzer III sister meant that the Germans didn’t put the effort into designing a replacement that they should have. This led to subsequent tanks having glaring weaknesses mainly in terms of depolyability, reliability and in their turrets.

Panzer V Panther

While it may not be as famous as its Tiger sister, Germany’s other big cat, the Panther, was arguably best tank design of the whole war. Coming into service in 1943, as a response to the beatings that the Panzers got from the Russians, it was to become a benchmark in fighting machines. The front armour was 80mm thick, not only that, it was sloped so that any shells that did not deflect off would have more effective armour to penetrate. The 75mm cannon was one of the most powerful of the war, with a long barrel and high velocity, it was at least an equal to the larger gun of Tiger. It could pick off American-designed Sherman tanks at a distance, before the Allies could get in range. The 700hp engine could get this beast to reach speeds of 34mph. Although designated a medium tank, at 44 tons it was heavier than some Allied heavy tanks. It has been suggested that it cost around half the price of a Tiger tank to produce, and little more than a Panzer IV, making it a very cost effective design.

When the Allies first encountered it, they thought it was a kind of heavy tank, built in low numbers, but around half the German tanks in Normandy were Panthers. Around 6000 were built in total. No Allied tank could get though its armour at the front and so the Russians and British, followed eventually by the Americans, had to upgrade their guns to take it on at distance or head to head. Its side and rear armour were much lighter and less sloped, so tanks could try and flank it. Here they were helped by the Panther’s powered turret taking three times longer to rotate than a Sherman’s⁵. Not only that, but the some Panthers were killed off on slopes because the turret motor couldn’t actually rotate the heavy gun upwards on steep rises. Tank restorers have found things like cigarette butts in the metal of a Panther. They were built using slave labour, who were not averse to dropping stuff into the molten metal in the factories. Allied attacks on tank factories disrupted production and a lack of availability of some metals meant that the strength of armour was reduced. These were not this great machine’s downfall. It was the final drive linking the engine to the tracks. It could not cope with the weight of the tank and did for more tanks than enemy fire. It was calculated that a Panther’s final drive had an average life of less than 100 miles. This was never redesigned, so remained a fatal weakness. Panthers had to be brought as close to battle as possible on trains were possible, so air attacks on rail hubs could cause havoc with tank deployment. Also, attacks on factories and the desperation to build more tanks meant that fewer spare parts were produced as the war went on.

Panzer VI Tiger

The great Tiger tank came about from a long standing need for a heavy tank that got given the hurry up by the fearsome Russian tanks. Porsche produced a design and built 90 chassis before being told that it was too complex⁶. Instead, the contract went to Henschel. It was the first tank to be able to mount an 88mm gun, based on the formidable Flak 88 anti-aircraft gun. Not only was the gun powerful, it was incredibly accurate as well. It had 110mm frontal armour, because it was flat, not sloped; it had to be much thicker to provide equal protection. When it was introduced, no Allied tank gun could hurt it front on. Sherman tanks had to get within 100 meters to get though the side of the tank whereas Tigers could pick off a Sherman at over 2 kilometres. Eventually guns like the British 17 pounder were introduced to kill it from the front.

Despite being 60 tons in weight, it was still as quick as a Panzer IV, but due to fears over reliability, crews were advised not to over rev it. It didn’t matter; the Tiger was, like the Panther, a very unreliable tank. Very wide tracks were fitted so the Tiger could cope easily with muddy conditions, and boggy ground, despite its great weight. However parts of these tracks had to be removed in order to get the tanks onto train wagons to be carried to the frontline. Where the 60 tons were a problem was where it had to cross bridges or bash through buildings that may have a basement. Few things were built to take the weight, so Tigers could ford rivers. The first 495 were fitted with complex equipment to be able to ford four metres of water, the later Tigers could cope with half that.

Originally designed to break though lines and cause havoc, fortunes of war changed along with tactics and Tigers often found themselves dug in and hidden to create mobile gun emplacements. There were cases of a lone Tiger killing off 20 US tanks in one battle. Like the Panther, its turret was a major weakness, as its traverse was much slower than Allied tanks and could allow it to be flanked.

In the end, it was the complexity of the design that was its great failing. No tank of its time was as well protected or as well armed but probably none were as expensive and time consuming to build. It cost over twice as much as a Panther and four times as an assault gun, so only 1350 or so were built. It doesn’t matter that they have a kill ratio of 5.7 allied tanks to each lost Tiger when for each of these, 30 Shermans and over 42 T-34s were built. Only one Tiger remains in working order, currently at Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset.

Panzer VI B King Tiger (Tiger II)

The King Tiger was brought in to replace the Tiger. Again Porsche thought it would get the contract and started building them but Henschel won the bid. It was basically an uprated Tiger, with even thicker armour, now sloped, and a new model of the 88mm gun. It also got hydraulics that could fully rotate the turret in less than twenty seconds. It retained the 700hp engine from the Tiger and Panther, so was hopelessly underpowered and consumed four gallons of petrol for every mile travelled, not a great thing for an oil starved country. While it was amazingly accurate and could kill off Allied armour well before they could close in to take it out⁷, it suffered from the same problems as the Tiger, it broke down, was difficult to move anywhere and, with less than 500 made, was too costly to make in war affecting numbers.

Panzer VIII Maus

The Mouse was a prototype Super-heavy tank that made the King Tiger seem a little bit inadequate. At 180 tons, it carried a 128mm and a 78mm gun as well as 240mm thick armour. Six were made, but none saw service.

Panzer 35(t)

When Germany annexed Czechoslovakia, it gained access to the country’s huge arms industry. About 300 of these 1936 designed Skoda light tanks were used by the German Army in the early part of the war. 12 tons, with a 1.5in gun and a road speed of over twenty miles an hour, this proved a better tank than the Panzer II. It was also very reliable. Its major failing was that the armour was riveted on. If it was hit, the rivets could come firing out of the back of the plates and ricochet around the cabin until it hit something fleshy. By 1942, it was obsolete.

Panzer 38(t)

Like the 35, this was another light tank from the Czech arms factories. Designed in 1939, it was lighter and faster than the 35(t), and suffered from the same problems with riveted armour. It saw service with a lot of the Axis countries, as well as 1500 being used by the German Army. They weren’t used as front line tanks after 1942.

Assault Guns

German assault guns were initially designed as armoured guns to work alongside the infantry in order to take out heavily defended targets. They were based on tank chassis but instead of having a turret, they had their guns mounted on the body on the tank. This left them with a limited traverse but meant that assault guns were far cheaper to make and were a harder target to hit. With uprated guns, may assault guns were used as tank destroyers. As the war progressed, production switched from tanks towards assault guns. One of the problems with German tactics was that assault guns were classed as artillery, so were not under the command of panzer officers, this limited effectiveness. The Sturmgeschütz crews accounted for 20,000 allied tanks.

Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III)

The StuG III was numerically the most important armoured fighting vehicle that the German army had. Originally based on a Panzer III chassis, over 9,400 were built along with 1,211 of the howitzer armed StuH 42. Originally it had a low velocity 75mm gun, but it was replaced with high velocity versions after the German army had encountered the fearsome Russian tanks. It looked like a basic tank chassis but slightly taller, allowing a limited transverse gun to mounted in the front of the tank rather than in the turret on top.
At 7 ft (2 metres) tall, the StuG III was easier to camouflage than a normal tank and was best used in defence where its lack of turret wouldn’t hinder it. Reports from the Battle of Kursk said that the Stug IIIs performed better than the Panzer IVs. They arrived in service in 1940 and over 1000 were left at the end of the war.

Sturmgeschütz IV (StuG IV)

Unsurprisingly, this was the assault gun version of the Panzer IV. Only 1108 were built, as the Panzer IV production lines were mainly concerned with tanks and tank destroyers not assault guns. The original plan for an assault gun version of the Panzer IV were drawn up in 1943. They weren’t carried through as the design was too heavy and Hitler wanted to develop a Tank Destroyer version of the Panzer IV instead. When one of the factories building the StuG III was destroyed, Krupp started to build their assault gun, based on the available Panzer IV chassis as it was quicker to make than the tank destroyer. The new design came in at 23 tons, just lighter than the StuG III. Like the III, the IV was an effective tank killer.

15 cm sIG 33 (Sf) auf Panzerkampfwagen I Ausf B

For all those people who asked what would happen if you stuck a 150mm gun onto a Panzer I chassis, this is the result. It was a tall, vulnerable creature which provided protection for the gun and gunner, but not for the loaders. It also had to have another vehicle to bring the shells since it could not carry its own. At 8.5 tonnes, the sIG 33 overloaded the chassis, so breakdowns were common. Only 40 were built.

A version based on the Panzer II chassis was built. This numbered 12 in total. The height of the superstructure was lowered, making it harder to hit for other tanks, but making the crew even more vulnerable to light arms and shell fragments. It could, however, carry 30 rounds of ammunition.

The Grille (Cricket) was the result of bolting this gun to a Panzer (38)t. It was more successful and over 300 were built.

The Sturm-Infanteriegeschütz 33B was a run of two dozen StuG IIIs with the sIG 33 gun attached. Unlike the other variants it also had machine guns attached.

Sturmpanzer IV

Know to the allies as the Brummbär (Grumbler) this was a Skoda designed 150mm gun in a casemate style hull attached to the chassis of a Panzer IV. It was used in infantry support roles in France and Russia. 306 of these were made in the last three years of the war.

Sturmtiger

The Sturmtiger was built to answer the same need as the Sturmpanzer IV and the Sturm-Infanteriegeschütz 33B, to destroy buildings in an urban environment. It was designed to be able to take out buildings with one shot as well as being more heavily armoured than its predecessors. The chassis was from a Tiger tank and instead of a gun, a 380mm rocket lancher was stuck on the front. This made the Sturmtiger much shorter than its tank equivalent but it still weighed in at 65 tonnes. By the time it was built, the German Army was on the defensive so didn’t need its urban fighting abilities. 19 were produced.

Panzerjäger

Otherwise known as Tank Hunters, these were some of the most formidable armoured vehicles in the war. While the Allied tank hunters were very tank like, often with lighter protection and an emphasis on speed, German Tank Hunters prioritised thick sloped armour and a big gun, especially in the later models. Many of the earlier versions had open tops making them vulnerable to air attack or to infantry in urban areas. Like the Assault Guns, they did without a proper turret making them cheaper to build and harder to hit.

Panzerjäger I

Stuck with a pile of redundant Panzer I chassis, it was decided to put a Skoda 47mm gun on them, with a gun shield to protect the gun crew. This allowed the Panzerjäger I to sport a relatively powerful and accurate anti-tank gun. On the other hand, the high gun shield made it an easy target. In combat conditions, the gun crew often had to poke their heads above the shield to see what they were aiming at, not the best move in health and safety terms. The armour was woefully thin in places. If the Panzerjäger I could get into position without being blown up, breaking down or having its crew killed, it was formidable weapon against tanks in the early part of the war. The remains of the 200 or so in that were built were withdrawn by 1943.

Marders

The three Marder types were built to service the need for an anti-tank unit that could take on the Russian tanks on the Eastern Front. They all consisted of a 75mm gun mounted on top of a light tank. The guns were either German or rechambered versions of Russian guns. All three designs suffered from the same problems, that they had a high profile so were easy targets and the armour provided little actual protection, especially as the armour around the gun only protected the front and sides.

The Marder I, of which 170 were built used captured French artillery tractors as a base.

The Marder II has built on old Panzer IIs while the Marder III was built on the Panzer (38)t.

Nashorn

The Nashorn (Rhinoceros) was a massive step forward from the Marder. Entering production in 1943, this tank hunter had a long barrelled 88mm anti-tank gun with limited traverse. The body was thinly armoured and a fairly easy target, but on the open plains of Russia, it could kill off enemy tanks well before they could take advantage of its weaknesses. 473 of these 24 tonne beasts were made and even at the end of the war, they were one of the few German units that could take out the American M26 Pershing tank.

Jagdpanzer 38(t)

Popularly known as the Hetzer (Baiter), this was a light tank destroyer like the Marder, it was based on the Panzer (38)t. At 15 tonnes, it was much lighter than the Nashorn, but carried better armour. The 60mm front plate was sloped to double its effectiveness. Its hull was a sloped casemate style construction that not only much lower than a Marder but fully enclosed. It ran with a 75mm gun that was mounted to the right of the vehicle, a slight problem as it was also loaded from the right. The hull itself was very cramped. Over 2800 were built from March 1944 and it proved a very effective weapon as well as being a lot cheaper to produce than larger tank destroyers.

Jagdpanzer IV

Like the Jagdpanzer (38)t, this was a tank chassis with a sloped casemate hull instead of a normal hull and turret. While the Panzer IV that this was based on has 100mm front armour rather than the 80mm of the Jagdpanzer, the tank hunter’s sloped armour was much more effective. Originally it was due to be armed with the Pak 42 75mm gun, but shortages meant that the first run came out with the less powerful Pak 39 variation. The Pak42 was heavier and when fitted made the whole vehicle a rather nose heavy.

In its primary role, the Jadpanzer has formidable, but suffered later in the war when it was used as a tank substitute.

Jagdpanther

Not only was this perhaps the best Tank Destroyer of the war, it looked the most formidable. From the front, it was very simple, two tracks, some thick sloping armour and a massive gun. The 88mm gun from the Tiger II was one of the best of the war and it was mounted on the proven Panther chassis. The design included an uprated gearbox, fixing the main weakness of the original Panther tank. At 45 tonnes, this was a hefty piece of kit, and quick, with a 29mph top speed. 415 of these were produced. Like most German designs, they had no allied rival in terms of capabilities, but no matter how good the turretless Jagdpanzer was, when you are vastly outnumbered by Shermans or T-34s there can only be one winner in the end.

Elefant

As stated earlier, Porsche was so convinced they was going to get to get the contract for the the new Tiger tank that they started production only to see the contract go elsewhere. To put some of these spare chassis to good use, they were used as a basis for a heavy tank destroyer. Unlike the tank hunters based on the Panther and Panzer IV, the Elephant relied on using thick vertical armour rather than the sloping kind. At 65 tonnes with a 200mm front plate, this was a lot of metal and pretty much unkillable by other tanks. They were originally going to be called Ferdinands after their designer.

They notched up a 10:1 kill ratio in service and one unit of Elefants at the battle of Kursk took out 320 Russian tanks for the cost of 13 Elefants. The 88mm gun could kill most opponents before they could become a threat. However things were not as rosy as they seemed.

Firstly, they were very heavy. Any breakdowns, of which there were many, could not be towed away. In Italy, they could not cross roads or bridges. Most of the loses were due to crews abandoning them due to faults rather than trying to carry on fighting. The other problem they had, at least at first, was no machine gun to protect them from infantry. Eventually machine gun protection was added to the Elefant. 91 of them were built.

Jagdtiger

No other armoured land vehicle in the war was as heavy as the Jagdtiger. It was the ultimate example of the German approach to tank warfare where they kept designing bigger and more complex designs despite a lack of resources and being completely outnumbered by Russian and American mass produced simple tanks.

Based on the Tiger II, this was almost 72 tonnes and packed a 128mm gun with 250mm of frontal armour to protect it. It was powerful, almost unstoppable by the enemy and had one of the most fearsome guns on the battlefield. It just couldn’t realise its potential.

The 690hp engine was woefully underpowered for the massive bulk of the thing. On top of that the engines were so stressed that they often broke down. Fuel was in short supply at that time and the Jagdtiger also had problems crossing bridges due to its weight. While the gun could destroy any tank it met, from distances of over 2km, it needed the shell and charge loaded separately, making the reload very slow. Firing the gun gave out a lot of smoke and blinded the crew for a few seconds.

In some cases, even when the tanks reached the enemy while still working, the crews lacked the training that they had earlier in the war. Cases were noted when commanders were scared by 75mm shells landing on the invulnerable front, instead of fighting back, or backing off, they turned and ran, allowing their vulnerable sides and back to be attacked by the enemy.

In the end, 88 of these fearsome machines were built from mid 1944, but had no effect on result of the war.

German Tanks in the War

There is no doubt that technically, the German tank designs were the best of the war. They were better armed, better protected and often as quick as their counterparts. The problem is that wars are fought on fields and in towns, not on paper. It wasn’t the technical advances of the Russians, such as sloped armour, that beat the Germans, it was that America and Russian out produced them on tanks. For a resource poor country, to spend huge amounts on expensive tanks like the Tiger, was a massive strategic error. The Tiger, like others designs, underlined the Nazi propaganda that their tanks were the best in the world, but it was powerless against hoards of simple designs that could be easily repaired in the field.

One advantage that the Germans had in making these huge powerful tanks was the effect they had on the enemy moral. Even looking past the fear they induced, they had another advantage, the allied armies were not prepared for them. Intelligence had got sightings of Panthers and Tigers around the turn of 1942 and 1943, but had discounted them as being specialist tanks being built in limited numbers; it came as a massive shock to the British and US Armies when it turned out that Panthers were being used as a main battle tank supported by a lot of Tigers. If they had taken the threat more seriously, they would have spent time upgrading the guns of their own tanks to cope with them.

It should also be remembered the Germany did not have access to large oil fields. Its main source was Romania, which by 1944 had switched sides to join the Allies. Most German motor fuel had to come from synthetic sources, which were prime targets for the allied bombers. The German heavy tanks were very thirsty, so had to be brought close to the battlefield by rail, which were targets of both the air force and resistance fighters. This meant that tank use had to be limited.

The German command structure was another hindrance, with control over various units split up amongst the high command. The panzer reserve for example could not be used unless it was given the personal okay by Hitler. One of the events that helped make the allied landings in Normandy a success was that the Panzer reserve could not be brought into the battle straight away as nobody wanted to wake Hitler.