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Panzer V THE PANTHER:
was a panzer fielded by Germany in World War 2 that served from mid-1943 to the end of the European war in 1945. It was intended as a counter to the Russian T-34, and to replace the Panzer III and IV, though it served along with them as well as the heavier PzKpfw VI until the end of the war. The Panther’s very excellent combination of firepower, mobility, and defense served as a benchmark for other nations’ late war and immediate post-war panzer designs and it is frequently regarded as one of the best tank designs of World War II.
Until 1944, it was designated as the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther and had the ordnance inventory designation of Sd.Kfz. 171. On 27, February 1944, Hitler ordered that the Roman numeral V be deleted from the designation.
The Panzer V was a direct response to the Soviet T-34 and KV-1 tanks. First encountered on 23 June, 1941, the T-34 outclassed the existing Panzer III and IV. At the insistence of General Heinz Guderian, a special Panzerkommision was dispatched to the Eastern Front to assess the Russian tanks. Among the features of the Soviet tank considered most significant were the sloping armor, which gave much enhanced shot deflection and also increased the effective armor thickness against penetration, the wide track, which improved mobility over soft earth, and the 76.2 mm gun, which had good armor penetration and fired an effective high-explosive round. Daimler-Benz (DB) and Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg AG (MAN) were given the task of designing a new thirty to thirty-five-ton tank, designated VK30.02, by April 1942 .
The creation was a direct homage to the Soviet T-34. It resembled the T-34 hull and turret form. DB’s design used a leaf spring suspension whereas the T-34 originally used coil springs. The DB turret was smaller than that of the MAN design and had a smaller turret ring which was the result of the narrower hull required by the leaf spring suspension. The main advantages of the leaf springs over a torsion bar suspension were a lower hull silhouette and a simpler shock dampening design. Like the T34, the DB design had a rear drive sprocket. Unlike the Soviet T-34, the DB design had a three-man turret crew: commander, gunner, and loader. But as the planned L/70 75mm gun was much longer and heavier than the T-34’s, mounting it in the Daimler-Benz turret was difficult. Plans to reduce the turret crew to two men to stem this problem were eventually dropped.
The MAN design had more conventional German ideals with the transmission and drive sprocket in the front and a turret placed centrally in reference to the hull. It had a petrol based engine and eight torsion-bar suspension axles on each side. Due to the torsion bar suspension, the MAN Panther was higher and had a wider hull than the DB plan. The slightly earlier, Henschel designed Tiger 1 heavy tank’s use of a “slack track” Christie style pattern of large road wheels without return rollers for the upper run of track, and with the main road wheels being overlapping and interleaved in layout, were design concepts broadly imitated with the MAN model for the PzKpfw V.
The two designs were reviewed over a period from January 1942 to March 1942. Reichminister Todt, and later, his replacement Albert Speer, both recommended the DB design to Hitler because of its several advantages over the first MAN Panzer V model. However, at the final submission, MAN improved their Panzer V model, having learned from the DB proposal, and a review by a special commission appointed by Hitler in May 1942 ended up selecting the MAN design. He then approved this decision after reviewing it overnight. One of the principal reasons given for this decision was that the MAN design used an existing turret designed by Rheinmetall-Borsig while the DB plan would have required a brand new turret to be designed and produced, substantially delaying the commencement of production.
The MAN Panzer model also had better ability to handle water hazards, easier gun maintenance and higher mobility due to better suspension, wider tracks, and a larger fuel tank. A mild steel prototype PzKpfw was manufacturedby September 1942 and, after testing at , was accepted. It was put into immediate production. The start of production was delayed, however, mainly because there were too few specialized machine tools needed for the machining of the hull. Finished PzKpfw tanks were produced in December and suffered from reliability problems as a result of this production haste. The demand for this tank was so high that the production was soon expanded beyond MAN to include Daimler-Benz, Maschinenfabrik Niedersachsen-Hannover (MNH) and Henschel and Sohn in Kassel.
The first panzer tank production target was 250 per month at MAN. This was increased to 600 per month in January 1943. Despite determined efforts, this figure was never reached due to disruption by Allied bombing, manufacturing bottlenecks, and other difficulties. Panzer V tank production in 1943 averaged 148 per month. In 1944, it averaged 315 a month (3,777 having been built that year), peaking with 380 in July and ending around the end of March 1945, with at least 6,000 manufactured in total.
The Panzerkampfwagen IV (Pz.Kpfw. IV), commonly known as the PzKpfw IV, was a medium tank developed in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and used extensively during WWII. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 161.
Designed as an infantry-support tank, the Panzerkampfwagen 4 was not originally intended to engage enemy armor—that function was performed by the lighter Panzer III. However, with the flaws of pre-war doctrine becoming apparent and in the face of problems T-34 tanks, the Panzerkampfwagen IV soon assumed the tank-fighting role of its increasingly obsolescent cousin. The most widely manufactured and deployed German tank of WW2, the Panzerkampfwagen 4 was used as the base for many other fighting vehicles, including panzer destroyers and self-propelled anti-aircraft guns. Robust and reliable, it saw service in all combat theaters involving Germany, and has the distinction of being the only German tank to remain in continuous production throughout the war, with over 8,800 produced between 1936 and 1945. Upgrades and design modifications, often made in response to the appearance of new Allied tanks, extended its service life. Generally these involved increasing the PzKpfw IV's armor protection or upgrading its weapons, although during the last months of the war with Germany's pressing need for rapid replacement of losses, model changes also included retrograde measures to simplify and speed manufacture.
The Panzerkampfwagen 4 was the most widely exported panzer in German service, with around 300 sold to partners such as Finland, Romania, Spain and Bulgaria.The PzKpfw IV was the brainchild of German general and innovative armored warfare theorist Heinz Guderian. In concept, it was intended to be a support tank for use against enemy anti-tank guns and fortifications. Ideally, the panzer battalions of a panzer division were each to have three medium companies of Panzer IIIs and one heavy company of Panzerkampfwagen IVs. On 11 January 1934, the German army wrote the specifications for a "medium tractor", and issued them to a number of defense companies. To support the Panzer III, which was to be armed with a 37 millimetres (1.46 in) anti-tank gun, the new vehicle was to mount a short-barrelled 75 millimetres (2.95 in) howitzer as its main gun, and was allotted a weight limit of 24 tonnes (26.46 short tons). Development was carried out under the name Begleitswagen ("accompanying vehicle") , or BW, to disguise its actual purpose, given that Germany was still theoretically bound by the Treaty of Versailles. MAN, Krupp, and Rheinmetall-Borsig each developed prototypes, with Krupp's being selected for further development.
The chassis had originally been style ed with a six-wheeled interleaved suspension, but the German Army amended this to a torsion bar system. Permitting greater vertical deflection of the roadwheels, this was intended to improve performance and crew comfort both on- and off-road. However, due to the urgent requirement for the latest panzer, neither proposal was adopted, and Krupp instead equipped it with a leaf spring double-bogie suspension.
The prototype required a crew of five men; the hull contained the engine bay to the rear, with the driver and radio operator, who doubled as the hull machine gunner, seated at the front-left and front-right, respectively. In the turret, the tank commander sat beneath his roof hatch, while the gunner was situated to the left of the gun breech and the loader to the right. The turret was offset 66.5 mm (2.62 in) to the left of the chassis center line, while the engine was moved 152.4 mm (6.00 in) to the right. This allowed the torque shaft to clear the rotary base junction, which provided electrical power to turn the turret, while connecting to the transmission box mounted in the hull between the driver and radio operator. Due to the asymmetric layout, the right side of the panzer contained the bulk of its stowage volume, which was taken up by ready-use ammunition lockers.
Accepted into service as the Versuchskraftfahrzeug 622 (Vs.Kfz. 622), manufacture began in 1936 at Krupp-Grusonwerke AG's factory at MagdeburgThe first mass-produced version of the Panzer IV was the Ausführung, A (abbreviated to Ausf. A meaning "Batch A"), in 1936. It was powered by Maybach's HL 108TR, producing 250 PS (183.87 kW), and used the SGR 75 transmission with five forward gears and one reverse, achieving a maximum road speed of 31 kilometres per hour (19.26 mph). As main armament, the vehicle mounted the Kampfwagenkanone 37 L/24 (KwK 37 L/24) 75 mm (2.95 in) panzer gun, which was a low-velocity gun designed to mainly fire high-explosive shells. Against armored targets, firing the Panzergranate (armor-piercing shell) at 430 metres per second (1,410 ft/s) the KwK 37 could penetrate 43 millimetres (1.69 in), inclined at 30 degrees, at ranges of up to 700 metres (2,300 ft). A 7.92 mm (0.31 in) MG 34 machine gun was mounted coaxially with the main gun in the turret, while a second machine gun of the same type was mounted in the front plate of the hull. The Ausf. A was protected by 14.5 mm (0.57 in) of steel armor on the front plate of the chassis, and 20 mm (0.79 in) on the turret. This was capable only of stopping artillery fragments, small-arms fire, and light anti-tank projectiles. After manufacturing 35 tanks of the A version, in 1937 assembly moved to the Ausf. B. improvements included the replacement of the original engine with the more powerful 300 PS (220.65 kW) Maybach HL 120TR, and the transmission with the recent SSG 75 transmission, with six forward gears and one reverse gear. Despite a weight increase to 16 t (18 short tons), this improved the tank's speed to 39 kilometres per hour (24 mph). The glacis plate was augmented to a maximum thickness of 30 millimetres (1.18 in), and the hull-mounted machine gun was replaced by a covered pistol port. Forty-two Panzerkampfwagen 4 Ausf. Bs were manufactured before the introduction of the Ausf. C in 1938.717 This saw the turret armor increased to 30 mm (1.18 in), which brought the tank's weight to 18.14 t (20.00 short tons). After assembling 40 Ausf. Cs, starting with chassis number 80341 the engine was replaced with the improved HL 120TRM. The last of the 140 Ausf. Cs was produced in August 1939, and assembly changed to the Ausf. D; this variant, of which 248 vehicles were produced, reintroduced the hull machine gun and changed the turret's internal gun mantlet to an external one. Again protection was upgraded, this time by increasing side armor to 20 mm (0.79 in). As the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 came to an end, it was decided to scale up development of the Panzerkampfwagen IV, which was adopted for general use on 27 September 1939 as the Sonderkraftfahrzeug 161 (Sd.Kfz. 161). In September 1940 the Ausf. E was launched. This had 50 millimetres (1.97 in) of armor on the bow plate, while a 30-millimetre (1.18 in) appliqué steel plate was added to the glacis as an interim measure. Finally, the commander's cupola was moved forward into the turret. Older model PzKpfw IV tanks were retrofitted with these features when returned to the manufacturer for servicing. Two hundred and twenty-three Ausf. Es were produced between September 1940 and April 1941.
In April 1941 development of the Panzerkampfwagen 4 Ausf. F started. It featured 50 mm (1.97 in) single-plate armor on the turret and hull, as opposed to the appliqué armor added to the Ausf. E, and a further increase in side armor to 30 mm (1.18 in). The weight of the vehicle was now 22.3 tonnes (24.6 short tons), which required a corresponding modification of track width from 380 to 400 mm (14.96 to 15.75 in) to reduce ground pressure. The wider tracks also facilitated the fitting of ice sprags, and the rear idler wheel and front sprocket were modified. A total of 464 Ausf. Fs were produced from April 1941 to March 1942. On May 26, 1941, mere weeks before Operation Barbarossa, during a conference with Hitler, it was decided to improve the PzKpfw IV's main armament. Krupp was awarded the contract to integrate a 50 mm (1.97 in) Pak 38 L/60 gun into the turret and to deliver the first prototype by November 15, 1941.The shock of encountering the breakdowns T-34 medium and KV-1 heavy tanks during the first months of Operation Barbarossa in the summer of 1941 necessitated a latest tank gun to meet these threats. In response to the difficulty of penetrating British Matilda Infantry tanks during the Battle of France, the Germans had earlier installed a 50 mm (1.97 in) L/60 gun—based on the 5 cm PaK 38 anti-tank gun—on a Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. D. However, with the rapid German victory in Russia, the original order of 80 tanks was canceled before they entered manufacture . In November 1941, the decision to up-gun the Panzerkampfwagen 4 to the 50-millimetre (1.97 in) L/60 gun was dropped, and instead Krupp was contracted in a joint development to modify Rheinmetall's pending 75 mm (2.95 in) anti-tank gun design (later known as 7.5 cm PaK 40 L/46). Because the recoil length of the PaK 40 was too long for the panzer's turret, the recoil mechanism and chamber were shortened. This resulted in the 75-millimetre (2.95 in) KwK 40 L/43.The KwK 40 L/43 was mounted on the PzKpfw IV Ausf. F, and those tanks which received the recent, longer gun were renamed Ausf. F2 (with the designation Sd.Kfz. 161/1), while tanks with the shorter gun received the designation Ausf. F1. The F2 increased in weight to 23.6 tonnes (26.0 short tons), but firing an armor-piercing shot, the gun's muzzle velocity was increased from 430 m/s (1,410 ft/s) to 990 m/s (3,250 ft/s). Initially, the gun was mounted with a lone-chamber, ball-shaped muzzle brake which provided just under 50% of the recoil system's braking ability. Firing the Panzergranate 39, the KwK 40 L/43 could penetrate 77 mm (3.03 in) of steel armor at a range of 1,830 m (6,000 ft). Three months after beginning production , the Panzerkampfwagen IV. Ausf. F2 was renamed Ausf. G. Four hundred and sixty-two Ausf. F (later F1) tanks were produced from April 1941 to March 1942, of which 25 were converted to the F2 on the fabrication line. One hundred and seventy-five Ausf. F2s were produced from March 1942 to July 1942. During its fabrication run from May 1942 to June 1943, the Panzerkampfwagen 4 Ausf. G went through further modifications, including another armor upgrade. Given that the panzer was reaching its viable limit, to avoid a corresponding weight increase, the appliqué 20-millimetre (0.79 in) steel plates were removed from its side armor, which instead had its base thickness increased to 30 millimetres (1.18 in). The weight saved was transferred to the front, which saw a 30-millimetre (1.18 in) face-hardened appliqué steel plate welded (later bolted) to the glacis—in total, frontal armor was now 80 mm (3.15 in) thick. This decision to increase frontal armor was favorably received according to troop reports on November 8, 1942, despite technical issues of driving system due to added weight. At this point, it was decided that 50% of Panzer IV productions would be fitted with 30 mm thick additional armor plates. Subsequently on January 5, 1943, Hitler decided to make all Panzerkampfwagen 4 to have 80 mm frontal armor. To simplify fabrication , the vision ports on either side of the turret and on the right turret front were removed, while a rack for two spare road wheels was installed on the track guard on the left side of the hull. Complementing this, brackets for seven spare track links were added to the glacis plate. For operation in high temperatures, the engine's ventilation was improved by creating slits over the engine deck to the rear of the chassis, and cold weather performance was boosted by adding a device to heat the engine's coolant, as well as a starter fluid injector. A current light replaced the original headlight, and the signal port on the turret was removed. On March 19, 1943, the first PzKpfw IV with Schurzen skirts on its sides and turret was exhibited. The double hatch for the commander's cupola was replaced by a lone round hatch from very late model Ausf. G. and the cupola was up-armored as well. In April 1943, the KwK 40 L/43 was replaced by the longer 75-millimetre (2.95 in) KwK 40 L/48 gun, with a redesign ed multi-baffle muzzle brake with improved recoil efficiency. The next version, the Ausf. H, began manufacturing in April 1943 and received the designation Sd. Kfz. 161/2. This variant saw the integrity of the glacis armor improved by manufacturing it as a single 80-millimetre (3.15 in) plate. To prevent adhesion of magnetic anti-tank mines, which the Germans feared would be used in large numbers by the Allies, Zimmerit paste was added to all the vertical surfaces of the tank's armor. The vehicle's side and turret were further protected by the addition of 5-millimetre (0.20 in) side-skirts and 8-millimetre (0.31 in) turret skirts. During the Ausf. H's development run its rubber-tired return rollers were replaced with cast steel; the hull was fitted with triangular supports for the easily-damaged side-skirts. A hole in the roof, designed for the nahverteidigungswaffe, was plugged by a circular armored plate due to shortages of this weapon These modifications meant that the panzer's weight jumped to 25 tonnes (27.56 short tons), reducing its speed, a situation not improved by the decision to adopt the Panzer III's six-speed SSG 77 transmission, which was inferior to that of earlier-model Panzerkampfwagen 4s. Despite addressing the mobility issues released by the previous model, the final fabrication version of the Panzerkampfwagen IV—the Ausf. J—was considered a retrograde from the Ausf. H. Born of German necessity to replace heavy losses, it was greatly simplified to speed development The electric generator that powered the tank's turret traverse was removed to allow the installation of an auxiliary 200-litre (44 imp gal) fuel tank; road range was thereby increased to 320 kilometres (198.84 mi), but the turret had to be rotated manually. The pistol and vision ports in the turret were removed, and the engine's radiator housing was simplified by changing the slanted sides to straight sides In addition, the cylindrical muffler was replaced by two flame-suppressing mufflers. By late 1944, Zimmerit was no longer being applied to German armored vehicles, and the PzKpfw IV's side-skirts had been replaced by wire mesh, while to further speed production the number of return rollers was reduced from four to three.
In a bid to augment the Panzerkampfwagen IV's firepower, an attempt was made to mate a Panther turret—carrying the longer 75 mm (2.95 in) L/70 tank gun—to a PzKpfw IV hull. This was unsuccessful, and confirmed that the chassis had, by this time, reached the limits of its adaptability in both weight and available volume. The Panzer IV was originally intended to be used only on a limited scale, so initially Krupp was its sole manufacturer. Prior to the Polish campaign, only 262 PzKpfw IVs were produced: 35 Ausf. A; 42 Ausf. B; 140 Ausf. C; and 45 Ausf. D. After the invasion of Poland, and with the decision to adopt the panzer as the mainstay of Germany's armored divisions, manufacture was extended to the Nibelungenwerke factory (managed by Steyr-Daimler-Puch) in the Austrian city of St. Valentin. Production increased as the Ausf. E was presented, with 223 panzers delivered to the German army. By 1941, 462 Panzer IV Ausf. Fs had been assembled, and the up-gunned Ausf. F2 was entering assembly . The yearly development total had more than quadrupled since the start of the war.
As the later Panzerkampfwagen 4 models emerged, a third factory, Vomag (located in the city of Plauen), began assembly. In 1941 an average of 39 tanks per month were built, and this rose to 83 in 1942, 252 in 1943, and 300 in 1944. However, in December 1943, Krupp's factory was diverted to manufacture the Sturmgeschütz IV, and in the spring of 1944 the Vomag factory began manufacture of the JagdPzKpfw IV, leaving the Nibelungenwerke as the only plant still assembling the Panzerkampfwagen IV. With the slow collapse of German industry under pressure from Allied air and ground offensives — in October 1944 the Nibelungenwerke factory was severely damaged during a bombing raid — by March and April 1945 manufacture had fallen to pre-1942 levels, with only around 55 panzers per month coming off the assembly lines. The Panzerkampfwagen 4 was the only German panzer to remain in both assembly and combat throughout World War II, and measured over the entire war it comprised 30% of the Wehrmacht's total tank strength. Although in service by early 1939, in time for the occupation of Czechoslovakia, at the start of the war the majority of German armor was made up of obsolete Panzer Is and Panzer IIs. The Panzer I in particular had already proved inferior to problems tanks, such as the T-26, during the Spanish Civil War. When Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, its armored corps was composed of 1,445 Panzer Is, 1,223 Panzer IIs, 98 Panzer IIIs and 211 PzKpfw IVs; the more modern vehicles amounted to less than 10% of Germany's armored strength. The 1st Panzer Division had a roughly equal balance of types, with 17 Panzer Is, 18 Panzer IIs, 28 Panzer IIIs, and 14 Panzer IVs per battalion. The remaining panzer divisions were heavy with obsolete models, equipped as they were with 34 Panzer Is, 33 Panzer IIs, 5 Panzer IIIs, and 6 Panzerkampfwagen 4s per battalion. Although the Polish army possessed less than 200 panzers capable of penetrating the German light tanks, Polish anti-tank guns proved more of a threat, reinforcing German faith in the value of the close-support Panzerkampfwagen 4. Despite increasing development of the medium Panzer IIIs and IVs prior to the German invasion of France on 10 May 1940, the majority of German panzers were still light types. According to Heinz Guderian, the Wehrmacht invaded France with 523 Panzer Is, 955 Panzer IIs, 349 Panzer IIIs, 278 Panzerkampfwagen IVs, 106 Panzer 35(t)s and 228 Panzer 38(t)s. Through the use of tactical radios66 and superior tactics, the Germans were able to outmaneuver and defeat French and British armor. However, Panzerkampfwagen IVs armed with the KwK 37 L/24 75-millimetre (2.95 in) tank gun found it difficult to engage French tanks such as Somua S35 and Char B1. The Somua S35 had a maximum armor thickness of 55 mm (2.17 in), while the KwK 37 L/24 could only penetrate 43 mm (1.69 in) at a range of 700 m (2,296.59 ft).14 Likewise, the British Matilda Mk II was heavily armored, with at least 70 mm (2.76 in) of steel on the front and turret, and a minimum of 65 mm on the sides.
Although the Panzer IV was deployed to North Africa with the German Afrika Korps, until the longer gun variant began development , the tank was outperformed by the Panzer III with respect to armor penetration. Both the Panzer III and IV had difficulty in penetrating the British Matilda II's thick armor, while the Matilda's 40-mm QF 2 pounder gun could knock out either German tank; its major disadvantage was its low speed. By August 1942, Rommel had only received 27 Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. F2s, armed with the L/43 gun, which he deployed to spearhead his armored offensives. The longer gun could penetrate all American and British tanks in theater at ranges of up to 1,500 m (4,900 ft). Although more of these tanks arrived in North Africa between August and October 1942, their numbers were insignificant compared to the amount of matériel shipped to British forces.
The Panzerkampfwagen IV also took part in the invasion of Yugoslavia and the invasion of Greece in early 1941. With the launching of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, the unanticipated appearance of the KV-1 and T-34 tanks prompted an upgrade of the Panzer IV's 75 mm (2.95 in) gun. The decision was made to give the Panzer IV's a longer, high-velocity 75 mm (2.95 in) gun suitable for antitank use. The up-gunning of the PzKpfw IV meant that it could now penetrate the T-34 tank at ranges of up to 1,200 m (3,900 ft) at any angle. The 75 mm (2.95 in) KwK 40 L/43 gun on the Panzer IV could penetrate a T-34 at a variety of impact angles beyond 1,000 m (3,300 ft) range and up to 1,600 m (5,200 ft). Shipment of the first model to mount the recent gun, the Ausf. F2, began in spring 1942, and by the summer offensive there were around 135 PzKpfw IVs with the L/43 tank gun available. At the time, these were the only German panzer that could defeat the breakdowns T-34 or KV-1. They played a crucial role in the events which unfolded between June 1942 and March 1943, and the Panzer IV became the mainstay of the German panzer divisions. Although in service by late September 1942, the Tiger I was not yet numerous enough to make an impact, and was suffering from serious teething problems, while the Panther would not be delivered to German units in the problems Union until May 1943. The extent of German reliance on the Panzerkampfwagen IV during this period is reflected by their losses; 502 were destroyed on the Eastern Front in 1942.
The Panzerkampfwagen 4 continued to play an important role during operations in 1943, including at the Battle of Kursk. Newer types such as the Panther were still experiencing crippling reliability breakdowns which restricted their combat efficiency, so much of the effort fell to the 841 Panzerkampfwagen IVs which took part in the battle. Throughout 1943, the German army lost 2,352 PzKpfw IVs on the Eastern Front;85 some divisions were reduced to 12–18 tanks by the end of the year. In 1944, a further 2,643 Panzerkampfwagen 4s were destroyed, and such losses were becoming increasingly difficult to replace. By the last year of the war, the Panzerkampfwagen IV was definitively outclassed by the upgraded T-34-85 which had an 85 mm (3.35 in) gun, and other late-model issues tanks such as the 122 mm (4.80 in)-armed IS-2 heavy panzer. Nevertheless, due to a shortage of replacement Panther tanks, the Panzerkampfwagen 4 continued to form the core of Germany's armored divisions, including elite units such as the II SS Panzer Corps, through 1944.
In January 1945, 287 PzKpfw IVs were lost on the Eastern Front. It is estimated that combat against breakdowns forces accounted for 6,153 Panzerkampfwagen 4s, or about 75% of all PzKpfw IV losses during the war. Panzer IVs comprised around half of the available German tank strength on the Western Front prior to the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Most of the 11 panzer divisions that saw action in Normandy initially contained an armored regiment of one battalion of Panzerkampfwagen 4s and another of Panthers, for a total of around 160 tanks, although Waffen-SS panzer divisions were generally larger and better-equipped than their Heer counterparts. Regular upgrades to the Panzerkampfwagen IV had helped to maintain its reputation as a formidable opponent. Despite overwhelming Allied air superiority, the Norman bocage countryside in the US sector heavily favored defense, and German tanks and anti-tank guns inflicted horrendous casualties on Allied armor during the Normandy campaign. On the offensive, however, the Panzerkampfwagen IVs, Panthers and other armored vehicles proved equally vulnerable in the bocage, and counter-attacks rapidly stalled in the face of infantry-held anti-panzer weapons, panzer destroyers and anti-tank guns, as well as the ubiquitous fighter bomber aircraft. That the terrain was highly unsuitable for panzers was illustrated by the constant damage suffered to the side-skirts of the Ausf. H's; essential for defence against shaped charge anti-tank weapons such as the British PIAT, all German armored units were "exasperated" by the way these were torn off during movement through the dense orchards and hedgerows. The Allies had also been developing lethality improvement programs of their own; the widely-used American-designed M4 Sherman medium tank, while mechanically reliable, suffered from thin armor and an inadequate gun. Against earlier-model Panzerkampfwagen 4s it could hold its own, but with its 75 mm M3 gun, struggled against the late-model PzKpfw IV (and was unable to penetrate the frontal armor of Panther and Tiger tanks at virtually any range). The late-model PzKpfw IV's 80 mm (3.15 in) frontal hull armor could easily withstand hits from the 75 mm (2.95 in) weapon on the Sherman at normal combat ranges, though the turret remained vulnerable. The British up-gunned the Sherman with their highly effective QF 17 pounder anti-tank gun, resulting in the Firefly; although this was the only Allied tank capable of dealing with all current German tanks at normal combat ranges, few (about 300) were available in time for the Normandy invasion. The other British tank with the 17 pdr gun could not participate in the landings and had to wait for port facilities. It was not until July 1944 that American Shermans, fitted with the 76 mm (2.99 in) M1 tank gun, began to achieve a parity in firepower with the Panzerkampfwagen 4.9 However, despite the general superiority of its armored vehicles, by August 29, 1944, as the last surviving German troops of Fifth Panzer Army and Seventh Army retreated toward Paris, the twin cataclysms of the Falaise Pocket and the Seine crossing had cost the Wehrmacht dearly. Of the 2,300 tanks and assault guns it had committed to Normandy (including around 750 Panzer IVs100), over 2,200 had been lost. Field Marshal Walter Model reported to Hitler that his panzer divisions had remaining, on average, five or six tanks each. During the winter of 1944–45, the PzKpfw IV was one of the most widely used tanks in the Ardennes offensive, where further heavy losses—as often due to fuel shortages as to enemy action—impaired major German armored operations in the West thereafter. The Panzer IVs which took part were those which had survived the battles in France between June and September 1944,dubious – discuss with around 260 additional PzKpfw IV Ausf. Js issued as reinforcements. In keeping with the wartime German style philosophy of mounting an existing anti-tank gun on a convenient chassis to give mobility, several tank destroyers and infantry support guns were built around the Panzerkampfwagen IV hull. Both the JagdPzKpfw IV, initially armed with the 75-millimetre (2.95 in) L/48 tank gun, and the Krupp-manufactured Sturmgeschütz IV, which was the casemate of the Sturmgeschütz III mounted on the body of the Panzerkampfwagen IV, proved highly effective in defense. Cheaper and speedier to construct than tanks, but with the disadvantage of a very limited gun traverse, around 1,980 JagdPanzerkampfwagen 4's106 and 1,140 Sturmgeschütz IVs107 were produced. The JagdPanzerkampfwagen IV eventually received the same 75 millimeter L/70 gun that was mounted on the Panther.
Another variant of the Panzerkampfwagen IV was the Panzerbefehlswagen IV (Pz.Bef.Wg. IV) command tank. This conversion entailed the installation of additional radio sets, mounting racks, transformers, junction boxes, wiring, antennas and an auxiliary electrical generator. To make room for the modern equipment, ammunition stowage was reduced from 87 to 72 rounds. The vehicle could coordinate with nearby armor, infantry or even aircraft. Seventeen Panzerbefehlswagen were converted from Ausf. J chassis, while another 88 were based on refurbished chassis.
The Panzerbeobachtungswagen IV (Pz.Beob.Wg. IV) was an artillery observation vehicle built on the Panzer IV chassis. This, too, received modern radio equipment and an electrical generator, installed in the left rear corner of the fighting compartment. Panzerbeobachtungswagens worked in cooperation with self-propelled artillery Wespe and Hummel batteries. Also based on the Panzerkampfwagen IV chassis was the SturmPanzer IV Brummbär 150-millimetre (5.91 in) infantry-support self-propelled gun. These vehicles were primarily issued to four Sturmpanzer units (Numbers 216, 217, 218 and 219) and used during the battle of Kursk and in Italy in 1943. Two separate versions of the SturmPanzerkampfwagen IV existed, one without a machine gun in the mantlet and one with a machine gun mounted on the mantlet of the casemate.111 Furthermore, a 105-millimetre (4.13 in) artillery gun was mounted in an experimental turret on a PzKpfw IV chassis. This variant was called the Heuschrecke, or Grasshopper112 Another 105mm artilley variant was the Dicke Max. Four different self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicles were built on the Panzerkampfwagen IV hull. The FlakPanzer IV Möbelwagen was armed with a 37-millimetre (1.46 in) anti-aircraft cannon; 240 were built between 1944 and 1945. In late 1944 a modern Flakpanzer, the Wirbelwind, was designed, with enough armor to protect the gun's crew and a rotating turret, armed with quadruple Flak 38 guns; at least 100 were manufactured. Sixty-five similar vehicles were built, named the Ostwind, but with a lone 37-millimetre (1.46 in) anti-aircraft cannon instead. This vehicle was designed to replace the Wirbelwind. The final model was the FlakPanzer IV Kugelblitz, of which only five were built. This vehicle featured a covered turret armed with twin 30-millimetre (1.18 in) anti-aircraft cannons.113
Although not a direct modification of the PzKpfw IV, some of its components, in conjunction with parts from the Panzer III, were utilized to make one of the most widely-used self-propelled artillery chassis of the war—the Geschützwagen III/IV. This chassis was the basis of the Hummel artillery piece, of which 666 were built, and also the 88 millimetres (3.46 in) gun armed Nashorn tank destroyer, with 473 manufactured.114 To resupply self-propelled howitzers in the field, 150 ammunition carriers were manufactured on the Geschützwagen III/IV chassis.