Get Inside the Tanks
with Richard "The_Challenger" Cutland
The Panzer IV
Deutsches Panzer Museum, Munster
Welcome to the Deutsches Tank Museum...
...in Munster, for another...
...in the series - Inside the Tanks.
Today we're going to take...
...a closer look at this...
...the Panzer IV...
..the backbone of Germany's...
...panzer forces, throughout WWII.
Pzkw, IV Medium Tank
Longest Serving German Tank of WWII
It was in service in one form...
..or another, from the beginning....
...to the end, and is a tribute...
...to the soundness of its design...
...that it remains capable...
...of giving a good account of itself...
...on the battlefield....
...even though it was increasingly...
...up against bigger, better-armed...
...and better-armoured tanks.
This example...
...is a relatively late model...
...the "Ausführung G" or "G Version"...
...nearly 1700 of this type...
...were produced from mid-1942...
...to mid-1943 before it was replaced...
...by later variants.
Development
At the outbreak of war...
...Germany's panzer divisions...
...were widely equipped with...
...Panzer Is and IIs...
...but even then, these were only...
...light vehicles...
...better suited to training...
...and it had long been obvious...
...that replacements were needed...
...and replacements had been planned...
...from as early as 1935.
The result was the Panzer III...
...and the Panzer IV...
...the III manufactured...
...by Daimler-Benz...
...and the IV by Krupp.
At the start, different roles...
...had been planned for both...
...with the IV designed as an...
...infantry-support tank...
...and the lighter III, designed....
...to engage enemy armour...
...but that would soon change...
...once Germany came up against...
...much tougher tanks in the USSR.
Krupp's prototype for the IV...
...was armed with a short 75mm gun...
...and quite thin armour...
...and went to production in 1937...
...but real life on the battlefield...
...soon highlighted the need...
...for more protection...
...so, from then on, the Panzer IV's...
...armour was constantly upgraded... ...so, from then on, the Panzer IV's...
...armour was constantly upgraded...
...either by simply bolting on...
...extra plates...
...or replacing them with thicker ones.
Construction
The construction of the Panzer IV...
...was typical for its day.
It's basically flat plates...
...welded together.
There's some attempt...
...like here on the turret...
...to angle plates...
...so as to offer better protection.
The tank is effectively 3 boxes.
The engine compartment...
...the fighting compartment...
...with a turret...
...and the front or driving compartment.
By the time we get to the G variant...
...the front hull armour had increased...
...from the original 15mm to 50mm...
...and would later add...
...another 30mm plate...
...to bring it up to 80mm.
The side armour and the turret armour...
...were both increased from 20 to 30mm.
Size wise...
...the Panzer IV was similar...
...to the Sherman...
...although slightly lower.
It was taller than the T-34-76...
...and about the same length overall.
It weighed 25 metric tonnes...
...a little less than the T-34-76.
Thanks to its 12 cylinder...
...V12 Maybach HL120 engine...
...which delivered around 300 hp...
...the whole thing had a useful...
...maximum road speed of 42 km/h...
...and a cross-country speed of 16 km/h.
The suspension remained constant...
...throughout the production run...
...with leaf-springs on 4 bogies...
...on each side...
...each carrying 2 wheels...
...offering good weight distribution...
...and simple maintenance.
Gun
Just like its armour...
...the Panzer IV's gun...
...was continually upgraded...
...throughout its operational life.
This vehicle here...
...has the long 75mm Kw.K 40.
Where tank guns are concerned...
...the longer the barrel...
...the greater the punch...
...and length was expressed...
...as a multiple of the gun's calibre.
This gun started out...
...with a length of 43 calibres...
...and then quickly moved to 48 calibres.
This could penetrate...
...up to 97mm of armour at 1000m...
...which gave it...
....more than a fair chance against...
...just about all allied tanks...
...until very late in the war.
Its main ammunition...
...was the Panzergranate 39.
Secondary armament consisted of...
...two MG 34s...
...one coaxial with the main gun...
...and another in the front hull...
...fired by the radio operator.
Crew access was pretty good.
The driver and co-driver...
...who was also the radio operator...
...and machine gunner...
...had hatches above their positions.
The commander had his cupola...
...in the turret roof...
...and the gunner and loader...
...had hatches in the turret's sides.
Inside
Inside, the layout...
...is quite conventional.
I'm sitting in the commander's seat...
...inside the turret.
Above me is the commander's hatch...
...and you can see the vision slits...
...in the cupola.
It's pretty cramped in here...
...and you can see it...
...being more cramped...
...with all the ammunition storage.
A Long Run
By the end of the war...
...more than 8000 Panzer IVs...
...had been built, making it by far...
...Germany's most important tank...
...in terms of sheer numbers.
The 2 final variants after this one...
...the H and J...
...saw further moves...
...to strengthen the armour...
...and simplify the construction.
But it was clear that the IV...
...was reaching the limit of its life.
The most obvious extra armour...
...were the side-skirts...
...of marked steel...
...designed to detonate...
...hollow charge projectiles....
...before they hit the hull.
These weren't much liked by the crews...
...because they were easily damaged...
...in rough country...
...and often had to be removed.
Following German practice elsewhere...
...the IV's very good chassis...
...was used as the basis...
...for a range of other vehicles...
...like the Sturmgeschütz IV...
...which mated the chassis...
...with a StuG III superstructure...
...and the Jagdpanzer IV...
...which was a more thorough redesign...
...as a dedicated anti-tank weapon...
...using first the 75mm L48...
...and then the L70 gun of the Panther.
So good was the Panzer IV...
...that even when the war finished...
...it still continued to be used...
...by Bulgaria and Romania...
...and a number, amazingly...
...even saw action in the 6 day war...
...of 1967 in the Syrian army.
So that's the Panzer IV then.
A thoroughly well-designed...
...and well-made tank...
...which was developed consistently...
...and which maintained its presence...
...on the battlefield long after others...
...had disappeared.
Arguably...
...it should have been replaced...
...long before.
But the pressures of war...
...and the teething troubles...
...which plagued later German tanks...
...ensured that it hung on...
...and became the only tank...
...of all the combatants...
...which was in action on the first...
...and last days of the war.