Panzer IV

By the second half of thirties , the German army's Panzer I and Panzer II were obsolete.  To replace them , the standard Panzer III and Panzer IV were being designed. the Panzer III was intended for deep breakthroughs and was equipped with 3.7cm gun for use against lighly armored vehicles and infantry. Panzer IV was designed to surpress heavy enemy defences and deal with Pill boxes and anti tank guns and because of this it was armed with a powerful short 75mm gun capable of firing powerful high explosive shells. This division of duties proved to be fatal mistake and tanks should be able to deal with multiple types of battlefield situations. attempt to significantly increase Panzer III's firepower didn't yield much results, due to the turrets small size, But designers managed to improve Panzer IV's anti tank efficiency by increasing its gun lenght. The Panzer IV , costing little more than Panzer III became the standard German tank during WW2. In 1934-35 , hitler ordered Krupp and Rheinmetal Borsig and MAN to develope the specified vehicle. All companies presented their designes and prototypes . after extensive tests Krupp's design was selected for full scale production.  The new vehicle was operated by 5 men . In october 1937 first series ( Ausf A ) was produced. 35 units was manufactured by Krupp. 30 of them saw action until late 1941 while 5 of them were used for further testing and training purposes.  In April 1938 Ausf B was produced (42 units ). ausf B was in service until 1943 and was powered by a more powerful 300hp engine.  Ausf B was followed by Ausf C in October 1938. (34units.) Ausf C was powered by a more powerful engine than ausf B which becam the standard engine in later variants.  these early models were used mainly for testing and training while some of them saw action.  Ausf D was the first model manufactured for combat. 229 units were manufactured and they were in service until 1944.

Panzer IV, Ausf D

Ausf F was produced in April 1941 ( 478 units ) . This variant was the final version of Panzer IV armed with short 75mm gun. 25 Ausf F were converted to Ausf F2 by replacing old 360mm tracks with new 400mm tracks. After this and several other modifications addtional 200 units of Ausf F2 were produced. Ausf F2 was nicknamed Mark IV special by the briths forces in north africa.

In May of 1941,1275 units of  Ausf G was produced. followed by addtional 412 units with new long 75mmKwK 401 L/48 gun.

Ausf H was produced in April 1943. 3774 units wee manufactured.  Ausf H was produced in order to simplify production of Panzer IV by removing some of the components. from march to September 1944 , 52 units were converted to command vehicles by installing additional radio equipment.

Ausf H was followed by Ausf J which 90 of them were converted to medium observation tank to communicate with hummel batteries. Ausf J was the final series of Panzer IV. Guderian suppoerted the Panzer IV production and even insisted to cancell the development of Panzer in favor of further developments of Panzer IV. Panzer IV proved to be the best tank in its class during the WW2. The tank was repeatedly upgraded to improve its firepower and armor protection. The tank was so reliable that the Germans used its chassis for several convesions such as Wirbelwind and used the tank until the eand of the war. Its only problem was its low speed  for its size and its not sloped frontal armor, but it was the most important German tank during the war.