Panzer IV: An Offset Turret, a 25-Ton Overload and a Golan Heights Encore

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The Panzer IV began in 1934 under the cover name Begleitwagen, or escort vehicle, because the Treaty of Versailles banned German tanks. In Heinz Guderian's plan it was a support tank, firing a short low-velocity 75mm gun at infantry, anti-tank guns and bunkers while the Panzer III fought enemy armor. Krupp rejected a proposed torsion bar suspension in favor of leaf springs on eight road wheels per side, and because the driveshaft ran down the middle of the crew compartment, the turret sat about two and a half inches left of center and the engine six inches right. When the T-34 and KV-1 appeared in 1941, the Panzer III's turret ring proved too small for a long 75mm gun, and the Panzer IV's larger ring made it the main German combat tank, with the Ausf. F2 and Ausf. G leading the 1942 summer offensive.

Upgrades piled on: 80mm front armor, Zimmerit paste against magnetic mines and Schürzen skirts, pushing the Ausf. H from about 18 to 25 tons on the original leaf springs. The tank pitched forward, swayed on straight roads and broke transmissions. The final Ausf. J lost its powered turret traverse to make room for more fuel, swapped steel skirts for wire mesh, cut return rollers from four to three and dropped Zimmerit. More than 8,500 were built, about 30 percent of German tank strength. After the war, Syria bought refurbished Panzer IVs from France and Czechoslovakia, mounted Soviet DShK machine guns on them and used them on the Golan Heights in the 1960s, and in 2023 Russian forces found a wrecked Panzer IV near Kreminna.

• It was the only German tank in continuous production throughout World War II.
• Hand-cranking the Ausf. J turret 120 degrees on flat ground took nearly 30 seconds.
• Schürzen skirts were built to detonate bazooka and PIAT warheads early but tore off in the Normandy bocage.
• Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Finland operated Panzer IVs during the war.
• Syrian Panzer IVs faced Israeli Super Shermans and Centurions in the 1967 Six-Day War and were still under fire in 1973.