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The chassis had originally been designed with a six-wheeled Schachtellaufwerk interleaved-roadwheel suspension (as already adopted for German half-tracks), but the German Army amended this to a torsion bar system. MAN, Krupp, and Rheinmetall-Borsig each developed prototypes, with Krupp's being selected for further development. Development was carried out under the name Begleitwagen ("accompanying vehicle"), or BW, to disguise its actual purpose, given that Germany was still theoretically bound by the Treaty of Versailles ban on tanks. To support the Panzer III, which would be armed with a 37-millimetre (1.46 in) anti-tank gun, the new vehicle would have a short-barreled, howitzer-like 75-millimetre (2.95 in) as its main gun, and was allotted a weight limit of 24 tonnes (26.46 short tons). On 11 January 1934, the German army wrote the specifications for a "medium tractor", and issued them to a number of defense companies. Ideally, each tank battalion in a panzer division was to have three medium companies of Panzer IIIs and one heavy company of Panzer IVs. In concept, it was intended to be a support tank for use against enemy anti-tank guns and fortifications. The Panzer IV was the brainchild of the German general and innovative armoured warfare theorist Heinz Guderian. 6.1 Tanks of comparable role, performance and eraĭevelopment history Origins.4.1 Poland, Western Front and North Africa (1939–1942).After the war, Syria procured Panzer IVs from France and Czechoslovakia, which saw combat in the 1967 Six-Day War. It was the most widely exported tank in German service, with around 300 sold to Finland, Romania, Spain and Bulgaria.
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The Panzer IV was partially succeeded by the Panther medium tank, which was introduced to counter the Soviet T-34, although it continued to be a significant component of German armoured formations to the end of the war. Generally, these involved increasing the armour protection or upgrading the weapons, although during the last months of the war, with Germany's pressing need for rapid replacement of losses, design changes also included simplifications to speed up the manufacturing process. It received various upgrades and design modifications, intended to counter new threats, extending its service life. However, as the Germans faced the formidable T-34, the Panzer IV had more development potential, with a larger turret ring to mount more powerful guns, so the two switched roles.
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It was originally designed for infantry support, while the similar Panzer III was to fight armoured fighting vehicles. The Panzer IV saw service in all combat theaters involving Germany and was the only German tank to remain in continuous production throughout the war. Its chassis was also used as the base for many other fighting vehicles, including the Sturmgeschütz IV assault gun, the Jagdpanzer IV tank destroyer, the Wirbelwind self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, and the Brummbär self-propelled gun. The Panzer IV was the most numerous German tank and the second-most numerous German fully tracked armoured fighting vehicle of the Second World War 8,553 Panzer IVs of all versions were built during World War II, only exceeded by the StuG III assault gun with 10,086 vehicles. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. IV), commonly known as the Panzer IV, was a German medium tank developed in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Hull rear (upper and lower): 20 mm (0.79 in) Hull side (upper and lower): 30 mm (1.2 in) H, 1943 )Ģ5.0 tonnes (27.6 short tons 24.6 long tons)ĥ (commander, gunner, loader, driver, radio operator/bow machine-gunner) StuG IV, Jagdpanzer IV, Brummbär/Sturmpanzer IV, Nashorn, Wirbelwind, Ostwind World War II, 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Six-Day War This tank was on display at the Deutsches Panzermuseum. G "413" in desert colours, bearing the palm tree insignia of the Afrika Korps, " Friederike" script written on the gun barrel near the mantlet.