The Panzer III or Panzerkampfwagen III or abbreviated to Pz.Kpfw.
III Sd.Kfz. 141 When Poland was invaded on the 1st September
1939 Panzer III's were only in service in small numbers, at
this time the Wehrmacht only had six armoured divisions, and
all of which were engaged in the Polish campaign which only
lasted 18 days, although the Panzer III only played a minimal
role, but the tactics learned by general
Heinz
Guderian were to play major roles in the coming campaigns.
Development order for a 15 ton vehicle was issued by the ordnance
department in 1935 and given to manufacturing firms
M.A.N,
Rheinmetall-Borsig,
Krupp,
Daimler-Benz,
in 1936 prototype trials took place in which
Daimler-Benz
won the production order. Much of the early development work
consisted of finding suitable suspension, and all through
the different models the suspension was continually altered.
The Panzer III was intended to be the main battle tank of
the Wehrmacht. However, once the Russian campaign had started
and the German Army had encountered the Russian T-34 it soon
became apparent that the Panzer III's armament and armour
were vastly inferior to the Russian T-34
German Military Vehicles.
ISBN-10: 087349783X
Armoured Fighting Vehicles of Germany World War II.
ISBN-10: 0214203077
Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World Two.
ISBN-10: 1854095188
For a complete list of
sources
