Vol. III of IV.

Vol. IV of IV.

The Panzer III was designed to be the backbone of the Panzer force and was deployed on every front. However, due to its deficient armament and poor armour, and despite its outstanding reliability, it was obsolete by 1942.This comprehensive overview of the Panzer III in action was compiled by Emmy Award winning historian Bob Carruthers. It draws heavily on war-time intelligence reports to produce a fascinating insight into the development and combat history of the Panzer III at the tactical and operational level.Also featured are rare developments such as the flame thrower variant alongside unpublished photographs and illustrations which provide an absorbing study, from an array of primary sources, of the world of the Panzer III and its crews, which conveys to the modern reader a vivid sense of how they were viewed at the time.

The Panzer III was designed to be the backbone of the Panzer force and was deployed on every front. However, due to its deficient armament and poor armour, and despite its outstanding reliability, it was obsolete by 1942.??This comprehensive overview of the Panzer III in action was compiled by Emmy Award winning historian Bob Carruthers. It draws heavily on war-time intelligence reports to produce a fascinating insight into the development and combat history of the Panzer III at the tactical and operational level.??Also featured are rare developments such as the flame thrower variant alongside unpublished photographs and illustrations which provide an absorbing study, from an array of primary sources, of the world of the Panzer III and its crews, which conveys to the modern reader a vivid sense of how they were viewed at the time.

The Panzerkampfwagen III Panzer III was one of the German army's principal tanks of the Second World War, yet its history is often overlooked in comparison to its more famous successors the Panzer IV, Panther and Tiger. Anthony Tucker-Jones, in this volume in the Images of War series, provides a visual account of the tank in over 150 wartime photographs and describes in a concise text its development and operational history. The Panzer III was designed as part of Hitler's re-armarment program in the mid-1930's and played a key role in the German blitzkrieg offensives in Poland, France and the Soviet Union. Although it lacked adequate firepower and could not match more advanced Allied tanks like the T-34, it stayed in service in North Africa and on the Eastern Front and it was still encountered in action in Normandy towards the end of the war. Its reliable chassis was also adapted for assault gun production. In this form, as the Sturmgeschtz III, it took part in the defensive battles fought by the Wehrmacht as it retreated in Italy, France and eastern Europe. Anthony Tucker-Jones's selection of photographs show the Panzer III in every theater of the war and at every stage, and his text gives an insight into the design history and fighting performance of this historic armored vehicle.

This classic, definitive series continues with this volume on Czech panzers and armored vehicles in German use from 1920-1945. Spielberger, a leading expert in the field of German military vehicles, presents the wide variety of variants on the 35(t) and 38(t) chassis: self-propelled artillery, anti-tank guns, flak, mortars, flamethrowers, Hetzer, half-tracks, trucks, personnel carriers, etc.

The Panzer III was the instrument of Blitzkrieg on land, the major component of the Panzerwaffe in the early war years, and an important stepping stone between the earliest Panzers and the heavier vehicles of the later war years. Over 15,000 were built and the Panzerkampfwagen III saw service in all theatres, serving with distinction in Africa and Russia. With detailed step-by-step model photography, specially commissioned walkround photography, scale drawings and wartime shots, this book will provide all the details needed to model the main Panzer III version – the Ausf J – and its variants.