Panzerkampfwagen IV (PzKpfw IV, also Pz. IV), Sd.Kfz.161
The production of this tank, created by Krupp, began in 1937 and continued throughout the Second World War.
Like the T-III (Pz.III) tank, the power plant is located at the rear, and the power transmission and drive wheels are at the front. The control compartment housed the driver and gunner-radio operator, firing from a machine gun mounted in a ball bearing. The fighting compartment was in the middle of the hull. A multifaceted welded tower was mounted here, in which three crew members were accommodated and weapons were installed.
Tanks T-IV were produced with the following weapons:
modifications A-F, an assault tank with a 75 mm howitzer;
modification G, a tank with a 75 mm cannon with a barrel length of 43 caliber;
modifications N-K, a tank with a 75-mm cannon with a barrel length of 48 calibers.
Due to the constant increase in the thickness of the armor, the weight of the vehicle during production increased from 17,1 tons (modification A) to 24,6 tons (modification N-K). Since 1943, to enhance armor protection, armor screens were installed on the sides of the hull and turret. The long-barreled gun introduced on the G, N-K modifications allowed the T-IV to withstand enemy tanks of equal weight (a sub-caliber 75-mm projectile pierced 1000-mm armor at a distance of 110 meters), but its passability, especially of the overweight latest modifications, was unsatisfactory. In total, about 9500 T-IV tanks of all modifications were produced during the war years.
When there was no Pz.IV tank yet
Tank PzKpfw IV. History of creation.
In the 20s and early 30s, the theory of the use of mechanized troops, in particular tanks, was developed by trial and error, the views of theorists changed very often. A number of tank supporters believed that the appearance of armored vehicles would make positional warfare in the style of fighting 1914-1917 impossible from a tactical point of view. In turn, the French relied on the construction of well-fortified long-term defensive positions, such as the Maginot Line. A number of experts believed that the main armament of the tank should be a machine gun, and the main task of armored vehicles is to fight the infantry and artillery of the enemy, the most radically thinking representatives of this school considered the battle between tanks to be pointless, since, allegedly, neither side could inflict damage on the other. There was an opinion that the side that could destroy the largest number of enemy tanks would win the battle. As the main means of fighting tanks, special weapons with special shells were considered - anti-tank guns with armor-piercing shells. In fact, no one knew what the nature of hostilities would be in a future war. The experience of the Spanish Civil War also did not clarify the situation.
The Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany to have combat tracked vehicles, but could not prevent German specialists from working on studying various theories of the use of armored vehicles, and the creation of tanks was carried out by the Germans in secrecy. When in March 1935 Hitler abandoned the restrictions of Versailles, the young "Panzerwaffe" already had all the theoretical studies in the field of application and organizational structure of tank regiments.
There were two types of light armed tanks PzKpfw I and PzKpfw II in mass production under the guise of "agricultural tractors".
The PzKpfw I tank was considered a training vehicle, while the PzKpfw II was intended for reconnaissance, but it turned out that the “two” remained the most massive tank of panzer divisions until it was replaced by medium tanks PzKpfw III, armed with a 37-mm cannon and three machine guns.
The beginning of the development of the PzKpfw IV tank dates back to January 1934, when the army gave the industry a specification for a new fire support tank weighing no more than 24 tons, the future vehicle received the official designation Gesch.Kpfw. (75 mm)(Vskfz.618). Over the next 18 months, specialists from Rheinmetall-Borzing, Krupp and MAN worked on three competing projects for the battalion commander’s vehicle (“battalionführerswagnen” abbreviated as BW). The VK 2001/K project, presented by Krupp, was recognized as the best project, the shape of the turret and hull is close to the PzKpfw III tank.
However, the VK 2001 / K machine did not go into series, because the military was not satisfied with the six-support undercarriage with medium-diameter wheels on spring suspension, it needed to be replaced with a torsion bar. The torsion bar suspension, compared to the spring suspension, provided a smoother movement of the tank and had a greater vertical travel of the road wheels. Krupp engineers, together with representatives of the Arms Procurement Directorate, agreed on the possibility of using an improved spring suspension on the tank with eight small-diameter road wheels on board. However, Krupp had to largely revise the proposed original design. In the final version, the PzKpfw IV was a combination of the hull and turret of the VK 2001 / K vehicle with a chassis newly developed by Krupp.
When there was no Pz.IV tank yet
The PzKpfw IV tank was designed according to the classic layout with a rear engine. The place of the commander was located along the axis of the tower directly under the commander's cupola, the gunner was located to the left of the breech of the gun, the loader was to the right. In the control compartment, located in front of the tank hull, there were jobs for the driver (to the left of the vehicle axis) and the radio operator's gunner (to the right). Between the driver's seat and the arrow was the transmission. An interesting feature of the design of the tank was the displacement of the tower by about 8 cm to the left of the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, and the engine - by 15 cm to the right to pass the shaft connecting the engine and transmission. Such a constructive solution made it possible to increase the internal reserved volume on the right side of the hull for the placement of the first shots, which the loader could most easily get. The tower turn drive is electric.
The suspension and undercarriage consisted of eight small-diameter road wheels grouped into two-wheeled carts suspended on leaf springs, drive wheels installed in the stern of the sloth tank and four rollers supporting the caterpillar. Throughout the history of the operation of PzKpfw IV tanks, their undercarriage remained unchanged, only minor improvements were introduced. The prototype of the tank was manufactured at the Krupp plant in Essen and tested in 1935-36.
Description of the PzKpfw IV tank
Armored protection.
In 1942, consulting engineers Merz and McLillan conducted a detailed examination of the captured PzKpfw IV Ausf tank, in particular, they carefully examined its armor.
- Several armor plates were tested for hardness, all of them were machined. The hardness of the machined armor plates outside and inside was 300-460 Brinell.
- Overhead armor plates 20 mm thick, which strengthened the armor of the hull sides, are made of homogeneous steel and have a hardness of about 370 Brinell. The reinforced side armor is unable to "hold" 2-pound projectiles fired from 1000 yards.
On the other hand, a tank attack conducted in the Middle East in June 1941 showed that a distance of 500 yards (457 m) can be considered as the limit for effective frontal engagement of a PzKpfw IV with a 2-pounder gun. A report prepared at Woolwich on the study of armor protection of a German tank notes that “armor is 10% better than similar machined English, and in some respects even better than homogeneous.”
At the same time, the method of connecting the armor plates was criticized, a Leyland Motors specialist commented on his research in the following way: “The quality of the welding is poor, the welds of two of the three armor plates in the area where the projectile hit the projectile diverged.”
Changing the design of the frontal part of the tank hull
Ausf.A
Ausf.B
Ausf.D
Ausf.E
Power point.
The Maybach engine is designed to operate in moderate climatic conditions, where its performance is satisfactory. At the same time, in the tropics or high dustiness, it breaks down and is prone to overheating. British intelligence, after studying the PzKpfw IV tank captured in 1942, concluded that engine failures were caused by sand getting into the oil system, distributor, dynamo and starter; air filters are inadequate. There were frequent cases of sand getting into the carburetor.
The Maybach engine manual requires the use of gasoline only with an octane rating of 74 with a complete lubricant change after 200, 500, 1000 and 2000 km of run. The recommended engine speed under normal operating conditions is 2600 rpm, but in hot climates (southern regions of the USSR and North Africa), this speed does not provide normal cooling. The use of the engine as a brake is permissible at 2200-2400 rpm, at a speed of 2600-3000 this mode should be avoided.
The main components of the cooling system were two radiators installed at an angle of 25 degrees to the horizon. The radiators were cooled by an airflow forced by two fans; fan drive - belt driven from the main motor shaft. The circulation of water in the cooling system was provided by a centrifuge pump. Air entered the engine compartment through a hole covered with an armored shutter from the right side of the hull and was thrown out through a similar hole on the left side.
The synchro-mechanical transmission proved to be effective, although the pulling force in high gears was low, so 6th gear was only used when driving on the highway. The output shafts are combined with the braking and steering mechanism into a single device. To cool this device, a fan was installed to the left of the clutch box. The simultaneous release of the steering levers could be used as an effective parking brake.
On tanks of later versions, the spring suspension of the road wheels was heavily overloaded, but replacing the damaged two-wheeled bogie seemed to be a fairly simple operation. The tension of the caterpillar was regulated by the position of the sloth mounted on the eccentric. On the Eastern Front, special track expanders, known as "Ostketten", were used, which improved the patency of tanks in the winter months of the year.
An extremely simple but effective device for dressing a jumped-off caterpillar was tested on an experimental PzKpfw IV tank. It was a factory-made tape that had the same width as the tracks and a perforation for engagement with the gear rim of the drive wheel. One end of the tape was attached to the track that had come off, the other, after it was passed over the rollers, to the drive wheel. The motor was turned on, the drive wheel began to rotate, pulling the tape and the tracks fastened to it until the rims of the drive wheel entered the slots on the tracks. The whole operation took several minutes.
The engine was started by a 24-volt electric starter. Since the auxiliary electric generator saved battery power, it was possible to try to start the engine more times on the “four” than on the PzKpfw III tank. In the event of a starter failure, or when the grease thickened in severe frost, an inertial starter was used, the handle of which was connected to the engine shaft through a hole in the aft armor plate. The handle was turned by two people at the same time, the minimum number of turns of the handle required to start the engine was 60 rpm. Starting the engine from an inertial starter has become commonplace in the Russian winter. The minimum temperature of the engine, at which it started to work normally, was t = 50 ° C when the shaft rotated 2000 rpm.
To facilitate starting the engine in the cold climate of the Eastern Front, a special system was developed, known as the “Kuhlwasserubertragung” - a cold water heat exchanger. After the engine of one tank was started and warmed up to normal temperature, warm water from it was pumped into the cooling system of the next tank, and cold water was supplied to the already running engine - there was an exchange of refrigerants between the working and idle engines. After the warm water warmed up the motor a little, it was possible to try to start the engine with an electric starter. The "Kuhlwasserubertragung" system required minor modifications to the tank's cooling system.
The Maybach engine is designed to operate in moderate climatic conditions, where its performance is satisfactory. At the same time, in the tropics or high dustiness, it breaks down and is prone to overheating. British intelligence, after studying the PzKpfw IV tank captured in 1942, concluded that engine failures were caused by sand getting into the oil system, distributor, dynamo and starter; air filters are inadequate. There were frequent cases of sand getting into the carburetor.
