Name that tank!

IMO too many vision and pistol ports for a late production Pz IV, due to the spaced armour making them useless they were dropped. But the muzzle brake if the late production rather than the bulbous one found on the L/43.

 

My guess would be either a late production Ausf. G, or the Ausf. F2 with the newer muzzle brake on the L/43 gun, or perhaps testing the L/48, which would be later become the standard gun used on the Ausf G and later models.

Some of the older style turrets with the vision/pistol ports may have gotten used in the transitional period when switching to the late production Pz IV's. Also there were older Pz IV's which were refitted with the more powerful L/48 gun, before being sent back to the front.

Another clue that it's probably not a Pz4 J, is that it has 4 return rollers. By the time of the Pz4 J this was reduced to only 3.

so my guess is PzKpfw IV Sd Kfz 161/1 Ausf. G

 

AFAIK there was no technical difference marking the switch between the F2 the G designation, at one time they decided to name all long gunned Pz IVs G to avoid confusion. Vehicles produced as G had the L/48 and 80mm armour made up of two plates, the dstinguishing feature of the H was the final drive (cast drive sprocket) and increased turret top armour. Could be a reworked earlier model or a "transition" tank, the turrets on the assembly lines were used "as is" not reworked so there were overlaps in features.

 

Agree, other than the addition of the L/48 in the production Ausf. G, there was little or no difference between the F2 and early G.

I think there were a couple of other changes made in the late production Ausf.G, such as the removal of the turret vision/pistol ports, increased turret top/armor to 15 mm, cupola was up armored (100mm) and redesigned with the single round hatch cover. I seem to remember reading the Ausf G was also the first of Pz4's to be shown, fitted with Schuerzen.

The Pz4's are a modelers dream.... so many variations using both older and newer technology combined, it's tough to get it wrong.

 

TOS you have noticed a diference in muzzle break your on the write lines but this was also tried on the Pz III

 

According to Zaloga the switch in designation to G (8./B.W.) was in July 1942 for ALL KwK 40 armed tanks, on the other hand he records the following dates for the introduction of mods (note that some preceed that date):
April 1942 vision ports on turret sides and left turret front discontinued.
May 1942 additional 30mm plates added to frontal armour (this was applied to 100% of production by Nov 1942)
June 1942 Rack for two spare roadweels on left track guard
September 1942 Bosh light replaced Notek, signal ports removed from turret side hatches.
November 1942 Antenna deflector added to gun mantlet
Febbruary 1943 new cupola, smoke chaìddles on turret sides (quickly discontinued when it was founf thayt they could be set off by small arms fire blinding the crew), driver periscopes discontinued.
March 1943 signal port on turret removed
April 1943 additional 30mm armour was bolted on not welded, new muzzle brake, L/48 gun, first Schurzen

He puts the top turret armour increase in the H production run.

Now our mistery tank has lots of ports, no Schurzen, four return rollers and what looks like an L/48 gun. no way to spot the Notek/Bosh or additional armour from that angle. I would agree with Slomo on an Ausf G.

 

I have Ausf F that's not the issue as this vehicle is an experimental one, Although it was a success but due to a shortage in a type of material in was dropped

 

From what you write it could be that the gun is the KwK 41 Konishe (tapered bore) wapon that was discontinued due to lack of tungsten alloys, I could find no reference to it being mounted on a PzIV chassis but it's a logical move.Tthe likely dates for the experiment do match with an F model being used. BTW if that's what it is it probably was a good thing for the Germans it didn't go into production, the conical bore weapons were very specialized AT weapons and a lot of targets required HE instead.

 

Congratulations TOS you have it, Your go

 

You made me work for it,the picture was bad enough it was difficult to realize there was "something wrong" with the gun.

So another bad quality pic, the lead tank is most likely a T-34 of some sort but what are the others?
View attachment 13805

 

Light Tank Mk VII Tetrarch
20 of them were sent to the USSR under lend-lease program.

Regards,

 

Absolutely correct, your go

 

One of the tanks is easy to guess, second one may be tougher.

Regards,

 

Very hard if all I can see is a red X
Looks like the picture is gone.

 

Must be some online problem. I can open this picture from my post successfully.
I'll try to download it from my home computer later on.

Regards,

 

The photo is working for me.

My guess: T-34 on the left, T-43 on the right?

 

Quite right. Go on.

Regards,

 

Apparentlly the site you uploaded (from the properties of the pic I see it's a russian domain) to is on the "banned list" here in italy as containing some objectionable material so my provider is filering out the pics .

 

Not sure if this one has been posted, but anyway:

Name the tank underneath the wooden mockup, and bonus points if you can name what the wooden mockup is supposed to be of

 

I see. I'll use another source to post pictures next time. Sorry for inconvenience.

Regards,