Which Panzer III ?

[Nightshade]

Has anyone out there got any information as to exactly which variant of panzer III was supplied to which division's at what date. And in what numbers. Or do you know where that information might be ?

[Redmow]

The only info I have is below:

PzIIID-On September, 1939 only about 98 of these were available. Withdrawn from service around February, 1940 except for Norway (April, 1940)

PzIIIE/F-About 96 model E's were made and 435 model F's. A full strength platoon consisted of between 3-5 of these depending upon unit type.

PzIIIG-About 550 of these were made. In 1941 the 'official' strength of all panzer platoons were set at 5.

PzIIIH-308 produced.

PzIIIJ-Implemented near end of 1941 by Hitler because his upgunned order was ignored for the PzIIIG. Known as the Mark III special by the British. 1067 were built. 262 of these were converted into observation vehicles for Panzerartillerie batteries.

PzIIIL/M-A total of about 903 were built. About 20 of these were used were with the Panzer battalions in Normandy, 1944 as command tanks.

PzIIIN-Prior to June,1943, ten were allotted to each Tiger Company. A total of about 700 were made.

PzIII(fl)-100 were made. Each platoon had 7 of these-in which 2 were usually assigned to a Pz. regiment HQ company when needed. First use was with the 6th,11th and GD Pz. Divisions during the battle of Kursk.

Hope that helps. Oh, info came from the ASL Rulebook, Section H, page 9-10.

[Nightshade]

Thanks Redmow. I have all that info, looks like I need Panzer Truppen.

[Bastables]

Originally posted by Nightshade:

Thanks Redmow. I have all that info, looks like I need Panzer Truppen.

Jentz?s Panzertruppen won't really help your specific question. German Regt level paper work does not care if its battalions/coy/platoons have ausf G or H PIV so on the reports they are indistinguishable. They'll denote the difference between kurz and lang armed Pz?s but that's about as deep as they'll go.

[SgtMuhammed]

You will also tend to find that various models are mixed and matched right down to the platoon level. As vehicles are destroyed or worn out they get replaced by what is available. War diaries constantly have passages like "Han's panzer was lagging behind the rest because his was an uparmored model and not as fast as the rest..."

Unless you are willing, or even able, to find and read the maintainance reports of each individual Panzer company there really is no accounting as exact as what you are hoping to find.

[Nightshade]

I'm looking at this with a view to historicaly accurate wargames.

I have tried looking at it from the point of view of production dates and there are plenty of problems with looking doing this. For example Most sources particularly wargames rules seem to be under the impression that in mid '41 the 50mm PZ III are all late F and G at total production run of 700 tanks, basically same as the earlier 37mm armed tanks with the bigger gun. however the last of the 308 H's was completed in April '41 so where are they in 1941 ? must be in someone's Division and they were up-armoured. Furthermore the Early J's started production in March '41 and they were produced a lot quicker over 150 a month so maybe up to 600 of those available in June. The whole issue is futher complicated by the fact that from August 1940 all of the 37mm and early 50mm were progressively up armoured and up gunned when sent back for repairs.

I don't imagine for one momment this can be tracked accurately but it ought to be possible to arrive at some uniform decision as to what proportions of which tank were around at a given time.