Panzer IV

Panzer Vor!

When most people think of German Tanks of WWII they usually think of the Big Cats; the Panthers and the Tigers. But the most common face of the Panzer Divisions in the war from the beginning to the bitter end crawled along in their shadows, the humble Panzer IV. It was cheap to produce, reasonably reliable and could at least hold it's own against most foes it faced one on one. In total some 8,553 Panzer IVs were made, more than any other German Tank after the StuG.

Mid War

Early Panzer IVs were armed with either a 75mm low velocity gun for blowing up infantry or a long 75mm for deal with tanks.

Die Statistiken

IRL

The bass guitarist of the Panzer Corps

The Panzer IV entered production in the middle of the 1930s as the brainchild of Heinz Guderian, one of the top German generals and armored warfare theorists of the interwar period. Conceptually, his idea for the use of the Panzer IV was to provide heavy fire support using 75mm howitzers against fortifications and entrenched infantry, while the Panzer IIIs mopped up enemy armor. This would synergize well with Blitzkrieg doctrine and give tank divisions more weapons to flexibly react to situations they encountered on the front lines. The design, as well as the early war production, fell to the German arms manufacturer Krupp.

The Panzer IV saw limited service in France along with their cousins, the Panzer IIIs, but managed to score impressive tallies, in spite of heavily armored French Char 1-B and British Matildas, both of which were absolute units, and effectively utilized the mobility of the Panzer formations to their advantage.

As Hitler prepared to Napoleon the shit out of Stalin, the Wehrmacht ordered their Panzer IVs upgraded to 50mm cannons to prepare for combat with the T-34 and KV-1. Once it was discovered that a 50mm gun would be utterly fucked trying to kill either of these bastards, the Ausf. F2 was introduced with a 75mm cannon. While it provided an effective gun to tell Stalin to fuck off, it also had a nasty habit of making the vehicle front heavy. Other less obvious refinements were made to the design to streamline production and reduce costs, along with rationalization efforts to improve factory efficiency even when Germany was getting the crap bombed out of it. In spite of this, the Panzer IV was used primarily as a stand in for the Panzer V until all the bugs had been ironed out of it. This also forced the Panzer IVs from support roles to frontline service, a drastic change that they adjusted to surprisingly well.

The Allies responded in a couple different ways to the Panzer IV. As the Sherman didn't stand a great chance against it, the Bongs developed the Firefly, which shoved a 76mm gun into the thing, and the Americans followed in dad's footsteps and created their own with the American 76mm cannon. The Soviets decided to JUST BUILD BIGGER LOL and it worked, which is why the Panzer V, VI, and even VIII exist, as well as the Nashorn and Jagdpanzer IV, which Guderian hated.

The Panzer IV was reliable enough and solid enough to continue production until the end of the war, and designs were still being planned right up until the end, when it was found that the chassis had reached the limit of features it could support. It was exported to Bulgaria and Romania, both of whom used it, as well as the Finns, due to them at least agreeing with Germany that Commies sucked. It also served as the basis of the Dakkariffic Wirbelwind and Ostwind AA tanks.