Comments: Softcover, 111 pages, black-and-white photos
ISBN: 9-781473-891050
Price: $22.95
Publisher: Pen and Sword
From the publisher: The PzKpf III was one of Germany’s principal tanks of World War II, yet is often overlooked in comparison to its more famous successors, the PzKpfw IV, Panther, and Tiger tanks. This volume of Pen & Sword’s “Images of War” series, provides a visual account of the tank in more than 150 wartime photographs and describes in a concise text its development and operational history.
The Panzer III became part of Hitler’s rearmament program in the mid-1930s 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 armor such as the Soviet T-34, it stayed in service in North Africa, the Eastern Front, and was still soldiering on in Normandy, opposing the Allied invasion. Its reliable chassis was also adaptable, serving as a base for self-propelled anti-tank and assault guns. One famous example would be the Sturmgeschütz (StuG) III, which took part in the defensive battles fought as the Wehrmacht retreated in Italy, France, and eastern Europe.
Black-and-white photographs show the Panzer III in every theater of operations and at every stage of development, while Ticker-Jones provides insight into the design history and fighting performance of this historic armored vehicle.
FSM says: Just a few steps past the development of the thinly veiled Landvirtscheftlicher Schlepper (the “agricultural tractor” that led to the PzKpfw I and PzKpfw II tanks in the 1930s), the PzKpfw III took its final bows as a main battle tank at the Battle of Kursk. Still, the chassis kept rolling. Modelers will find this a valuable photo reference for building all manner of PzKpfw III-based vehicles — StuG III, command vehicles, Bergepanzers, and more.