Hi Everyone,

Looking for any info as to where this IV D variant (Panzer IV Ausf.D mit 7.5cm KwK 40 L/43 ) was in operation. I do have reference pictures of training vehicles.

cheers M

IIRC the kwk40 L43 was only deployed on the F2 and G models of the Panzer IV and the D variant usually carried the kwk37 L24.

Tim;

There were a few IV-D that were "up-gunned" with the 7.5cm L/43... This variant has been documented as being used in training and some in combat service, and has been kitted by Dragon in the super-nice Pz.Kpfw IV ausf D "up-gunned" kit 6330.

There is one preserved example of the up-gunned D, at Bovington UK. This specimen was collected by the Brits from a training base after war ended.

It should be noted that the up-gunned D came out after the L/43 gun was developed and mounted in IV-F2 and G. The up-gunned D was not a developmental test-platform, but rather a way to use some old D tanks in the prevailing mid-war long-gun environment and circumstances. The up-gunned D also usually appeared with the turret schurzen that became standard IV installation only with the mid-production and later Ausf G - just as seen on the Bovington tank.

Use of D up-gunned in training allowed NSKK to train crew in long-gun IV operation without tying up the badly-needed G tanks. A small number of these up-gunned D's also served in Italy with 26th PzD in early - mid 1944. (A case of "send us something - anything", I think).

Despite the interesting Dragon box-art showing such up-gunned D in a Russian Front setting with a Polikarpov I-16 buzzing by, there seems little evidence that up-gunned D actually went to Russia - but having said that, there COULD have been such, somewhere! History definitely records the growing need for anything with a big gun on it for the German side from 1943 onwards. Dragon provides both a paint-scheme and perhaps markings for a "Russian Front D" in the kit. I just haven't seen this operational claim well-substantiated!

Bob

Towards the very end of the war, the Germans were sending anyone to the front that could hold a weapon, and so it goes they would also send their 'school', or 'training facility' weapons to the front as well (Italy, France, Russia, etc.), and staying on the side of caution that a high percentage of these training vehicles remained within the borders of Germany by 1945 for the 'last stand'. Photography by Germans, of German vehicles/personnel, was sparse at best...so don't expect to see an abundance of near-end-of-war photos by German photographers come April/May 1945. There is an abundance of photos to be found of end-of-war German equipment, coming from American/Soviet sources which took pictures of everything towards the end. Of those sources, a mish-mash build of German early production vehicle chassis/turret's mixed with late war production vehicles, and vice-versa, can be viewed.

What Wikipedia lied to me! They said that gun was only installed on this tank from the F2 model onwards