PANZERBEFEHLSWAGEN III AUSF. E - NIEMIECKI CZOŁG DOWODZENIA

Panzerbefehlswagen III[w skrócie: Pz.Bef.Wg. III] was a German command tank from the Second World War. The wagon length was 5.56 m, with a hull width of 2.9 meters. The tank was powered by a single Maybach HL 120 TRM engine with 300 hp. The maximum speed on the road was up to 40 km / h. With the intensive development of the German Panzerwaffe in the second half of the 1930s, it became clear that in order to effectively command tanks on the battlefield, specialized command vehicles would be needed, which in the German army were called Panzerbefehlswagen. Initially, they were based on vehicles built on the Panzer I chassis (Kleiner Panzerbefehlswagen), but relatively quickly such vehicles began to be constructed on the basis of the Panzer III tank. The cars rebuilt in this way were called the Panzerbefehlswagen III. The first version to undergo such an overhaul was the Ausf. E, which received a loop antenna at the rear of the vehicle, a relatively powerful radio inside the tank and only a dummy 37 mm gun. However, in the course of hostilities, the dummy gun was replaced with a 50mm gun, and Ausf versions were rebuilt for the command tanks. J and Ausf. M. Rebuilt version of the Ausf. The M for the command tank was called Pz.Bef.Wg. III Ausf. K i had a modified turret compared to the original.