Panzerkompanie (21.)

Having almost completed my British 8th Army forces I decided I needed to get the bulk of the opposing Afrikakorp finished as well. I have a selection of Panzer IV F's and Panzer III J's already painted but this new batch will form the core of a German Armoured Company circa mid 1942. I've tweaked the army list slightly to make better use of the models I have available.

These models are 1/300th scale from Skytrex and I'm really happy with the quality of the castings. The detail is really nice and like all German Panzer's there are plenty of nice angled surfaces to show up the highlighting.

Panzerkompanie (21.) - Confident Veteran - German Armoured Company
Company HQ - 2x Panzer IV F² 290pts
Panzer Platoon - 5x Panzer IV F¹ 500pts
Panzer Platoon - 5x Panzer IV F¹ 500pts
Panzer Platoon - 5x Panzer III N 550pts

Two Panzer IV F² tanks lead two platoons of  Panzer IV F¹ with a platoon of Panzer III N's bringing up the rear.

Panzer III N

The Panzer III was developed in the 1930's as a Medium Tank and was originally designed to be supported by the Panzer IV in an Infantry support role. As the war evolved and tank guns increased in size the roles of these two tanks were reversed with the Pzr III becoming the support tank.

Like other German tanks of the period the Pzr III was upgraded several times, eventually far outstripping its original design parameters  The last version of the Pzr III was the Ausf. N and was fitted with a 7.5cm KwK 37 L/24 gun able to fire High Explosive Anti Tank (HEAT) rounds.

Panzer IV F¹

The Panzer IV was initially conceived as an Infantry Support tank but quickly evolved beyond that role as the war progressed. The Panzer IV was able to accommodate a larger turret ring which in turn meant it could carry a larger turret and therefore a larger gun. By the end of the war the armament of the Pzr IV had gone from the short 75mm KwK37 L/24 to the long barrelled high-velocity KwK 40 L/48 75mm tank gun. The armour had also gone from an inadequate 15mm of frontal armour to 80mm by the end of the war.

The 1942 Panzer IV Ausf. F2 was an upgrade of the Ausf. F and was fitted with the KwK 40 L/43 anti-tank gun primarily in response to the experiences of fighting Soviet T-34 and KV tanks during  the German invasion of Russian in 1941, Operation Barbarossa.

I still have a Heavy Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon  (a pair of 88's plus crew and support vehicles) for 240pts and a Heavy Panzerspäh Platoon (four Sd Kfz 231 8-Rad's) for 170 pts and some Ju 87D Stuka's to round off this company and brining it up to 2425 points.