Pz.IV G (Italy)
Contents
Description
The ▄Pz.IV G is a premium rank III Italian medium tank with a battle rating of 4.0 (AB) and 3.7 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update "Ixwa Strike". It differs from the German Pz.IV G by its longer gun, protection in the turret and its curved radio antenna.
General info
Survivability and armour
The Pz.IV G has really great armor, due to it being well armored, it can easily survive it being up tiered to Rank III game-play. This allows the Pz.IV G to perform a variety of play-styles, such as front-line assault, support, and as a flanker. Unlike the German version, the Italian variant of this machine removed the side-skirts, but added extra armor on the sides of the turret. The extra armor on the turret doesn't really help the vehicle too much in terms of protection, but it doesn't harm the vehicle by having it. Overall, the vehicle is good enough to survive encounters with the formidable opponents, such as Sherman's and T-34s.
Armour type:
Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hull | 88 mm | 30 mm Top |
20 mm | 10 mm |
Turret | 50 mm Turret front 50 mm Gun mantlet |
30 mm | 30 mm | 16 mm |
Cupola | 95 mm | 95 mm | 95 mm | 8 mm |
Notes:
Mobility
Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
Arcade | 45 | 9 | 23.7 | 465 | 572 | 19.62 | 24.14 |
Realistic | 40 | 8 | 265 | 300 | 11.18 | 12.66 |
Modifications and economy
Armaments
Main armament
75 mm KwK40 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
Arcade | 87 | -10°/+20° | ±180° | N/A | 13.3 | 18.4 | 22.4 | 24.8 | 26.4 | 7.67 | 6.79 | 6.25 | 5.90 |
Realistic | 8.3 | 9.8 | 11.9 | 13.2 | 14.0 |
Ammunition
- PzGr 39 - Armour-Piercing Ballistic Cap shell - Use this shell as your main ammunition type, as it has a good penetration power and deals the most damage upon penetration thanks to its explosive filler.
- Hl.Gr. 38B - High Explosive Anti-Tank shell - it is recommended to completely avoid this kind of shell as its performance is vastly inferior in all aspects compared to APCBC or APCR ammo used by this tank.
- PzGr 40 - Armour-Piercing Composite Rigid shell - This type of ammo should be used when facing a heavily armoured enemy such as the Churchill VII and flanking is not an option. However, its post-penetration damage is much lower because it has no explosive filler to detonate after penetrating. Do not use the the PzGr 40 against sloped armour as APCR shells have extremely poor performance against angled armour.
- SprGr. 34 - High Explosive shell - Carry only very few of these. They are useless against anything other than unarmoured AA vehicles, to which it is lethal.
- K.Gr.Rot Nb. - Smoke shell - Pack a few of these. They are useful to blind enemy vehicles that block your advance while being being too remote for you to disable.
Penetration statistics | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
PzGr 39 | APCBC | 140 | 137 | 125 | 112 | 100 | 89 |
Hl.Gr 38B | HEAT | 80 | 80 | 80 | 80 | 80 | 80 |
PzGr 40 | APCR | 166 | 162 | 145 | 128 | 112 | 98 |
Sprgr. 34 | HE | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Shell details | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile Mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||
0% | 50% | 100% | |||||||
PzGr 39 | APCBC | 750 | 6.8 | 1.2 | 14 | 28.9 | 48° | 63° | 71° |
Hl.Gr 38B | HEAT | 450 | 4.4 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 872.1 | 62° | 69° | 73° |
PzGr 40 | APCR | 930 | 4.1 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 66° | 70° | 72° |
Sprgr. 34 | HE | 550 | 5.74 | 0 | 0.1 | 686 | 79° | 80° | 81° |
Smoke shell characteristics | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile Mass (kg) |
Screen radius (m) |
Screen deploy time (s) |
Screen hold time (s) |
Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
K.Gr.Rot Nb. | 540 | 6.2 | 13 | 5 | 20 | 50 |
Ammo racks
Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
4th rack empty |
5th rack empty |
6th rack empty |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
87 | 84 (+3) | 82 (+5) | 80 (+7) | 72 (+15) | 63 (+24) | 54 (+33) |
7th rack empty |
8th rack empty |
9th rack empty |
10th rack empty |
11th rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|
46 (+41) | 38 (+49) | 30 (+57) | 24 (+63) | 1 (+86) | No |
Notes:
- Racks are modeled by sets of 2 and disappear after both shells in the set having been shot or loaded.
- Sides empty: 30 (+57) shells
Machine guns
7.92 mm MG34 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
Coaxial | 3,000 (150) | 900 | N/A | N/A |
Usage in battles
The Italian Pz.IV G has a very similar play-style as its German counterpart, the vehicle can work both as a sniper and brawler, thanks to its improved armour and great gun. One of the many upsides that'll you'll come to enjoy is the armor, which goes hand in hand with the brawler play-style. As a brawler you'll usually be leading the charge for your team at the start of the match, this can be a very effective way to get easy eliminations if done right. Whilst leading the charge, it is essential that you maintain situational awareness at all costs, reasoning being that the un-sloped armour, while it can prove to be better than other counterparts of the vehicle, it might still not be sufficient to provide reliable defense at all times. In terms of armaments, the Pz.IV G is armed with the KwK40 L/43, a great weapon which is able to deal with the majority of enemies it will face. The L/43 75 mm KwK 40 gun is still also good when up-tiered, and a monster when down-tiered. A solid hit on a target's front armour that's not sloped is very likely to penetrate. Unlike the German version of this vehicle, the Italian one is actually premium, this means that you will not have to grind the vehicle's modules. Why this is important is mainly due to the fact that you get access to the the best rounds for this vehicle from the get-go. When playing as a sniper, the game play style is fairly simple, find a good spot on a map, angle your tank, and wait for incoming enemies to get in your line of sight. Depending on what rounds you choose to bring, you have usually a high chance to either destroy an enemy tank or seriously injure their crew, which will hopefully give you enough time to finish them off. Although you wont need to research the engine upgrade module for the Pz.IV G, keep in mind that the mobility of the vehicle is not the best, however adequate enough to get you to where you need to be at a good pace.One of the downsides of this vehicle is mainly that it will struggle at times to penetrate heavier foes, generally speaking most of them do end up having weak-spots you can take advantage of, in which-case, as i mentioned before, situational awareness is vital. In conclusion, to maximize your survival just keep in mind both your tank's strengths and weaknesses, and you should be alright.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Smoke charges deploy all at once in a wide arc
- Hard-hitting stock shell with explosive filler
- High muzzle velocity and gun accuracy allow long range engagements
- Extra armor on the turret
Cons:
- Crew compartment layout means a successful penetration will incapacitate if not knock out your crew in one shot
- Armour is thin all around
History
The story of the Pz.IV G begins in Germany during the second world war, the Pz.Kpfw.IV's creation, like its predecessor the Pz.Kpfw. III, was devised by German engineer Heinz Guderian. He was one of the many German engineers who wanted to create an adequate support tank that had the dual role of being used to handle anti-tank guns and take out enemy fortifications. As a support tank, the Panzer IV was to have the short 75 mm howitzer as its main armament and also a weight limit of 24 tons. MAN, Krupp, and Rheinmetall-Borsig worked on the development of the tanks, but the Krupp's model was selected for further testing. After a lot of testing, and refinement of the design, such as the addition of a leaf-spring double-bogie system for its suspension, instead of the once planned torsion bar suspension system. (Mainly was done for the sake of a faster production.) Shortly after, German armored regiments would start getting equipped with the tank, and once an adequate amount of the vehicle had been put in service, surplus vehicles would either be sold/given to other countries, or they'd be used as a base for later variants of the tank. Eventually, while the previous version had been used in active combat, some of its defects started to be revealed, mainly when facing Soviet armor, such as the T-34 and KV-1. It wasn't on par, and soon enough would see itself struggle. To amend this, the German engineers devised to upgrade the tank, mainly in its actual armament sector. The new tank, would instead feature a much more powerful KwK 40 L/43 gun, which was more than enough to deal with enemy armor at the time. The G variant also featured a stronger 80 mm thick front glacis armour with 30 mm side armour. Which would be really improve its overall survival rate of the tank. Interestingly enough, German engineers would employ some weight-saving techniques, which would be put into play,the tank still weighed about 23.6 tons and put strain onto the driving system, a common issue surrounding many German vehicles at the time. Some simplification went into the tank such as the removal of the vision ports on the sides of the turret. Another armor upgrade would be the introduction of the Schürzen side armour side-skirts on the turret and hull sides. The Italian versions would remove this, as this was the case for many Italian vehicles. In terms of the Italian story of this tank, Germany during the late stages of the second world war had supplied 12 units of Panzer IV G to Italy, which were placed in the Division "M" and, after the 25th of July, they were transferred to the 136th Armored Division "Centauro II". The 1st Armored Division Black Shirts "M" (for "Mussolini") was established starting from May of 1943, mainly starting from the very few survivors of the previous MVSN Battalions M who had been repatriated from the Russian front, this had to be done if there was hope for any new division being formed. The division was organised in 3 companies, which one of them comprising the Pz.IV G, they were slightly modified however, such as the removal of the side-skirts and the introduction of additional armor placed around the turret. The Italian Pz.IV G's would be painted in a light tan color with the Divisione "M" logo usually painted onto the turret. They didn't see any action during the war, most of them were still undergoing training at the time and most, if not all of the tanks would end up in Allied hands shortly after the war.
Media
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See also
External links
Italy medium tanks | |
---|---|
Italy | |
M13/40 | M13/40 (I) · M13/40 (II) · M13/40 (III) |
M14/41 | M14/41 · M14/41 (47/40) |
M15/42 | M15/42 |
M16/43 | Celere Sahariano |
P26/40 | P40 · P40 "G.C. Leoncello" |
OF-40 | OF-40 · OF-40 Mk.2A · OF-40 (MTCA) |
Ariete | Ariete (P) · Ariete · Ariete PSO · Ariete AMV |
Germany | ▄Pz.III N · ▄Pz.IV G · ▄Leopard 1A5 |
Allied powers | ▄Sherman I Composito · Sherman Ic · ▄Sherman Vc · ▄Sherman V · M26 "D.C.Ariete" · M26A1 · M47 (105/55) · M60A1 "D.C.Ariete" |
Hungary | |
Turán | Turan I · Turan II · Turan III |
Germany | ◔Leopard 2A4 · Leopard 2A7HU |
USSR | ◔T-72M1 |
Italy premium ground vehicles | |
---|---|
Light tanks | L6/40 (31 Rgt.) · Toldi IIA · AUBL/74 HVG · VRCC · Centauro RGO |
Medium tanks | M13/40 (II) · Turan II · M14/41 (47/40) · Celere Sahariano · P40 "G.C. Leoncello" · ▄Sherman I Composito · ▄Pz.IV G |
M26 "D.C.Ariete" · M60A1 "D.C.Ariete" · OF-40 (MTCA) | |
Heavy tanks | Tigris |
Tank destroyers | Breda 90/53 · M43 "G.C.Leoncello" · Zrinyi I |