Pz.III B

Pz.III B

Pz.III E

Pz.III F

Pz.III B

Pz.III E

Pz.III F

Germany

I Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
1.0	1.0	1.0

Class:

Medium tank

Research:Free

Purchase:Free

Show in game

Description

The Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf. B is a rank I German medium tank with a battle rating of 1.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.59 "Flaming Arrows".

General info

Survivability and armour

Like many low-BR tanks, the armour is thin enough that it can be frontally penetratable by .50 cal machine guns found on most American tanks, as well as the French P.7.T AA and the Russian GAZ-AAA DShK. Every low rank cannon, except maybe the French 37 mm SA18 L/21, has no trouble penetrating the Pz.III B anywhere. The crew inside the Pz.III B is well-spaced out, however, so you can generally survive a frontal penetration or two.

Mobility

The Pz.III B has average to below-average mobility for low rank with 35 km/h top speed, and a usable, but not great, reverse speed of 5.5 km/h. Power/weight ratio is 20.8 hp/ton in Arcade, but only 15.62 in RB/SB, which is average to below-average.

Armaments

Main armament

The Pz.III B is the first vehicle in the German ground tree armed with the 37 mm KwK 36. This gun has two ammo types, PzGr. APHE with 46 mm penetration at point blank range against flat armour, and the PzGr.40 with 91 mm penetration at point blank range against flat armour.

The PzGr. APHE fires at 745 m/s and has a 13 g PETN explosive mass with a TNT equivalent of 22 g. With 46mm pen, it is sufficient to harm most things it comes across, but is best used in side shots.

The PzGr.40 APCR fires at 1020 m/s and pens 91 mm.

Machine guns

This vehicle has two coaxial 7.92 mm MG34 machine guns, which helps when facing against the common flak trucks and such that you encounter at low ranks.

Usage in battles

This tank is more or less average in most respects. American and Russian reserves best it in speed. British reserves have similar speed, worse reverse, much better guns, better gun depression, and similar armour. French reserves have worse guns but nearly double the frontal armour. Japanese reserves have better speed, nearly identical guns, and much better gun depression. Italian reserves are slower, have slower fire rates, and have much better armour.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Decent top speed of 35 km/h
• Reasonable acceleration to achieve top speed
• Gun works well enough against most things you encounter, though side shots are preferable
• Has high-penetrating APCR to deal with more irritating opponents frontally

Cons:

• Easily incapacitated by .50 cal machine guns, even frontally
• Only stock shell has useful post-penetration damage, but it can barely penetrate M3 Stuarts frontally
• APCR post-penetration damage is generally terrible, yet tank has to rely on this a lot of the time to penetrate front armours
• Slow turret traverse of only 5.1 degrees/sec
• Requires APCR to penetrate even the side of the fairly common French B1 bis
• Roof armour thin enough to be penned by .50 cal machine guns

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ground vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/ History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Devblog] PzKpfw III Ausf. B