Pz.III J

Pz.III J

Pz.III F

Pz.III J

Pz.III F

Germany

I Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
2.3	2.3	2.3

Class:

Medium tank

Research:5 900

Purchase:6 300

Show in game

Description

The Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf. J (or Panzer III J) is a rank I German medium tank with a battle rating of 2.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.45 "Steel Generals".

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour
• Cast homogeneous armour (Barrel shroud, Cupola)

Armour	Front	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	50 mm (12°) Front plate 25 mm (86°), 50 mm (52°) Front glacis 50 mm (23-69°) Lower glacis	30 mm	50 mm (14-46°) Top 50 mm (10-66°) Bottom	15 mm
Turret	50 mm (10-25°) Turret front 50 mm (12-62°) Gun mantlet	30 mm (20-25°)	30 mm (12-15°)	10 mm
Armour	Sides	Roof
Cupola	50 mm	10 mm

Notes:

• Suspension wheels are 15 mm thick while tracks are 20 mm thick.

Mobility

Mobility characteristic
Weight (tons)	Add-on Armor weight (tons)	Max speed (km/h)
21.8	N/A	59 (AB)
		53 (RB/SB)
Engine power (horsepower)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	465	572
Realistic/Simulator	265	300
Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	21.33	26.24
Realistic/Simulator	12.16	13.76

Armaments

Main armament

50 mm KwK 38
Capacity			Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance	Stabilizer
99			-10°/+20°	±180°	N/A
Turret rotation speed (°/s)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
Arcade	5.24	7.25	8.80	9.73	10.35
Realistic	3.27	3.85	4.67	5.17	5.5
Reloading rate (seconds)
Stock	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
5.20	4.60	4.24	4.00

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration in mm @ 90°
		10m	100m	500m	1000m	1500m	2000m
PzGr 39	APC	74	73	59	45	34	26
PzGr 40/1	APCR	118	117	84	56	37	25
PzGr 40	APCR	132	130	94	63	42	28

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity in m/s	Projectile Mass in kg	Fuse delay in m:	Fuse sensitivity in mm:	Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent):	Normalization At 30° from horizontal:	Ricochet:
								0%	50%	100%
PzGr 39	APC	685	2.1	1.2	25	28.9	+4°	48°	63°	71°
PzGr 40/1	APCR	1005	1.1	N/A	N/A	N/A	+1.5°	66°	70°	72°
PzGr 40	APCR	1050	0.92	N/A	N/A	N/A	+1.5°	66°	70°	72°

Ammo racks

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
99	75 (+24)	50 (+49)	25 (+74)	1 (+98)	Yes

Left side empty: 50 (+49)

Machine guns

7.92 mm MG 34
Coaxial mount
Capacity (Belt capacity)				Fire rate (shots/minute)	Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance
4,350 (150)				900	N/A	N/A

Usage in the battles

Use of this tank is similar to the Pz. III F, and while it does have significantly better armour on the front than its predecessor, the higher BR of 2.3 means it faces nastier opposition in semi-frequent up-tiers to 3.3. T-34 (1940)s are almost unpenetrable from any side except flat-on below the tracks. M4A1s are similar in speed to you, have thinner sides, are spacious, have powerful guns, and stabilizers. Cromwells are much faster than you with stronger guns. You can only hope for them to get overconfident, overextend, and shoot them in the side or rear. APCR post-penetration damage is not reliable enough to be counted upon when you need it the most, plus neither PzGr.40/1 or PzGr.40 can frontally penetrate a Sherman or T-34 anyway. The gap between 2.3 and 3.3 is tremendous, and is just as crippling as that between 6.7 and 7.7, for an accurate relative comparison.

Furthermore, even in the best circumstances, the high fuse sensitivity makes many lightly-armoured things with strong guns your worst nightmare, since you'll over-penetrate repeatedly in most cases, allowing easy return fire from the person you failed to knock out, which more often than not cripples you. Enemy SPAAG, in particular, is frustrating to knock out because of your 15 mm turret ring weak spot enabling them to spray all over you to incapacitate your gunner and loader.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Accurate and decently powerful gun
• Great gun depression
• Good Mobility
• APCR ammo has very high speed and good penetration, making shooting at long range easier
• Armour is fairly decent, can protect reliably against lower-ranked tanks

Cons:

• Penetration is a bit lacking, as is post-penetration against things in up-tiers
• Awful turret traverse speed
• Flat armour with little slope, weak side armour
• Large commander's cupola, often sticking out above the terrain, drawing enemy attention
• Rather high fuse sensitivity for such a lacklustre cannon

History

Development

The Panzerkampfwagen III medium tank or the Panzer III was developed in the 1930s. Starting in early 1934, Heinz Guderian set down some specifications for a new tank, which Army Weapons Department took up to design the tank to weigh no more than 24,000 kilograms with a top speed of 35 km per hour. This tank's role was to be the main tank of the German army and was expected to destroy opposing tanks, as opposed as a tank made to destroy anti-tank guns and opposing infantrymen, which the Panzer IV took up in.

Damlier-Benz, Krupp, MAN, and Rheinmetall produced prototypes meeting the specifications and the Damlier-Benz model was chosen after testing in 1936-1937. The Panzer III model used a leaf-spring suspension in its early models (Ausf. A - Ausf. D) before utilizing a six-wheeled torsion-bar suspension in the Ausf. E and beyond. The Panzer III had a crew of five people, the commander, gunner, loader, driver, and assistant driver. The best feature of the Panzer III during its introduction that is the most overlooked was the three-man turret, which was not as common at the time. This frees the commander to be able to effectively command the tank while maintaining situational awareness rather than be burdened by the role of a loader or gunner, improving the combat effectiveness of the tank. Despite this rather advanced design, the turret did not have a turret basket for the crew. It was a proven design and production began in May 1937. The total number of Panzer IIIs tanks constructed in its production life was 5,774 units (excluding StuG III variant).

Specifications

The Panzer III started with only 15 mm of armour on all sides, this was quickly upgraded to 30 mm on the front, side, and rear on the Ausf. D, E, F, and G models. Then the Ausf. H placed an additional 30 mm of armour onto the front hull as an interim solution before the Panzer III Ausf. J gave the Panzer III a 50 mm armour thickness on the front and rear. The Panzer III Ausf. J still retained the 50 mm KwK 38 cannon from the Ausf. F, which provided much-needed firepower over the 37 mm KwK 36. The Panzer Ausf. J had a 300 PS Maybach HL 120 TRM engine that gave it a top speed of about 40 km/h (25 mph) with an operational range of 155 km (96 mi.).

Combat usage

The Panzer III Ausf. J gave the German army better armour for their Panzer III and with a better gun. However, it was still considered under-gunned to the Soviet contemporary T-34 and KV-1 tanks as the 50 mm KwK 38 was not powerful enough to penetrate these tanks frontally with normal ammo. This requires the use of APCR, which was in low supply. The Soviet T-26 and BT series light tanks were still easily taken care of and there were still in larger quantities than the T-34s and KVs, but T-34 production was kicking off and it won't be long before the T-34 becomes the main tank of the Red Army.

The Panzer III still needed improvements if it ever was to go up against the more modern tanks and Germany needed it to stay in service as long as possible as their new tanks are being developed. The next variant featured additional armour and a better 50 mm cannon, the 50 mm KwK 39, on the Panzer III Ausf. J1. The armour had an additional 20 mm offset armour in the front hull and turret, plus the 50 mm KwK 39 featured a longer barrel than the 50 mm KwK 38, increasing its penetration values.

In-game description

Then next modification to the Pz.Kpfw.III medium tank after Ausf. J, featuring an enhanced armament.

These tanks, which were armed with KwK38 L/42 cannons, were unable to fight successfully against Soviet T-34 and KB tanks, whose armor could withstand the impact of projectiles fired by the short-barreled cannon. The tank’s armament had to be enhanced. The new weapon selected was the long-barreled KwK39 L/60, which featured high ballistic characteristics. However, despite these enhanced characteristics, fighting Soviet tanks remained extremely difficult. Tanks with the new armament began to be released in December, 1941. A total of 1,067 tanks with the Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.J modification and KwK39 L/60 cannon were produced.

Media

Skins and camouflages for the Panzer III Ausf.J from live.warthunder.com. There are plenty of category terms flying around. So looking through every one of them will be necessary.

• #pz_iii_j
• #pziii_j

Sights

• RideR2's Realistic gunsight (TZF4a, TZF 5a/b/d/e/f/f2, TZF 9b/b1/c/d, TZF 12/a) for Pzkpfw II, Pzkpfw III, Pzkpfw IV, Pzkpfw V, Pzkpfw VI

Read 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.

ETC.

Sources

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.