Panzerjager I

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Panzerjäger I
AB RB SB
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Description

GarageImage Panzerjager I.jpg


The 4,7 cm Pak(t) auf Pz.I Ausf.B, otherwise known as the Panzerjäger I, is a Rank I German tank destroyer with a battle rating of 1.7. It was introduced in Update 1.57 "Battle March".

The vehicle is based on a Pzkpfw. I chassis, which is also found on the Flakpanzer I. This means it has no armour. It has a silhouette slightly resembling a Marder III, but is quite scaled down.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour type:

  • Rolled homogeneous armour
Armour Front (Slope angle) Sides (Slope angle) Rear Roof
Hull 13 mm (18°) Front plate
13 mm (72-75°) Front glacis
13 mm (26°) Lower glacis
13 mm 13 mm 8 mm
Superstructure 14 mm (26°) 14 mm (15-18°) N/A N/A

Notes:

  • Suspension wheels and bogies are 10 mm thick while the tracks are 15 mm thick.

Any enemies at this rank can pierce your armour. However, the biggest threats are the SPAA vehicles due to their higher rate of fire with effective weapons that will absolutely rip apart the vehicle. Airplanes too are a concern, and Artillery is very deadly.

Mobility

Mobility characteristic
Weight (tons) Add-on Armor
weight (tons)
Max speed (km/h)
6.4 N/A 46 (AB)
42 (RB/SB)
Engine power (horsepower)
Mode Stock Upgraded
Arcade 142 175
Realistic/Simulator 88 100
Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
Mode Stock Upgraded
Arcade 22.19 27.34
Realistic/Simulator 13.75 15.62

Armaments

Main article: Pak(t)(Sf.) (47 mm)
47 mm Pak(t)(Sf.)
Capacity Vertical
guidance
Horizontal
guidance
Stabilizer
86 -8°/+10° ±15° N/A
Turret rotation speed (°/s)
Mode Stock Upgraded Prior + Full crew Prior + Expert qualif. Prior + Ace qualif.
Arcade 7.10 9.90 _.__ __._ __._
Realistic 7.10 8.40 _.__ __._ __._
Reloading rate (seconds)
Stock Prior + Full crew Prior + Expert qualif. Prior + Ace qualif.
3.90 __.__ __.__ __.__


Ammunition
Penetration statistics
Ammunition Type of
warhead
Penetration in mm @ 90°
10m 100m 500m 1000m 1500m 2000m
Pzgr.36(t) APC 90 87 69 52 39 29
Pzgr.40 APCR 103 102 73 49 32 22
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.36(t) APC 775 1.7 1.2 25.0 15 +4° 48° 63° 71°
Pzgr.40 APCR 1080 0.83 N/A N/A N/A +1.5° 66° 70° 72°
Ammo racks
Ammo racks of the Panzerjäger I.
Full
ammo
1st
rack empty
2nd
rack empty
3rd
rack empty
4th
rack empty
5th
rack empty
Visual
discrepancy
86 50 (+36) 38 (+48) 28 (+60) 10 (+76) (+86) Yes

Usage in the battles

Although virtually unarmoured, it can be used in a head-on manner. However, this is not recommended. It is much better to snipe or ambush the enemy. Its gun may have a good Rate of Fire, but many other guns of its rank, such as the British 2 pounder, will out-fire (?) you. Your gun is extremely powerful for its rank, which means you will go through almost anything, so there is no need to throw yourself in front of the enemy.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Large ammo reserve of 86 rounds.
  • Agile vehicle.
  • Good power-to-weight ratio.
  • One of the best guns in Rank I, can penetrate anything it comes up against.
  • Access to APCR ammunition.
  • Good ballistics for 47 mm, can be used effectively at long range.
  • Narrow, can fit in tight spaces.

Cons:

  • Tall profile, bigger target.
  • Very thin armour, maximum is 15 mm. Vulnerable to strafing aircraft.
  • Crew operating the gun have no armour protection in the top and rear of their position.
  • Not a lot of horsepower, poor for towing downed allied vehicles.
  • No defensive machine gun, open-top SPAA can be a problem.
  • Gun quickly becomes obsolete in uptiers, it does not cope well with sloped armour.

History

Development

The heavily armoured tanks in Allied inventory was considered a threat to the German armoured forces, which consisted of mostly 3.7 cm gun that were ineffective. To counter these threats, the Germans sought for a vehicle able to mount a bigger gun able to fight these tanks. It was found that they could convert obsolete chassis designs like the Panzer I to mount the guns, thus saving the design process of developing a new vehicle for the role. The Czech 4.7 cm Pak(t) anti-tank gun was chosen for this task, and was mounted on a converted Panzer I chassis with the turret removed, a gun shield was used for the mount of the gun. Between 1940 to 1941, 202 Panzer I’s were converted by Alkett and Deutz AG to these tank destroyers, designated the ‘’’Panzerjäger I‘’’, the first of its kind of tank destroyers in the war.

Combat usage

The Panzerjäger I were organised in anti-tank battalions, each having three companies with nine vehicles each. Five battalions in the war were equipped with the tank destroyer. The first usage of the Panzerjäger I was in the Battle of France, where four battalions were committed. Though, only Anti-Tank Battalion 521 saw service from the beginning to the end as the other four were still in training when the campaign started. The opinion of the crew of these vehicles were positive, saying that the weapon was adequate to distances up to 600 meters if the enemy had 45 to 50 mm of armour. However, the crew also say that the ability to observe the battle in the vehicle was terrible, the crew had to look over the shield to see what is ahead, risking themselves to injury to the head.

After the Battle of France, the Panzerjäger I's in Anti-Tank Battalion 605 were sent to the North African Campaign, though only 3 of the 27 vehicles made it as the transport freighter Castellon carrying the rest was sunk. The battalion was in full strength during the British offensive in Operation Crusader in November 1941, to which they lost 13 vehicles in the battle. Battle experience praise the accuracy the vehicle provides, but state that the vehicles were too weak for the combat conditions and the gun didn’t have enough penetration in long distance. With an APCR round, it was found it could destroy the venerable Matilda infantry tanks at distance of around 400 meters. The battalion continued this battle of attrition with reinforcement and losses that during the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942, only 11 Panzerjäger I’s were left in the battalion. The last two replacement vehicle were sent to the battalion in November 1942. In Operation Barbarossa, five anti-tank battalions were equipped with the Panzerjäger I’s, which made up a total of 135 vehicles. The combat experience was subpar, while the Panzerjäger I had a good effective range of up to 1,000 to 1,200 meters, but the high profile of the vehicle presented a big target to enemy anti-tank weapons and artillery, even shrapnels from high-explosive shells could penetrate the thin armour. Many Panzerjäger I’s were destroyed and by the Fall of 1942, many battalions reported to be under equipped for further action and were disbanded. At this point, better anti-tank weaponry and vehicles were more accessible and replaced the Panzerjäger I in service, notably the Marder series.

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

Read also

Sources

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

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


Germany tank destroyers
Pz. I Derivatives  Panzerjäger I
Pz. II Derivatives  15cm sIG 33 B Sfl
Pz. 38(t) Derivatives  Marder III · Marder III H · Jagdpanzer 38(t)
Pz. III Derivatives  StuG III A · StuG III F · StuG III G · StuH 42 G
Pz. IV Derivatives  Jagdpanzer IV · Panzer IV/70(A) · Panzer IV/70(V) · Dicker Max · Nashorn · Brummbär · VFW
Pz. V Derivatives  Jagdpanther G1 · Bfw. Jagdpanther G1
Pz. VI Derivatives  Sturer Emil · Elefant · Ferdinand · 38 cm Sturmmörser · Jagdtiger
Wheeled/Half-track  8,8 cm Flak 37 Sfl. · Sd.Kfz.251/9 · Sd.Kfz.251/10 · Sd.Kfz.251/22 · Sd.Kfz.234/3 · Sd.Kfz.234/4 · 15 cm Pz.W.42
ATGM Carrier  RakJPz 2 · RakJPz 2 (HOT) · Wiesel 1A2
Other  Waffenträger · M109G · JPz 4-5 · Raketenautomat · VT1-2