Difference between revisions of "Pz.III F"

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Revision as of 18:40, 16 November 2018

Rank VI USSR | Premium | Golden Eagles
Su-25K Pack
Pz.III F
germ_pzkpfw_iii_ausf_f.png
Pz.III F
AB RB SB
1.3 1.3 1.3
Class:
Research:4 000 Specs-Card-Exp.png
Purchase:2 100 Specs-Card-Lion.png
Show in game

Description

GarageImage Pz.III F.jpg


The Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf. F (Panzer III Ausf. F) is a Rank I German medium tank with a battle rating of 2.0. It was introduced in during the Closed Beta Test for Ground Forces before Update 1.41. Compared to the Panzer III Ausf. E, the Panzer III Ausf. F presents a newer 5 cm KwK 38 main gun.

In game, Ausf. F modification differs from its predeccesor - Pz.III E mostly by its new 5 cm KwK 38 L/42 gun. While it doesn't offer that much more penetration than previous gun, and has a bit longer reload, it definitely causes more damage upon successful penetration. Other than that, only the turret armour has been enhanced a bit - most of the turret front armour is now 37mm thick (was 30mm). These changes makes the tank only slightly heavier, but the effect on mobility is negligible.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour type:

  • Rolled homogeneous armour
  • Cast homogeneous armour (Cupola)
Armour Front (Slope angle) Sides Rear Roof
Hull 30 mm (11°) Front plate
25 mm (85°), 30 mm (53°) Front glacis
30 mm (22-72°) Lower glacis
30 mm 10 mm (74°), 20 mm (33-70°) Top
20 mm (11-66°) Bottom
10 mm
Turret 30 mm (14-30°) Turret front
37 + 37 mm (5-52°)Gun mantlet
30 mm (17-26°) 30 mm (0-23°) 10 mm
Armour Sides Roof
Cupola 30 mm 10 mm

Notes:

  • Suspension wheels are 15 mm thick while tracks are 20 mm thick.
  • The barrel shroud around the main gun is 20 mm thick.
  • Bustle racks on the rear hull sides give another 30 mm thick armour at their locations.
  • Belly armour is 15 mm thick.

Mobility

Mobility characteristic
Weight (tons) Add-on Armor
weight (tons)
Max speed (km/h)
19.8 N/A 79 (AB)
71 (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 23.48 28.89
Realistic/Simulator 13.38 15.15

Armaments

Main armament

Main article: KwK 38 (50 mm)
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 3.30 4.50 _.__ _.__ _.__
Realistic 3.30 3.80 _.__ _.__ _.__
Reloading rate (seconds)
Stock Prior + Full crew Prior + Expert qualif. Prior + Ace qualif.
5.20 _.__ _.__ _.__
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°
Shell types
  • PzGr 39 - Armour Piercing Capped shell - This is your main ammo type, use it whenever you think it has enough penetration to penetrate your target. It deals most damage, because of its explosive filler. On this tank, most of the time it is not necessary to use any other type of ammo.
  • PzGr 40/1 - Armour Piercing Composite Rigid shell - This type of ammo should be used if you are having trouble penetrating your opponent, or trying to hit a fast moving tank at some distance. However, its damaging potential is much lower, because it has no explosive filler to further enhance damage after the penetration. It is also much lighter than Gr 39, so it looses penetration faster over distance. It is also notable that it does not ricochet so easily from highly sloped armour.
  • PzGr 40 - Armour Piercing Composite Rigid shell - this variation of APCR is even lighter, slightly faster and offers best penetration. You could use these against occasionaly appearing T-34 and Sherman tanks, which have highly sloped armour and are generally very resistant to your basic APC ammo. However, don't expect it to cause any real damage upon penetration, its even worse than that of PzGr 40/1. It basically only deals damage to modules/crew straight in its path. It is therefore almost useless to fire them at things like turret cupolas, as it will usually just fly right through them without causing any damage.
Ammo racks
Ammo racks of the Panzer III F.
Full
ammo
1st
rack empty
2nd
rack empty
3rd
rack empty
4th
rack empty
Visual
discrepancy
99 75 (+24) 50 (+49) 25 (+74) (+98) yes

Turret empty: 50 (+49)

Machine guns

Main article: MG 34 (7.92 mm)
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

This tank should be played as a second line support or area denial vehicle, due to acceptable speed and accurate, potent gun, yet sluggish turret traverse even when fully upgraded. Avoid engagements at less than 500 meters, where your armour offers more protection against low-velocity guns and your 50mm cannon retains its penetration well. Always try to use the terrain to your advantage, you have very nice gun depression, so you will have no problem with attacking over hills and various obstacles, while hiding your vulnerable hull.

You should also refrain from directly attacking highest rank opponents you can meet (Like Sherman or T-34), your gun will struggle with their front armour a lot, while they often need a single shot anywhere to severely damage your tank.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Accurate and decently powerful gun.
  • Great gun depression.
  • Very high APCR shell velocity (over 1000 m/s).
  • Good mobility.
  • Armour is fairly decent- will protect you against 37mm guns at range and 20mm cannon at all ranges if angled properly.

Cons:

  • Awful turret traverse speed.
  • Flat armour with little slope.
  • Low reverse speed.

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 combat effectiveness of the tank. Despite this rather advance 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 Ausf. A through C had 15 mm of armour on all sides with 10 mm on top and 5 mm on the bottom. This was quickly upgraded to 30 mm on front, side, and rear on the Ausf. D, E, F, and G models. The Panzer III Ausf. F featured a 50 mm KwK 38 cannon, an upgrade over the previous 37 mm KwK 36. The Panzer Ausf. F had a 300 PS Maybach HL 120 TRM engine that gave it a top speed of about 40 km/h (25 mph) with a operational range of 155 km (96 mi.).

Combat Usage

The Panzer III Ausf. F was first prompted by the German army concerns of their tank-killing tank being undergunned during the French campaign, where the appearance of the French Char B1 and British Matilda tanks proved that their current arsenal was inadequate to counter these threats. Though it was initiated during the campaign, it was over before it could be fully implemented among the armoured forces. It wasn't until Operation Barbarossa, where the appearance of the Soviet T-34 and KV-1 tanks forced the Germans to take up better weapons for their anti-tank inventory. The solution was the 50 mm KwK 38, which helped the Panzer III be able to destroy these Soviet tanks with APCR rounds. Even though the newer Soviet tanks may put the Panzer III out of frontline duties, it still stayed as the more common Soviet T-26 and BT series light tanks were more easily destroyed by the Panzer III.

The German army continued to upgrade their Panzer III to keep them in service as long as possible. The Panzer III Ausf. H featured another 30 mm of armour applied to the original 30 mm of armour on the hull. The next significant upgrade was to the Panzer III Ausf. J, which featured a solid 50 mm of frontal and rear armour plating.

Media

Skins and camouflages for the "Panzer III Ausf. F" from live.warthunder.com.

Sights

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.


Germany medium tanks
Pz.III  Pz.III B · Pz.III E · Pz.III F · Pz.III J · Pz.III J1 · Pz.III J1 TD · Pz.III L · Pz.III M · Pz.III N
Pz.IV  Pz.IV C · Pz.IV E · Pz.IV F1 · Pz.IV F2 · Pz.IV G · Pz.IV H · Pz.IV J · Pz.Bef.Wg.IV J
Pz.V  VK 3002 (M) · Panther A · Panther D · Panther F · Panther G · Ersatz M10 · Panther II
M48 upgrades  M48A2 G A2 · M48 Super
Leopard 1  Leopard I · Leopard A1A1 · Leopard A1A1 (L/44) · Leopard 1A5 · C2A1 · Turm III
Leopard 2  PT-16/T14 mod. · Leopard 2K · Leopard 2AV
  Leopard 2A4 · Leopard 2 (PzBtl 123) · Leopard 2 PL · Leopard 2A5 · Leopard 2 PSO · Leopard 2A6 · Leopard 2A7V
Trophies  ▀M4 748 (a) · ▀T 34 747 (r)
Other  Nb.Fz. · KPz-70
USA  mKPz M47 G · M48A2 C
USSR  ◊T-72M1