German medium tank PzKpfW Panzer IV ausf. G COBI 2546 - World War II

You know that:

• The tank was designed by Krupp and Rheinmetall as early as 1933.
• The Panzer IV was the only German tank to be produced throughout the war.
• The machines were intended to support actions where the older and lightly armed Panzer III tanks were no longer sufficient.
• The tank also had one peculiarity that didn't quite work out and that was the transmission service hole in the frontal armour covered by an additional plate of steel.
• While the service technicians could not praise the access to the gearbox, the crews were of a completely different opinion and reported the inappropriate design to the armament office as "unfortunate".
• In addition to the main Maybach engine, the tank was equipped with an independent two-cylinder engine connected to a generator for turret rotation.
• The driver's seat was fitted with indicator lights that lit up whenever the gun crossed the tank's ground plan while the turret was rotating.
• Fans were installed in the crew compartment to exhaust fumes after firing and it was no longer necessary to open hatches as on Panzer III tanks.
• Some versions had trailers with 400 litres of fuel for long movements during the Russian campaign.
• The G version had a turret fitted with a long gun with a large breech which increased in size during repeated firing until it reached the mechanical stop and the tank commander had to declare a "feuerpause" to allow the breech system to regenerate.
• The armour was coated with Zimmerit, an anitimagnetic paint.
• In total, about 1,927 of the G version were produced.

Technical parameters:

• medium tank classification
• weight 23 600 kg
• length 6.63 m, width 2.88 m, height 2.68 m
• armour up to 50 mm
• main weapon KwK 40L/43 cannon of 75 mm calibre
• secondary weapon 2 x MG34 machine gun of 7,92 mm calibre
• power unit petrol 12 cylinder maybach HL120 TRM engine with 300 hp
• fuel tank 470 l
• range 210 km (road), 130 km (off-road)
• top speed 42 km/h
• wading distance 0,8 m
• crew 5 persons