Working my way through the several early series of Panzers in DAK service. Panzer 1Bs, Panzer IICs, yet to obtain a Panzer III and then Panzer IV Ausf E ,F1/2s in the stash and on the bench. BUT- while I have several reference books focused on the DAK it’s often hard to see a good rear shot indicating how often tanks which might have had the smoke cannisters (usually mounted on rear above/atop the muffler) in other theaters are in place while in Afrika?
So oh great fountains of knowledge- how common were they?
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: I should have said that I have seen clear shots of them on Panzer IIIs and right now I’ve got a pair of Panzer I Ausf B based tanks on the bench- so that’s my first focus but I’d appreciate any input overall. Maybe you can note which specific variants you are aware of?
This gets tricky…First, we are only talking about the manually-fired, rear mounted smoke candles, right? One needs to be able to identify which Ausfuhrung we are dealing with in a particular photograph. H. Doyle shows them as externally mounted standard equipment on Panzer III Ausf F-H in Spielberger’s Panzer III and it’s Variants. On Panzer III Ausf J and L, the smoke candles are mounted under the rear engine deck air outlets and are not externally visible. Equipment and gas can racks can also obscure them from being seen on other models. Achtung Panzer #1 (Panzer IV issue) places smoke candles on Panzer IV Ausf A-F1, (and mounts for them on an F2, but no candles?!)… but clearly some of these are retrofits, as it is easy to find early models without them. Osprey’s Modelling the Early Panzerkampwagen IV has detailed builds of an Ausf A and Ausf C, both without smoke candles. Yet page 33 of Panzer IV and it’s Variants has a photo of a Ausf C with a smoke candle rack on the muffler. Did early models without smoke candles see service in North Africa?..I need to research this a bit more. Need to find a date on these buggers…
They are also to be found on Pz II F, Pz I B, Stug B, C and D, and more as I find them…
Only the Pz IV Ausf D-F1 short-barrel tanks (and F2/G long-barrel) saw service in N. Africa, so they all should have the rear smoke candle rack arrangement by that point in time. Fairly sure the F2 kept the rear rack while the G’s were planned to have the turret mounted type. The earlier A-C variants served in Poland and France 1940 (and again as part of 21 Pz.Div. in Normandy 1944 oddly enough) but wouldn’t have been sent to Africa.
I’m doing ICM’s Panzer II F (Flamingo), and it has what look like smoke canisters mounted at an angle on the fenders, about 2/3 way back. If that helps at all.
As a side note, from one book I have that has pictures of one machine from the rear, the MkIVC’s used in Normandy with the 21st PD seem to have had the candles removed. These were training vehicles and alot of equipment was removed as not necessary.
I was fairly sure I wouldn’t find any Pz IV Ausf A-C in N. Africa, but without checking my refs, I didn’t what to stick my neck out, just to get popped by a photo of an odd-ball vehicle hiding in the shadows. [;)] I hate saying “never” without covering my backside first. [:-^]
What is interesting though, is Doyle’s line drawing of an Pz IV Ausf D on page 29 of Panzer IV and it’s Variants shows the smoke candles in place, but his 3-view drawing of a Ausf D on page 34 does not have them, and as I said above, a photo of a Ausf C on page 33 clearly does have them. So what do we have here? Doyle simply forgetting to add them to his 3-way drawing of the Ausf D? Retrofitting to earlier models? Something isn’t quite right here. Can we find photos of Ausf D without smoke candles? We still don’t have a production date on these either…
I also noticed that Uwe Feist’s color plate of a Pz IV Ausf A on page 81 also has smoke candles, yet the Ausf E below it does not, neither does his Ausf E 3-way drawing on page 82, nor the Ausf F1 on page 83. So either these were not always fitted, or they were retrofitted to some early vehicles after their introduction to the production line…or these drawings are bogus. [:P]
I took another look through what I have of reference books on the DAK and squinted as hard as I could to actually see the following in service with smoke candles fitted in the rear:
Panzer I Ausf A
Panzer II Ausf A-C
Panzer III Ausf G,H
Panzer IV Ausf D
Marder III (38T)
Stug III C/D
Not to say others weren’t, just no clear pics? Right now I have two Panzer I Bs on the bench and while I didn’t see a clear shot I’ll go ahead and so equip them based on the precedents of the Panzer I A’s? Besides liking the visual detail they add I just spent around three hours scratchbuilding the rack, brackets and cannisters for a Panzer I B and so I just ‘gotta’ use it![;)]
That’s an interesting point about drawings…they aren’t always the best/consistent source. The drawings in the Pzkpfw IV In Action for example don’t show ANY of the Pz IVs with the rear candle racks in place. The photos they have of early A’s and D’s do show the racks in place. When I check the photos in Panzerwaffe Volume One, the only ones that have a clear shot of the rear are also of A’s and D’s and show the racks in place, even an “early” D that shows the overhang on the cupola with the turret. Whether or not they were deleted in the B and C and added back on the Ds is open for speculation, I can’t really say as I’m not well versed on the early pre-production variants and their changes.
MrSquid, while looking for the early Pz IV pics, also saw several of a Pz I-B with the rear smoke candle rack fitted, so I think you’re good to go with your scratch-built item. [tup]
Well, I think we all have learned over the years that we can’t always depend on line drawing to be 100% accurate, even if they are made by the best names in the business.
Browsing through Panzerwaffe at War (vol.1), I noticed the caption on the top photo of page 27 states; “…It is also equipped with five smoke candle dischargers, which was typical for German tanks and StuGs in that year.” (1940). Notice the author says “typical”, not “standard” or “introduced into production”, etc. This implies, to me at least, that smoke candles may not have been standard vehicle equipment, at least not in 1940.
By 1941, the time of the N. Africa campaign, all Pz I-Bs would’ve had them. The only modifications made to them specific to services in Africa was a change to the rear engine deck to allow for better cooling in the heat. What Kykeon and I were kicking around had to do with Pz IVs, not Is. [:D]