How effective were AT rifles against the Pamzer III?
The
case of the Pz IIIs.
All the
Pz IIIs with 37mm guns had only 30mm of front armor. The first 50L42 armed
model, the G, had the same. The first to uparmor, to 30mm plus 30mm additional
bolted on the front hull only, was the H model. The turret was still 30mm, at
around 15 degrees slope (the G and H mantlets were somewhat thicker, 37mm).
Both Gs and Hs were made between the fall of France and the invasion of Russia, with
twice as many of the G model produced as Hs.
By the
time of the invasion, production of the J model with the 50L60 gun had begun,
but most of the existing fleet were the older models. This model had 50mm front
plates factory built, and a 50mm mantlet, but the rest of the turret front was
still 30mm. The J series had the largest production run of any of the letters,
as production began to ramp in 1942. They were produced from before the
invasion until a year after it.