RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Thanks for sharing this Mr Painless, love the extra detailing
Was this common practice to carry extra fuel on Panzers while on the move?

Good Morning, Jarndice!
I hear you on the Heng Long PZ IV decks and uppers. This tank was an old type for them, bought years ago and salted away for doing this exact Build now. As such, it had an even worse set of tools and gear molded onto the deck than the current Taigen offering. Good for the day but those days are long past. Since I wanted the flash\recoil, MFU and improved turret from the Taigen offering, here I am, cleaning up molded on tools anyway. ;o) Ignore my whining, I am actually having fun. I suspect that this tank, solidly built as it is, will be one of my favorites and spend a lot of time outdoors in the Rough.
regards,
Painless

Good morning, Mr. Mick,
Thank you for having a look see! While doing research for this Build, I came across lots of old photos of _early_ War Panzer IIIs and IVs carrying dual fuel drums, one strapped or chained to each side of the rear deck. ( Same for the Jerry Cans full of fuel and \ or water on the turret top ) I don't know how they got them into action quickly during an emergency attack and MaxU52 had some fun imagining the consequences of aerial attack on tanks so loaded. I think the key point here is all of those photos were of early war armor doing forced, long drives to the next engagement. The Allies complete domination of the skies over battlefields was a couple of years away then. I noted photos from North Africa and Russia, both places with long stretches between any locations worth fighting for. I also remember reading some time ago that early on, availability of fuel wasn't so much a problem for the Wehrmacht as a constant shortage of transport trucks and vehicles was. So adding all of this up, I can see why they encumbered their armor so with dangerous cargo in those early years and also why as the tide turned against them in terms of air support, they were forced to use other methods. I have added only one fuel drum to my Pz IV and that turret rack of Jerry Cans ( those just for the cool factor ;o) The fuel drum has been turned 90 degrees to allow me to rotate the turret either way. I've seen a vanishing few photos of this setup as well. Mostly, if they were forced to do this, those Panzer crews went all in to keep their tanks moving and used two drums.
regards,
Painless

Thank you for your reply Mr Painless

I also thought about surprise air strikes

But it does make sense what you say, and I guess they felt they could afford to be overly confident at the beginning in north Africa, before I believe their first defeat.

And as for the fuel can rack on the turret, yes, it looks very cool

The last laugh on the North African campaign for both the Axis and the Allies is that throughout the tooing and froing of the two army's the soldiers on both sides who were pretty good at obeying the rules of war unlike other places in Europe and Russia constantly complained about the enemy's dirty trick of poisoning the water wells with oil before the place was overrun,
If the German army had cottoned on that in fact the Libyan desert was floating on oil Mr Hitler would have given Feld Marshal Rommel everything he asked for and the British Empire forces would have been beaten before Operation Torch could be launched and shortly after the defeat drilling rigs and oil tankers would have turned up in the desert and the waters of Libya and Tunisia.And the sight of PZ4s and Tiger 1s toting 200 litre oil drums would have been a mirage instead of fact.
With the defeat of the Allies in that area the Panzer Armee Afrika would have entered Egypt taken the Suez Canal then headed north into the Russian underbelly and job done because fuel would have been plentiful.

Good afternoon, Mick and Jarndice!
Being able to chat about the Build and the History and Logistics behind it is the exact reason I go to the time expense of putting up these build threads. Thanks, Gentlemen, all for coming around and adding the Fun dimension to the sometimes tedious labor required to finish one of these complicated pieces of Armor. ;o)
regards, my Friends,
Painless

Hi,
the Jerry Can´s on the top of the turret is a no go,
they block the view from the commander's cupola and enlarge the silhouette.
Some things were forbidden by order.
Nothing was allowed to be attached to the turret
what could fall and with it could block the pivoting of the turret.

Using the Book Panzer 1V at War 1939-1945 by Paul Thomas ISBN 978-1-84884-681-4 as my reference I turned to page 25 and low and behold their is a Photograph of a PZ 4 Ausf D with a row of Jerry Cans on the Front edge of the Turret and a further row of Jerry cans along the front mantlet between the front fenders Oh and whats this on page 47 why its a PZ4 Ausf D Hybrid with yet more Jerry cans on the leading edge of the turret roof and if that's not enough on page 73 on a railway flat car two PZ4s one a late model Ausf G and an Ausf H both carrying 200 litre fuel drums on their respective engine bays,
Now if its not too late whose going to report these flagrant exhibitions of disobedience ?

Now jarndice, stop clouding the issue with facts.

I find it mildly amusing that someone on this Forum is suggesting that "Painless Wolf" would entertain the idea of deliberately building into his tanks flagrant inaccuracies.
You don't know him very well if you think he does not research every build to the last detail.