Panzer 3. Why it was so great, and why it had to go.
The Panzer 3 remains an iconic tank, but it was late to the war, and ended production well before the conclusion of the conflict.
Why did it have to go?
The first issue for the Panzer was that Panther was coming into production filling basically the same role (but so much better, when it didn’t catch fire or break down).
Bigger gun, more armour, faster, the whole package, only slightly more expensive to make (noting the lunatic economics of the late Reich makes like for like comparisons difficult).
So despite Panzer 3 being head and shoulders above other early war designs (Possible exception being T-34 if they were ever built to spec and not rushed out the door with parts missing to meet quota, which they very rarely were) it was simply grossly outdated by 1943.
Given a choice between 9 Panther’s or 10 Panzer 3’s it’s a very easy decision to make.
But wait, there’s more!
