Pz.Kpfw. II Ausf. a1 - Germany Light Tank -

It is wrong to dismiss the Panzer II tank of 1936 as a poor design when comparing it with more heavily armed and armoured tanks of WW2. The tank’s armour could protect its crew from small arms fire and 7.92 mm S.M.K steel-cored armour-piercing machine gun bullets fired from a range of 30 m. It was designed to engage enemy machine gun nests and destroy them to enable the infantry to continue to advance, not to engage in tank on tank combat. The tank’s 2 cm Kw.K.30 L/55 gun could knock out Soviet T-26 and BT tanks but the crews were aware that the Panzer II tank’s armour would not stop a 3.7 cm or 4.5 cm anti-tank gun. The high nickel-alloy, rolled homogeneous-hard armour plate ranged in thickness from 5 mm to 13 mm. It was welded together not riveted as seen on many other tanks of this time-period. This made it stronger and lighter. The first Panzer II Ausfuehrung (model versions) were given the lower case letter ‘a’ then ‘b’ and ‘c’. Later versions were given capital letters ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’. This can be confusing. The Panzer II Ausf.a tanks was subdivided into Ausf.a/1, Ausf.a/2 and Ausf.a/3. Each version having minor mechanical changes. Early versions of the Panzer II changed shape over time as they were upgraded during their operational life. Additional armour was added and features like cupolas were fitted. Panzer II tanks were not used in the Spanish Civil War. They first saw combat in Poland, 1 Sept 1939.