Just one month prior to the commencement of "Operation Typhoon" (the German assault on Moscow) the Waffenamt was scheduled to begin installing the long-barreled 7.5cm KwK gun on its new Mark IV Ausf G tanks. However, when the Wehrmacht encountered the superior Russian KV-1 and T-34 tanks during the summer campaigning season, a decision was made to mount the 7.5cm KwK40 L/43 gun onto as many existing Mark IVs as possible. Since the new gun fired larger rounds than the short-barreled gun mounted on the F1 tanks, ammunition storage capacity had to be increased and the crew compartment had to be re-arranged to accommodate the modifications.

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of a German Sd. Kfz. 141 PzKpfw IV Ausf. D medium tank that was attached to 4.Kompanie, Panzer-Regiment 7, 10.Panzer Division, then deployed to France during 1940. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Length: 4-inches
Width: 1-inch

Release Date: August 2017

Historical Account: "Resistance Movement" - The 10.Panzer Division was a formation of the German Army during World War II. It was formed in Prague in March 1939, and served in the Army Group North reserve during the invasion of Poland of the same year. The division participated in the Battle of France in 1940, including the Siege of Calais, and in Operation Barbarossa attached to Army Group Center in 1941. After taking heavy casualties on the Eastern Front it was sent back to France for rehabilitation and to serve as a strategic reserve against potential Allied invasion. The division was rushed to Tunisia after Operation Torch (1942) and spent six months in that theatre, where it engaged both British and American forces. It caused severe losses to the "green" US Army in some of their first encounters with the Germans under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at the Battle of Kasserine Pass (1943). It was later lost in the general Axis surrender in North Africa in May 1943 and officially disbanded in June 1943. The division was never rebuilt.

In honor of notable members of the 10.Panzer Division being part of the German Resistance and the failed July 20th Plot to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944, a new armored division was named 10.Panzer Division in 1959 upon the formation of the West German army as a part of the Bundeswehr.