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.

This particular 1:72 scale replica of a PzKpfw IV Ausf. F2(G) medium tank was attached to Panzerabteilung 204, 22.Panzer Division, then deployed to the Eastern Front during 1942. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Length: 4-inches
Width: 1-1/2-inches

Release Date: February 2010

Historical Account: "Resurrection" - Officially formed on September 25th, 1941. in France the 22.Panzer Division was initially equipped with obsolete Czech, French and German tanks.

The 22.Panzer Division was sent to the Eastern Front in February 1942. After an initial disastrous attack on March 20th, in which the division's units lost 30-40% of their personnel, the division remained in the Crimea and took part in Manstein's Unternehmen Trappenjagd (Operation Bustard Hunt). In May 1942, the division was sent north to the Kharkov area and then took part in the 1942 summer offensive against Soviet forces in the Don River bend leading to the Battle of Stalingrad. The 22nd fought in the Battle of Rostov in July 1942.

Together with the 1st Romanian Armored Division (equipped with the also obsolete R2, similar to Panzer 35(t)), the 22.Panzer Division comprised the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps and was next tasked with defending the northern flank of the ill-fated German 6th Army at Stalingrad. Lieutenant General Ferdinand Heim was the corps commander.

On November 19th, 1942, Operation Uranus began. The great Soviet counter-offensive encircled the German 6th Army and much of the 4.Panzer Armee and smashed the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps, including the 22.Panzer Division. Many of the division's tanks had been parked in dugouts for an extended period of time and protected from the frost by straw. When the tanks were called on to respond to the Soviet offensive, many could not be started because mice had sought refuge in the straw and then in the tanks where they chewed up the insulation of electric system wires. The ability of the division to put up effective resistance was also compromised by the prior piecemeal deployment of division assets to shore up the Romanian line.

According to Beevor, the division had as few as 30 serviceable Panzer 38t's with which to meet the onslaught of the T-34s of the Soviet 1st Tank Corps. Contradictory orders directing the panzers in two different directions only aggravated an already hopeless situation.

After desperate fighting around the Russian town of Petshany November 19th-22th, 1942, the 22nd was virtually destroyed with survivors making their way southwest to and across the river Chir to join various ad hoc Kampfgruppen. For its part, the Romanian 1st Armored Division lost 60% of its combat strength and crossed the Chir River with only nineteen of its original eighty four serviceable R-2s. The 22.Panzer Division was subsequently disbanded in April 1943.

General Heim of the XXXXVIII Panzer Corps was relieved of command and retired in disgrace, only to be recalled to active duty in 1944 to command the hopeless defense of Boulogne, France.