German armored fighting vehicle production during World War II
This article lists production figures for German armored fighting vehicles during the World War II era.
These lightly armed and armoured tanks were intended as training vehicles but were used in combat as the war came sooner than the military had anticipated.
Variants: The Panzer 38(t) was a pre-war Czech tank design, following the Occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovakian industry became an extension of Germany's.
173) was a Jagdpanzer ("hunting tank") variant with the more powerful 88 mm L/71 PaK43 gun on modified Panther chassis.
During the war, Germany produced:[3] German manufacturing of tanks began in 1934, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.
[10] Early in development the Heer settled on the concept of the tank having a commander who was in radio communication with his superiors.
Due to the insertion of the Nazi Party into the procurement process and political considerations that had nothing to do with the goal of providing arms for the military, the companies that ended up gaining the contracts for tank production had limited actual experience in mass production.
Ford and Opel, two manufacturers with considerable knowledge and ability in assembly line techniques, were not allowed to participate in the bidding process.
All these companies, with the exception again of Alkett, produced tanks in addition to their normal peacetime manufacture of trucks, locomotives, and other heavy equipment.
[14] Through threat and coercion Göring was able to expand the Nazi Party's control of private industry involved in steel and armament production.
[15] By 1938, this control included the rationing of essential raw materials, factory inventories, labor hours, rates of pay, working conditions, building and machine tool expansion, plant locations and stock dividends.
There was, however, some geographical concentration of tank component manufacturers, such as engines and gears in Friedrichshafen, hulls, turrets, and guns in the Ruhr, rubber treads in Hanover, and instruments in Berlin.
During the course of the war the Allies made sustained efforts to determine the extent of German productivity, and approached this in two major ways: conventional intelligence gathering and statistical estimation.
[b] Shortly before the landings in northern France, rumours indicated that large numbers of Panther tanks were being used in the panzer divisions.
To ascertain if this were true the Allies attempted to estimate the number of Panther tanks being produced.
Analysis of road wheels from the two tanks obtained yielded an estimate of 270 Panthers produced in February 1944 alone, substantially more than had previously been suspected.
