Panzer I C is a German Recon unit.
Overview[ | ]
The Panzer I was a stop-gap design introduced in 1934 for training tank crews. As the tank was developed while Germany still officially adhered to the Versailles Treaty, it was initially covertly developed as Kleintraktor and then Landwirtschaftlicher Schlepper. The LaS eventually became the Panzer I. Its designed borrowed from the British Carden Loyd tankette and was intended as a training platform for industry and Panzertruppen alike. As a result, it was undergunned, with just a pair of 7.92mm MG 13 machine guns in a rotating turret, and underarmored, with a steel plate 13 mm at its thickest. Despite the intention to use it as a training tank, Panzer I was deployed in direct combat, first with the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and then during World War II (1939–1941), contributing to the early victories of Nazi Germany.
Except for the name, Ausfuhrung C had nothing in common with the original Panzer I. Instead, it was a joint project of Krauss-Maffei and Daimler-Benz, to create a fast, well armed and armored reconnaissance light tank. It use a new chassis and turret, a modern torsion bar suspension with five interleaved roadwheels, double the armor of Ausf. A and B, with a 7.92mm EW 141 semi-autocannon equipped with armor-piercing shells. Forty tanks were produced on top of six prototypes, with 38 assigned to the LVIII Panzer Reserve Corps during the Normandy landings.
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