The 1943 1 SS Pz. III #556 Color Photo

[Miles Krogfus]

On June 5,1943 Panzer Army Group South Headquarters received 62 sets of Panzer III skirts and began to give some of these to the 1 SS, 2 SS and 3 SS Divisions. On June 8th, some green, brown and the so-called dunkelgelb tarnfarben arrived at the II SS Panzer Korps for painting the skirts factory applied base color of RAL 7028 Dunkelgelb (actually in the 7000 gray RAL range). Thus Panzer III #556 was sprayed with RAL 6003 olive green and photographed no earlier than the second week of June.
Production # of all LAH Panzer III's 3 June: 19 Sd.Kfz. 141 (including some Sd.Kfz. 266) 68978, 70163, 72613, 73 series 639, 697, 707, 726, 733, 746, 74576, 75 series 050, 054, 064, 394, 411, 414, 556, 76476, 77604. 9 Pz III Art.Beo.Wg.: 61 series 065, 336, 554, 616, 65 series 118, 233, 373, 734, 805. Sd.Kfz. 267: 73689, 73731. Sd.Kfz. 268: 73738.
By the way, up at Army Group North, on June 6th the 2nd Panzer Division had placed 11 sets of skirts on its Panzer III, 5 sets on Panzer IV. On June 26th, it was pretty well "Set."

[Miles Krogfus]

A LAH document of July 1,1943 gives more information: of the Sd.Kfz.141 list "including" some 266, these are the six 73 series tanks. LAH had a total of 9 Pz.Bef.Wg. Panzer III's. Of the 13 Sd.Kfz. 141's, 10 were L60, 3 L42. LAH vets gave me charts with tank numbers and crew names, and indicated that Pz.Bef.Wg. #054 had a dummy gun both in early and summer 1943, but a photo shows it in the summer with a L60 gun. Its skirts are base RAL 7028 sprayed with RAL 8017 red brown and the original dunkelgelb, that actually was yellow.

[Miles Krogfus]

Typing error above: 2 Pz.Div. with HG Mitte. Like other Panzer Divisions that received no long breaks from combat in France or elsewhere, the 2nd had only two weeks in Russia for refitting/refreshing to the end of July 1942, then from August 5 on, first used the Pz.III L60 and Pz.IV L43. For example, the 8th Pz. Komp. shot 34 T34, KV and 11 T60 in a week 11-17 August losing 2 Pz.IV L60.
This 8th company during May 1943 first got some Pz.III N. 75 mm with skirts. A vet's photo of N model #844 shows this panzer. Photos taken at the same time in May of zug leader Herbert Hanff, D.K. in Gold Oct. 9,1942 with #821 Pz.IV L43, and #822 Pz.IV L43 Unterof. Josef Czerny (45 shot tanks by Aug.15,1943) show that both tanks lacked skirts at this time.
2 Panzer Division tank strength 1 July,1943: 1 Pz.II, 12 Pz.III L60, 20 Pz.III N, 1 Pz.IV short, 62 Pz.IV L43, 3 PZ.III command tanks.

[Miles Krogfus]

Lt. Hanff went to the 2nd Pz.Div. Stab on July 6th, and Lt. Werner Schmidt took over the 8th company's second zug. #822 panzer ace Czerny had as gunner Uffz. Werner Ahrens.

[EugE]

LAH vets gave me charts with tank numbers and crew names

Is that information private or can you share it?
I am interesting the of the 4 s.Pzkomp (Tiger) (numbering/tank's crew), I/II PzAbt Stab & PzRgt Stab -numbering during the winter battle of Kharkov.

[SchnellMeyer]

Miles, do you know who the commander of Panzer III 556 was in mid June 1943 ? Thanks