View from a 21. Panzer-Division Panzer IV driver’s vision slit as a lone British Crusader tank charges towards it in Libya in late 1941

by jacksmachiningreveng

9 comments

  1. Unfortunately I could not find more details about this fascinating sequence showing a close encounter in a theater where the lack of cover usually meant engagements at longer ranges. The Panzer IV would have been an earlier Ausf. D or E model armed with the short L/24 75mm gun, not the most spectacular armor penetrator but the Crusader placed emphasis on mobility and therefore was relatively lightly armored. The latter tank’s 2 pounder gun would also have been able to defeat the Panzer’s armor, so victory would be a matter of who scored the first hit.

  3. I have done a bit of digging due to the other comments.
    The photo appears to be either a still from a film or from a series of photographs documenting the life of a Panzer IV crew by photographer and film maker “Hans Ertl”.
    [https://imagesdefense.gouv.fr/fr/un-char-pz-iv-du-pz-rgt-5-de-la-21-pz-div-et-son-equipage.html](https://imagesdefense.gouv.fr/fr/un-char-pz-iv-du-pz-rgt-5-de-la-21-pz-div-et-son-equipage.html)
    [https://imagesdefense.gouv.fr/fr/vue-subjective-d-un-char-britannique-crusader-a-travers-la-fente-de-vision-du-pilote-du-panzer-iv.html](https://imagesdefense.gouv.fr/fr/vue-subjective-d-un-char-britannique-crusader-a-travers-la-fente-de-vision-du-pilote-du-panzer-iv.html)
    (french website)
    If anybody has any additional information it’d be much appreicated.

  5. Sir Leroy Jenkins, of His Majesty’s 7th Royal Tank Regiment, just went in.

  7. I would nearly say this is a propaganda piece made by the Germans using a captured Crusader

  9. Since we are seeing this means the British tank didn’t make it.

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