Our latest resin Panzer III variants to reinforce your Wehrmacht armies are the Ausf. L and Ausf. M. The Ausf L featured thicker armour than its predecessors, while the M added schürzen for added protection and a deep-wading exhaust making it capable of fording shallow rivers.
The Ausf L had 20mm spaced armour on the plate in front of the driver and bow machine gunner positions as well as many also having 20mm spaced armour on the gun mantlet. Early in the production run, the hull escape hatches on the hull side, the loader’s vision port on the gun mantlet and the turret side ports were deleted.
By the end of June 1942, ahead of the German Summer offensive in the Soviet Union, around 600 Pz IIIs mounting the 5cm KwK L/60 were ready for action at the front. Ausf L were issued to the newly-formed panzer regiments of the 1st Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, 2nd Das Reich and 3rd Totenkopf SS-Panzergrenadier Divisions, and the Panzergrenadier Division, Grossdeutschland.
Adding protective schürzen plates to the existing Ausf L, the Panzer III Ausf. M also included a deep-wading exhaust. Both of these Panzer III variants could still be found in use in limited number during the battles in Normandy, at Anzio, during Operation Market Garden and even in the Finnish army…
Dan Hewitson
Tom Mecredy
Craig Nixon