WWII Tech Pubs Briefing

Written by
Jakub Uchytil

Following a preliminary bombardment, a PzKpfw 35(t) command tank of 6. Panzer-Division noses cautiously into a Belgian village during the first few days of the Blitzkrieg, May 1940.

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Overview

After the Munich accords were signed in 1938 and the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia followed suit during the spring of 1939, the Wehrmacht confiscated the armoured components of the Czechoslovak army. The main bulk of this force was comprised, at that time, of 219 LTvz35 light tanks that were distributed throughout the four existing Czechoslovak Fast Divisions. These vehicles were promptly incorporated into the German Panzertruppen at a time when Germany had only 98 Panzerkampfwagen (PzKpfw) III tanks available. After some hastily arranged crew training and a few minor modifications to the vehicles, they were ready for hostilities against Poland.

The development of the LTvz35 tank was directly prompted by the rise of the Nationalist Socialist party in neighbouring Germany. Between 1934 and 1937 the Czechoslovak army was given a substantial sum of money to purchase new vehicles. Skoda Plzen (Pilsen), a major Czechoslovakian armament company, developed the SU and later S-II-a prototypes to fulfill expected army requirements. They had, for quite some time, been trying to obtain a monopoly for the supply of tanks to the Czechoslovakian army. The S-II prototype, after winning a design competition, was accepted into service as the standard light tank LTvz35.

Skoda and Ceskomoravska Kolben Danek (CKD) established a cartel, and agreed to split any future tank orders between themselves and so the LTvz35 light tank was manufactured by both. CKD was later renamed Böhmisch Mährische Maschinenfabrik AG (BMM) by the Germans because Kolben was a name of Jewish origin and was therefore, at that time for obvious reasons, unacceptable. A total of 298 examples were manufactured between September 1936 and July 1937, 149 by both Skoda and CKD respectively. Acceptance trials highlighted some design flaws and many modifications were introduced on the shop floor during the production run. In 1938 further additional modifications were introduced, including updating the ZBvz35 machineguns to ZBvz37 models. The LTvz35 thus ended up as a reliable vehicle but with a somewhat tarnished development reputation.

Between 1937 and 1939, 126 examples were produced and exported to Romania. They were designated as R-2’s. Ten vehicles were also manufactured for Afghanistan but were later sold to Bulgaria. They were designated as T-11’s.

The LTvz35 equipped all four of the Czechoslovak Army Fast Divisions and first saw combat in the late summer of 1938 where together with infantry they were used against German Freikorps units with excellent results. Later during 1938 they fought against Hungarian terrorist groups operating in eastern Czechoslovakia, Slovakia and parts of what would now be called the Ukraine. In early 1939 LTvz35 tanks fought regular Hungarian troops in Slovakia.

After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Germany the tanks, now designated as PzKpfw 35(t)’s, formed the armament of the 11^th Panzer Regiment and 65^th Panzer Abteilung of the 1^st Leichte (Light) Division. In the summer of 1939 they fought during the invasion of Poland.

Following the defeat of Poland, the 1^st Leichte Division was re-named the 6^th Panzer Division. It was fully equipped with PzKpfw 35(t) tanks and fought throughout the Battle of France during May of 1940. The division later participated in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia, where it reached the outskirts of Leningrad and Moscow.

The production of the PzKpfw 35(t) did not continue for long. The Wehrmacht did not trust its complicated pneumatic steering system, amongst other things, and preferred the PzKpfw 38(t) instead. The tank was comparable in combat value to the PzKpfw III and served with distinction during both the French and early Russian campaigns. Eventually they were slowly phased out and passed over to rear-area anti-partisan and police units, where 229 of these vehicles were still serving in May of 1945.

The cold Russian winter weather caused a reoccurrence of problems already exhibited whilst still in Czech service. Condensation in the pneumatic steering system would freeze solid rendering the vehicle completely inoperable. Starting up a PzKpfw 35(t) in below-zero temperatures and coaxing it into a combat ready state could reportedly take hours. The end of PzKpfw 35(t)’s career on the eastern front was thus not necessarily caused by the heavier enemy tanks that the Wehrmacht were to soon face, but by the extreme Russian winter.

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Variants

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Specifications

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