what is this panzer troop carrier?

[Danmark]

Reading a book on the Das Reich whilst on holidays and this photo is on the cover.

Does anyone know what these panzer chassis troop carriers are?
I cannot find anything like them


Cheers, Dan

[Gunny Hartmann]

Yup, they're the chassis of a panzer I!......

[bigmacglenn]

Perhaps a tank driving school?
cheers, Glenn

[Danmark]

Thanks guys but still a bit weird?
Pretty crowded for training I would think.
I hadn't seen this image before in any other books.

[big ned]

The Panzer I was not intended as a combat vehicle, but more to familiarise industry and the army with tanks. By the time production had ended in 1937, a total of 1867 Pz I hulls had been produced, of which 1493 were fitted with turrets, and the rest used as command or training vehicles.

The first fifteen tanks, produced between February and March 1934 did not include the rotating turret and were used for crew training. Perhaps these are some of them as each tank appears to have an instructor wearing a tank suit and black side cap seated front right of each vehicle?

Regards, Ned.

[Danmark]

Thanks Ned!

Seems strange then that it was used to illustrate the cover of a book on the Das Reich in Normandy?

Dan

[big ned]

A total of 202 anti tank PZ1's were upgraded to Panzerjager 1 tank destroyers with the fitting of a Skoda 47mm anti tank gun starting in 1940 as an answer to the French Char B1 tank that was resistant to the PAK 36 ATG during the invasion of France. They soldiered on until late 1942 seeing action in the North African campaign including El Alamein and also in Russia during Operation Barbarossa where a company of them was assigned to the 1st Division SS-Brigade Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and others to various Heer divisions. Here's a couple of pic's of them in the Western Desert and the Ukraine respectively.

[HPL2008]

As has been said above, these are Fahrschulpanzer [driving school tanks] on a Panzer I chassis, used for training tank drivers.

The ones in the photograph are actually run by the NSKK: The instructors (wearing black sidecaps) are NSKK men and the vehicles have NSKK markings on the front. (This picture is not very clear, but I have seen a photograph from a similiar - or perhaps even the same - occasion.) Training motor vehicle drivers for the armed forces was an important wartime mission for the NSKK.

See:

Lexikon der Wehrmacht - Fahrschulpanzer 1
Panzerschreck.de

[Glenn66]

I have the same book Dan, not a bad read but not the best either IMO.

[meyle77]

Not troop carrier but training tank.

Panzer Is without superstructures were used as training tanks by the army and were handed over to para-military organizations such as NSKK (National Socialist Motor Corps) for training purposes.