The most produced panzer tank of world war II

It is indisputable that the allies have built the largest number of tanks during the second world war. The production numbers for their most used models, such as the Soviet's T-34 and Western Allies' M4 Sherman tanks dwarf those of the most produced German Panzerkampfwagen.

Germany's most famous tanks were the Tiger and Panther models. But, unlike their counterparts in the allied armies (T-34 and Sherman), they were not the most used tank in the German army. That honor goes to a model designed before the war broke out.


In his famous book, Achtung Panzer!, Heinz Guderian described his vision of a successful warfare strategy, that goes under the name of Blitzkrieg. Among other things, he outlined the roles of primary battle tanks and support tanks. The primary battle tanks would constitute the mainstay of the armored divisions and fight the enemy's tanks, while the support tanks would attack anti-tank guns and fortifications.

Two models were designed before the start of the war in order to fulfill these roles: Panzer III and Panzer IV. Being designed as the primary battle tank, Panzer III was intended to be build in larger quantities than the slightly heavier Panzer IV. Anyway, in the first year of the war, including the invasion of Low Countries and France, the Germans would wage their armored battles using mostly the Panzer I and Panzer II light tanks. This is because the army wasn't yet properly equipped for war, so they had to win the first campaigns with tank models that were actually designed for training and reconnaissance.

A lot of these small tanks (Panzer I) were used in the successful campaigns of 1939 and 1940

But fortune favours the bold, so the Axis managed to decisively win these first campaigns. They also used the Panzer III and Panzer IV variants, and they found out that beating allied heavy tanks like the French Char B1 and the British  Matilda wasn't an easy feat at all. It seemed that their guns (the 37 mm caliber of the Panzer III) just couldn't penetrate the armor that the allied heavy tanks had.


Naturally, the solution was to upgrade the guns to larger calibers, but the Panzer III  could only carry up to a 50mm gun, because of its smaller turret. In order to cope with increasingly frequent T-34s in the battlefield, they had to use larger guns, like the 75 mm KwK 40 L/43, mounted on the Panzer IV G model. So, gradually, Panzer III was taken out from production, and they started making a lot of Panzer IVs.

New panzer models have appeared starting in 1943: Tiger and Panther. Now the Germans finally had some tanks that were superior to the allied armor. But they kept manufacturing an improved version of the Panzer IV tank until the end of the war, and still fielded a lot of these on both the western and the eastern fronts. There were probably several reasons for this, including the use of the already existing production lines.

Production of tanks gradually increased during the course of the war, except for the last few months of the war. This was in spite of allied aerial bombing campaign that seriously disrupted the existing production. The Germans found ways to make up for the damaged factories and streamlined the manufacturing process. In total, they build around 9000 Pzkw IV tanks, making this model the most produced panzer tank of the second world war.

Version H was the most produced Panzer IV model