Panzer III: Lord of the Blitzkrieg

Technically the PzKpfw III was, despite minor faults, a well-balanced basic design which left provision for up-gunning and up-armouring, but by 1942 it was incapable of further modification that would enable it to keep pace with the spiral of gun/armour race. During the high years of Blitzkrieg it was the only weapon in the German tank arsenal that really counted and thus, like Napoleon’s vieux moustaches, it did not merely witness history in the making-it made it, from Channel to the Volga and from the Arctic to the North African desert. This achievement has, perhaps, been overshadowed in recent years by the study of later and more dramatic German designs, but the fact remains that it was the PzKpfw III that brought Hitler closet to achieving his wildest dreams. - Brian Perrett