The Panzer I was a light tank produced by Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Its name is short for (German for "armored fighting vehicle mark I"), abbreviated as . The tank's official German ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 101 ("special purpose vehicle 101").Nomenclature see: Gander, Tanks and Armour: Panzerkampfwagen I & II, p. 10
Design of the Panzer I began in 1932 and mass production began in 1934. Initially intended only as a training tank to introduce the concept of armored warfare to the German Army, the Panzer I saw combat in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, in Poland, France, the Soviet Union and North Africa during the Second World War, and in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Experiences with the Panzer I during the Spanish Civil War helped shape the German Panzerwaffe's invasion of Poland in 1939 and France in 1940. By 1941, the Panzer I chassis design was used chiefly as a basis for tank destroyers and assault guns. There were attempts to upgrade the Panzer I throughout its service history, including by foreign nations, to extend the design's lifespan. It continued to serve in the Spanish Armed Forces until 1954.
The Panzer I's performance in armored combat was limited by its thin armor and light armament of two MG13 machine guns, which were never intended for use against armored targets, being intended for infantry suppression, in line with inter-war doctrine. As a design intended for training, the Panzer I was less capable than many other contemporary light tank designs, such as the Polish 7TP and the Soviet T-26, although it was still relatively advanced compared to older designs, such as the Renault FT, still in service in several nations. Although lacking as a antitank vehicle, it formed a large part of Germany's mechanized forces and was used in all major campaigns between September 1939 and December 1941, where it still performed much useful service against entrenched infantry and other "soft" targets, which were unable to respond even against thin armor, and who were highly vulnerable to machine gun fire. The small, vulnerable light tank, along with its somewhat more powerful successor the Panzer II, would soon be surpassed as a front-line armored fighting vehicle by more powerful German tanks, such as the Panzer III, and later the Panzer IV, Panzer V, and Panzer VI; nevertheless, the Panzer I's contribution to the early victories of Nazi Germany during World War II was significant. Later in the war, the turrets of many obsolete Panzer Is and Panzer IIs were repurposed as gun turrets on defensive fighting positions, particularly on the Atlantic Wall.
Development history After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 prohibited the design, manufacture and deployment of tanks within the Reichswehr. Paragraph Twenty-four of the treaty provided for a 100,000-mark fine and imprisonment of up to six months for anybody who "[manufactured] armored vehicles, tanks or similar machines, which may be turned to military use".Guderian, Achtung-Panzer!, p. 133
Despite the manpower and technical limitations imposed on the German Army by the Treaty of Versailles, several Reichswehr officers established a clandestine general staff to study World War I and develop future strategies and tactics. Although at first the concept of the tank as a mobile weapon of war met with apathy, German industry was encouraged to look into tank design, while quiet cooperation was undertaken with the Soviet Union.Gander, Tanks & Armour: Panzerkampfwagen I & II, pp. 6–7 There was also minor military cooperation with Sweden, including the extraction of technical data that proved invaluable to early German tank design.Perett, German Light Panzers: 1932–42, p. 4 As early as 1926 the German companies Krupp, Rheinmetall and Daimler-Benz were contracted to develop prototype tanks armed with a 75 mm cannon. These were designed under the cover name Großtraktor (large tractor) to veil the true purpose of the vehicle.Franco, Panzer I: El Inicio de una Saga, p. 3 By 1930 a light tank armed with rapid-fire machineguns was to be developed under the cover name Leichttraktor (light tractor).Thomas L. Jentz, Hilary Louis Doyle: Panzer Tracts No.1-1 – Panzerkampfwagen I – from Kleintraktor to Ausf. B The six produced Großtraktor were later put into service for a brief period with the 1 Panzer Division; the Leichttraktor remained in testing until 1935.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, German tank theory was pioneered by two figures: General Oswald Lutz and his chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Guderian. Guderian became the more influential of the two and his ideas were widely publicized.See: Achtung-Panzer!, first released in German in 1937. Like his contemporary, Sir Percy Hobart, Guderian initially envisioned an armored corps (panzerkorps) composed of several types of tanks. This included a slow infantry tank, armed with a small-caliber cannon and several machine guns. The infantry tank, according to Guderian, was to be heavily armored to defend against enemy anti-tank guns and artillery. He also envisioned a fast breakthrough tank, similar to the British cruiser tank, which was to be armored against enemy anti-tank weapons and have a large, 75 mm (2.95 in) main gun. Lastly, Germany needed a heavy tank, armed with a 150 mm (5.9 in) cannon to defeat enemy fortifications, and even stronger armor. Such a tank required a weight of 70 to 100 tonnes and was completely impractical given the manufacturing capabilities of the day.Guderian, Achtung-Panzer!, pp. 169–70 for a detailed look into Guderian's theories.
Soon after rising to power in Germany, Adolf Hitler approved the creation of Germany's first panzer divisions. Simplifying his earlier proposal, Guderian suggested the design of a main combat vehicle, which would be developed into the Panzer III, and a breakthrough tank, the Panzer IV.Gander, Tanks & Armour: Panzerkampfwagen I & II, p. 9 No existing design appealed to Guderian. As a stopgap, the German Army ordered a preliminary vehicle to train German tank crews. This became the Panzer I.McCarthy, Panzerkrieg, p. 31
The Panzer I's design history can be traced to the British Carden Loyd tankette, of which it borrowed much of its track and suspension design. After six prototypes Kleintraktor were produced the cover name was changed to Krupp-Traktor whereas the development codename was changed to Landwirtschaftlicher Schlepper (La S) (Agricultural Tractor). The La S was intended not just to train Germany's panzer troops, but to prepare Germany's industry for the mass production of tanks in the near future; a difficult engineering feat for the time.Franco, Panzer I, p. 4 The armament of production versions was to be two 7.92 mm MG 13 machine guns in a rotating turret.Franco, Panzer I, pp. 4–5 Machine guns were known to be largely useless against even the lightest tank armor of the time, restricting the Panzer I to a training and anti-infantry role by design.McCarthy, Panzerkrieg, p. 31
The final official designation, assigned in 1938, was Panzerkampfwagen I (M.G.) with special ordnance number Sd.Kfz. 101.Franco, Panzer I, pp. 5–6 The first 150 tanks (1./LaS, 1st series LaS, Krupp-Traktor), produced in 1934, did not include the rotating turret and were used for crew training.Franco, Panzer I, p. 6 Following these, production was switched to the combat version of the tank. The Ausf. A was under-armored, with steel plate of only 13 millimeters (0.51 in) at its thickest. The tank had several design flaws, including suspension problems, which made the vehicle pitch at high velocities, and engine overheating.Gander, Tanks & Armour: Panzerkampfwagen I & II, p. 10 The driver was positioned inside the chassis and used conventional steering levers to control the tank, while the commander was positioned in the turret where he also acted as a gunner. The two crewmen could communicate by means of a voice tube.Perrett, German Light Panzers, pp. 5–6 Machine gun ammunition was stowed in five bins, containing various numbers of 25-round magazines.Specifically, there was an eight-magazine bin in the turret, and four bins in the hull containing 8, 20, 6, and 19 magazines respectively. For more information see Perrett, German Light Panzers, p. 6 1,190 of the Panzerkampfwagen I Ausf. A were built in three series (2.-4./LaS). A further 25 were built as command tanks.
Many of the problems in the Ausf. A were corrected with the introduction of the Ausf. B. The air-cooled engine (producing just was replaced by a water-cooled, six-cylinder Maybach NL38 TR, developing , and the ZF FG 35 gearbox was changed to a FG 31.Spielberger, Die Panzerkampfwagen I und II, pp. 36–37 The larger engine required the extension of the vehicle's chassis by 40 cm (16 in), and this allowed the improvement of the tank's suspension, adding another bogie wheel and raising the tensioner.Franco, Panzer I, pp. 21–21. The tank's weight increased by 0.4 tons. Production of the Ausf. B began in August 1936 and finished in the summer of 1937 after 399 had been built in two series (5a-6a/LaS). Further 159 were built as command tanks in two series, and 295 chassis were built as turretless training tanks. 147 more training tanks were built as convertible chassis with hardened armor with the option to upgrade them to full combat status by adding a superstructure and turret.
Other frontline-type Panzer I tanks Two more combat versions of the Panzer I were designed and produced between 1939 and 1942. By this stage, the design concept had been superseded by medium and heavy tanks and neither variant was produced in sufficient numbers to have a real impact on the progress of the war. These new tanks had nothing in common with either the Ausf. A or B except name.Gander, Tanks & Armour: Panzerkampfwagen I & II, p. 14 One of these, the Panzer I Ausf. C, was designed jointly between Krauss-Maffei and Daimler-Benz in 1939 to provide an amply armored and armed reconnaissance light tank.Perrett, German Light Panzers, p. 6 The Ausf. C boasted a completely new chassis and turret, a modern torsion-bar suspension and five Schachtellaufwerk-style interleaved roadwheels.Franco, Panzer I, pp. 37–38 It also had a maximum armor thickness of 30 millimeters (1.18 in), over twice that of either the Ausf. A or B, and was armed with a Mauser EW 141 semi-automatic anti-tank rifle, with a 50-round drum magazine, firing powerful armor-piercing 7.92×94mm Patronen 318 anti-tank rounds. Forty of these tanks were produced,Franco, Panzer I, p. 37 along with six prototypes. Two tanks were deployed to 1st Panzer Division in 1943, and the other thirty-eight were deployed to the LVIII Panzer Reserve Corps during the Normandy landings.Franco, Panzer I, p. 38
The second vehicle, the Ausf. F, was as different from the Ausf. C as it was from the Ausf. A and B.Gander, Tanks & Armour: Panzerkampfwagen I & II, pp. 14–15 Intended as an infantry support tank, the Panzer I Ausf. F had a maximum armor thickness of 80 millimeters (3.15 in) and weighed between 18 and 21 tonnes.Perrett, German Light Panzers, pp. 6–7. Perrett claims a weight of 18 tonnes, although Franco claims 21. The Ausf. F was armed with two 7.92 mm MG-34s.Gander, Tanks & Armour: Panzerkampfwagen I & II, p. 14; although this is similar to the armament of earlier Ausf. A and B, these two were armed with the older MG-13s, not the modern MG-34. Thirty were produced in 1940, and a second order of 100 was later canceled. In order to compensate for the increased weight, a new Maybach HL45 Otto engine was used, allowing a maximum road speed of 25 kilometers per hour (15.5 mph) and used five overlapping road wheels per side, dropping the Ausf. C's interleaved units. Eight of the thirty tanks produced were sent to the 1st Panzer Division in 1943 and saw combat at the Battle of Kursk. The rest were given to several army schools for training and evaluation purposes.Franco, Panzer I, pp. 38–39
Combat history