Description

The Pz.IV E in the garage.

The Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. E (Panzer IV E) is a Rank I German medium tank with a battle rating of 2.3 (AB) and 2.0 (RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.45 "Steel Generals".

In game, compared to the previous modification Pz.IV C, E modification is mostly an armour upgrade - front lower plate is now 50 mm thick, side and rear armour has been increased by 5mm. Plus, the front and side armour have additional armour plates installed on them. Commander's cupola got thicker as well. Gun remains the same, short 7.5cm KwK 37 L/24. Another notable thing is the availability of a new improved Hl.Gr.38C HEAT ammunition, with higher armour penetration.

Mobility got improved as well - top speed has been raised from 35 kph to 43 kph. Reverse speed has been slightly raised too (from about 6 kph to 8 kph).

Machine guns

Usage in the battles

The gun is very powerful, with great rate of fire, and with HEAT shells, can one shot most of it's opponents. While being able to penetrate most of your opponent's frontal armour, you are a lot more effective when the enemy doesn't see you as your armour is not the greatest. Pz.IV E is often capable of annihilating an enemy vehicle with a single AP shell, regardless of the angle of the enemy's armour. It has a fair amount of armour as well, however due to the lack of an actual slope it may seem considerably more fragile than some Soviet vehicles when facing AP shells.

Against most threats, it is often wiser to close in with the enemy vehicle, to make targeting the weakest areas possible, increasing the chance of successful penetration. When engaging vehicles at close range, it is for example good idea to count on the slower turret speed of the Soviet machines, allowing the player to circle around them with ease and deliver devastating shots. Bear in mind that while this tank can easily obliterate any vehicle at its own BR, against higher rank enemies the relatively poor penetration of the gun and very slow shell travel speed can become a problem. However take note that your standard AP round can still penetrate most tanks you face at BR 2.0 but take HEAT rounds for the more heavily armoured tanks (Such as the Valentine and Matilda II). An advisable approach to play the Pz.Kpfw Ausf. E is to attack the enemy's flanks and avoid direct encounters with enemy vehicles.

Pros and cons

Pros:

Powerful gun.

Gun is devastating to lightly armoured vehicles.

Excellent gun depression.

Access to improved HlGr 38C HEAT ammo, which has enhanced penetration and can hull break most lighter enemies.

Good mobility.

Has access to smoke shells.

Cons:

Poor turret armour.

The starting shells lack penetration.

Gun lacks penetration at longer ranges.

Low-velocity gun.

Commander's cupola is huge and easy to hit.

History

Development

The Pz.Kpfw. IV's creation, like its predecessor the Pz.Kpfw. III, was devised by Heinz Guderian, where he envisioned a support tank to be used to handle anti-tank guns and fortifications. The Panzer IV was to work alongside the more numerable Panzer III in Panzer Divisions (three company of IIIs and one of IVs) to engage the enemy, giving the role of fighting enemy armoured forces to the Panzer IIIs. As a support tank, the tank was to have the short 75 mm howiter as its main armament and have a weight limit of 24 tons. MAN, Krupp, and Rheinmetall-Borsig worked on the development of the tanks, but the Krupp's model was selected for further testing.

The chosen model from Krupp once finished used a leaf-spring double-bogie system for its suspension, doing away the proposed interleaved or torsion bar suspension system earlier devised for the sake of faster production. The vehicle held five crew members, the commander, gunner, loader, radio operator (and hull machine gunner), and driver. Though it looked symmetrical, the Panzer IV turret was actually offset to the left of the chassis center line a bit while the engine was also offset to the right, this was to allow the torque shaft to turn the turret. The offset also meant that most of the ammo is held on the right side of the tank in storage areas. The Panzer IV was then accepted into service and production began in 1936.

Panzer IV Ausf. E

After the Battle of Poland and France, the deficiencies of the Panzer IV Ausf. C saw it being upgraded on October 1940 to the Panzer IV Ausf. E. Still retaining the KwK 37 L/24 75 mm howitzer gun, but with an upgrade to 50 mm thick, with the original 20 mm glacis plus a 30 mm steel plate bolted onto the glacis as an improvised protection. The commander cupola was moved slightly forward to accommodate the new storage bin on the back of the turrets from that model on.

Despite that, the Ausf. E was soon taken over by a new variant in production in April 1941, the Panzer IV Ausf. F. Though, the Ausf. E saw service alongside it in Operation Barbarossa, but was soon found to be terribly outgunned by the appearance of the Soviet T-34 and KV-1 tanks. It was replaced from front-line service with the Ausf. F variant.

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.