COBI Panzer III Ausf. H Set 2672

COBI's Panzer III Ausf. H is a 1:28 model built from 963 blocks, 19.5 cm long. The turret rotates, the gun barrel adjusts, the hatches open and the tracks run. A section of the hull armor lifts away to show the crew positions inside, and the Maybach HL120 TRM engine can be taken out from under its service hatch and displayed beside the tank. A German tank commander figure in a side cap and black coveralls is included, carrying a wrench and a fuel canister, along with a plaque giving the vehicle name and scale.

The version that was sent under the water

In the summer of 1940 Germany was preparing to land in England, and there was no way to put a tank ashore on an open beach. The answer was to drive it there along the bottom.

Between June and October 1940, 168 vehicles — Panzer III Ausf. F, G and H together with a number of command tanks, and separately 42 Panzer IVs — were rebuilt as Tauchpanzer, diving tanks. Air intakes were given sealing covers and the exhaust non-return valves; the cupola, gun mantlet and hull machine gun were closed off with waterproof fabric, and an inflatable rubber tube sealed the turret ring. Air came down a hose from a float that stayed on the surface carrying the snorkel head and the radio aerial. There was nothing to see out of, so the crew navigated by gyro-compass. The conversions were cleared to 15 meters of water.

Sea Lion was called off and the tanks were rebuilt again at Milowitz near Prague, this time with a fixed snorkel pipe through the commander's cupola for river crossings. On 22 June 1941, the first morning of the invasion of the Soviet Union, the diving tanks of the 18th Panzer Division drove across the bed of the River Bug at Patulin and came up the far bank.

How to tell an H

The Ausf. H was the first Panzer III built from the start around the 50 mm gun rather than rearmed with one later, and it replaced the troublesome ten-speed gearbox with a six-speed. The added weight brought wider tracks, 400 mm instead of 360, and with them a new six-spoke drive sprocket and a lighter, more open idler wheel at the rear. Those wheels are what wartime Allied recognition manuals told observers to look for, along with the extra armor plates bolted onto the nose and the tail. Production ran from late 1940 into the spring of 1941, after which the Ausf. J took over.

In the COBI range

Set 2289 is the later Panzer III Ausf. J at this same 1:28 scale, buildable with either the short or the long 50 mm gun, and set 2671 the Limited Edition Ausf. J in winter camouflage with five figures. Set 2712 is the Ausf. J at 1:48 and set 3090 the Ausf. L at 1:72.

Specifications

Pieces: 963 · Figures: 1 tank commander with accessories · Scale: 1:28 · Removable engine and armor section
Model dimensions: 19.5 × 11 × 9 cm (7.7 × 4.3 × 3.5 in), 12 cm (4.7 in) with the antenna raised