Panhards. (Formerly Identify German Armoured Car)

Anyone know what this is?

Thanks

 

It’s actually a French Panhard 178, of which large numbers were captured in 1940 and subsequently used by the Germans.

 

Germans appeared to call it a Sdz. 222. See: Axis Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War II: German Recce Armoured Cars

 

Maybe as sketched by Dirk Bogarde on 23 August 1944 in Normandy, image #12 at:

Dirk Bogarde » Paintings & Sketches

?

 

These were actually quite serviceable vehicles, but they were overtaxed by the extreme conditions in the SU: The Wehrmacht lost 107 out of 190 in 1941.
From 1943 onwards, the last examples were only used for rear services, some of them were converted into panzer railcars.
The Panhards in Dave's pictures were probably taken sometime between 1940 and early 1942, because after that they started to camouflage vehicles with all kinds of colours - especially scout cars and the like.

 

Here's the clip from which Dave extracted the stills to start this thread:


Panhards shown from 13:10 to 16:44.

 

After my earlier mischief, I knew I’d seen a looky-likey somewhere:

History on Wheels Museum

Hubert, as driven by Clarence (Klarenz?), was it?

 

Some data on the Panhard with the French army.
AMD 178 (Automitrailleuse de Découverte) - Quartermaster Section
Ian

It was a quite a decent armoured car.
Ian

 

Hi Ian, finally got you over here have we!

Gary

 

Hi Gary, yeah I have been made welcome by the members who have given me so much information about my late relatives.
Hope you are tip top and still doing great work on your site.



I have already been asking questions about one of my favourite subjects, TO/Es, British infantry company on the northwest frontier of India circa 1920 to 1939.
Got a great response too.


I am really struggling to find my previous post, I had to really search for this thread.
On the other military site I was on, I just had to log in and look at my previous post section and find the sites I have written on.



Going back to the Panhard, you may want to check out the 5cm pz sp wg 178 p204(f), basically the Germans stuck a Pak 38 on it.

Ian

 

Hi Ian, you can search for 'posted by member', which should bring up your full posting history.

 

The Wehrmacht used surplus 5-cm KwK L/42 guns from the Pz III for their Panhards:


The French thought "Tiens ma bière!" - and mounted the 5-cm PaK L/60 on it :

(used by the FFI Escadre Besnier)

 

It seems that I got stuck between the two versions, I knew it was a 5cm weapon, on the 5cm pz sp wg 178 p204(f) clearly it is a KwK not a PaK.
School boy error on my part

Ian

Thanks for sorting out the navigation issues out for me guys

Ian

 

Ian, no need to fret, history doesn't have to be rewritten because of it - and I've made far more serious mistakes, by the way.
But my rivet-counter attitude simply could not allow me to let this go uncommented.

 

I actually learned something Dan, no problem at all.
I wonder how many of those pak 38 panhards the french had.

Ian

 

Only one specimen was documented at the Escadron Besnier, christened "Betouchka". Most probably a one-off field modification.
Escadron blindé 1°GMR du Capitaine BESNIER - Les forums du jeu d'Histoire