When Germany invaded Russia in June of 1941, they met the T-34 which had slanted armor making almost every round fired from the panzer IV bounce off. The short barrelled panzer IV's were now obsolete because of their low velocity guns. Realizing this could be a catastrophe, Germany quickly made plans in 1942 for better tanks, but in the mean time they upgraded the armor on the short barrelled panzer IV making the panzer IV ausf F1. Note the extra storage on the back of the turret and also the escape hatches are now double door.
Later in 1942 the Germans made the panzer IV Ausf F2 that had an extended barrel. This tank was much more succesful than any of the recent panzer IV's. It could finally bring a fight to the battle field.
The F2 was good but it still lacked good armor against Anti-tank weapons, and accuracy. Designs were brought out in late 1942
for the panzer IV ausf G. The ausf G had a bit longer gun on it making it a slightly more accurate tank. Some later versions of the
ausf G had what the Germans call schurzen skirting. With this added it gave the tank protection against anti-tank infantry weapons,
but provided no extra help against other tanks.
Here is a panzer IV ausf G, it doesn't have the schurzen skirting. There were 1,687 produced from 1942-43.
Then in mid 1943 the Germans were busy making heavier tanks like the Panther and Tiger, but they came out with the most made version of the Panzer IV, the ausf H. The ausf H was basically the last version of the Panzer IV to be made. It came with yet a longer barrel, added armor, and all were made to fit schurzen skirting. All in all 3,774 were produced.
This panzer IV is missing some of the armor skirting, probably due to anti-tank weapons. The side skirting helped the crew against Russian anti-tank rifles, and in the western front against bazookas and British piats. The ausf H was the main tank of the German panzer divisions on all fronts. It was (if not better) equally matched against the sherman on the western front.
Germany's panzer IV went through the whole war, but didn't make it without heavy modifications down below is a picture of the differnt turret modifications
In conclusion the panzer IV was an over all good tank. It wasn't anything like the panther, but it can be concluded to be the backbone of the German panzer divisions. With a service record from 1939 to 1945, and even longer, this tank was Germany's main fighting vehicle, although when you say German tank, people think of the tiger, but the tank that carried Germany was the panzer IV.
This is a picture of a panzer IV ausf H that the Syrians used, and the Israeli's captured during the six day war. The ironic thing is that the Israeli's used American sherman tanks also, but by the 50's when the war was fought, both the sherman and the panzer IV were obsolete.
