Tracks for PZ III / IV in use 1943-45 - Friulmodel ATL-117

Maquette – Tracks for PZ III / IV in use 1943-45 – Friulmodel ATL-117
Panzer est un vocable allemand signifiant “blindé”. Si le mot peut s’appliquer aujourd’hui à tous les engins cuirassés allemands, des origines jusqu’à nos jours, l’usage fait qu’il désigne essentiellement les blindés chenillés à tourelle allemands de la Seconde Guerre mondiale (panzerkampfwagen, véhicule blindé de combat, en abrégé PzKfw), lesquels eurent une conception et un emploi tactique particuliers. Le terme générique est moins utilisé pour les MBT (main battle tank) allemands de l’après-guerre (Leopard 1 et 2), similaires aux autres systèmes d’armes occidentaux. L’historiographie française utilise le pluriel “panzers”. Certains ouvrages français utilisent ce mot comme abréviation de grandes unités blindées, “2ème panzer” signifiant 2ème division blindée ou 2.Panzerdivision.
Les panzers, surtout ceux de la deuxième moitié de la guerre, étaient très redoutés, moins nombreux mais souvent plus dangereux que ceux de leurs adversaires. Les chars lourds Tigre et Tigre II étaient ainsi les véhicules les plus lourdement blindés de leur époque.
Le panzer IV fut le blindé allemand le plus utilisé durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Il a opéré sur tous les fronts : Pologne, France, Balkans, Grèce, front de l’Est, Afrique du Nord, Italie, etc.
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Tracks for TIGER I initial type - Friulmodel ATL-116

Model - Tracks for TIGER I initial type - Friulmodel ATL-116
The Tiger I (Tiger), a diminutive of Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf-hrung E - Sonderkraftfahrzeug 181, a German heavy tank in service from 1942 to 1945, is one of the best known tanks of the Second World War, although it was produced little compared to the Soviet T-34 or the American Sherman.
It is its dimensions, its very square lines, its resistance to combat, its power as well as the experienced crews that led to the fire that have marked the spirits, especially because of the German propaganda.
Its development began in 1937 and, when it first appeared on the front line, on August 29, 1942, near Leningrad, the Tiger I is the most technically advanced, best protected and most powerful tank aligned by the Axis, displaying limited but exceptional mobility for a craft that is more than twice the weight of its predecessors and the majority of its tracked opponents. But the heavy tank, in addition to its low production, suffered throughout its career from its very fragile mechanics greatly reducing its availability to fire, and which, with its low autonomy and excessive weight, complicated its operational implementation.
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