Panzer IV Best Tank of the War?

What do you think about the panzer 4, do you think it was the best medium tank of the war? If not which tank do you think was?

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First of all it was not the most widely produced, the Panzer III was produced in larger numbers, if you include all models built on the same chassis.

The IV chassis hardly changed during the war, but the bodies were developed through the WWII.
it was easy to maintain as opposed to the later "heavier" tanks that were a technological nightmare

Der panther war, wahrscheinlich der beste mittlere panzer der Wehrmacht und in der Produktion nur wenig teurer als der panzer 4

You have no choice too use of a tank.... When you become panzer 4 than is it. You can not choice a Tiger. All old tank men than i meet say the tiger and tiger 2 was the best. Why ? Best gun + optic sights and thick armor. A Panzer 4 was not really faster than a Tiger.

Great tank and easily upgraded…

At "Nibelungenwerke" St. Valentin, more than 50% of Panzer IV have been produced. 15 km away at "Bergkristall" the most modern Jets Me242 of WWII have been produced. I am proud that I come from this area, but now it is a kind of farming region and the glory of producing the most advanced weapon systems of the world has gone far, far away. :-(

Didn't Israel employ salvaged Panzer IV tanks?

For sure the Panzer IV was one of the best tanks.

But the T-34-85 won it.


-A person whoose favourite tank is the Panther D.

Winston Churchill was the best tank of WWII.

"best" has little to no meaning as weapons, tactics, and supply lines are inseparable. I always loved the look of the Jagdpanther as a kid, though technically not a tank.

Surely best tank of WWII must go to the T34. So many innovative features including sloping armour, Christie suspension, reliable diesel engine, wide tracks giving great terrain capability and easy to mass produce.

Members of the PzRg 116 told me they swore on the PzKw 5 with the 7.5 cm long.

Not the best, but it was an essential piece of equipment with all the variants that were built from the excellent chassis.

Definitely Pz4 is my favorite tank of WW2 , although in the wrong hands!

Great tank, until it broke down. The Germans built their tank to battle other tanks. The Sherman was designed to support and exploit breaking through an enemy line and cover for ground troops. The Sherman was reliable and easy to repair by one person using standard tools. The Panzer required two people using specialized tools.

The Panzer IV might have been the best designed tank of WWII but the Sherman won it...

I wish their was a video assessing the doctrines, strategies, command, and tactics of armored units in the various armies.
Obviously, it is not just the tool the makes it effective.
How they were used is more important, IMO.

Sherman, undoubtedly. Built & shipped in factories an Ocean away & still held their own against all comers. It also had the best crew survivability rates of any of the "tanks" in discussion as being the best of the war.

Good tank. But they all had weaknesses

Anyone who played Germany religiously in Company of Heroes 2 should know how important Panzer Iv was in holding the line against T34 and KV1 until more powerful tanks like Panther arrived to change the tide.

Sherman was better - had everything that Pz IV had and few things more.

everyone says "sherman best" or "no, THE MIGHTY T-34 IS', but barely anyone says it was a decent and formidable tank

The US Army needs a tank about the size of the Panzer IV for urban combat operations - the Abrams is far too large and complex and uses exotic fuels - in view of the fact that the US will be facing an internal insurgency with possible foreign sponsorship a vehicle such as this would be tailor made.

At a minimum of a panzer fou was probably the best tank the Germans created. It had the best reliability of the tank chassis, which meant that wasn’t broken down all the time like some of the larger cats. The fact that you can rely on it to be there at the beginning of an attack and so long as it wasn’t damaged by an enemy weapon, it could get the hell out when the time came to retreat was incredibly valuable day after day. It was more cost-effective than the Tiger war. The panther took less resources something on the order to do one or more and while the tiger had a better kill ratio, they may have actually been better served have they never made the tiger, and instead had produced two or three more time is the number of tigers and had a reliable gunfighter form roaming the eastern and western front knocking out enemy tanks.
From everything I’ve read and seen if I was in a division headed into battle I’d rather have 50 of them than 50 tigers. At the start of the battle I probably would’ve had 50 panzer fours and maybe only 60% of the Tigers would’ve been able to operate that day . And many of the Tigers would just simply break down during the first days operation and have to be pulled back while under fire for repair. Maybe it’s 1/ sixth of 1/2 dozen of another scenario but I’d rather have really good reliable tanks than super tanks, and lower numbers and less reliability especially if I’m an infantry man.

It amazes me that guys loaded into these machines in the desert, without air conditioning.

Professionalism a+

I think it was one of the best

Mit the 75mm gun

The panzer IV was the best light medium tank. The panzer V Panther was the best heavy medium tank!

Good video and valid points, but "Best" at what is important:

1. The most produced and hence - disposable workhorse of the war is by far the T34.
The soviets lost 45 thousand T34 (out of the >80k manufactured). The Germans lost "only" 2.6k Panzer IVs, which makes it a much better tank, but not the better workhorse.

2. The most feared, deadly and technologically superior tank would be the Tiger 1. Close second would be Tiger 2 which came "too little, too late"'.

Would it be better for the germans to have produced 1-2 thousand more Panzer IVs, instead of Tiger 2s? - May be, but did they have the human numbers to send tens of thousands tankers in metal coffins as the russians?..

I did neither drive PlV nor T-34 so I can make up an opinion😢

Very interesting video!

This was the best german tank. with over with 13589 chasis lncluding Stug & JPanzer

Let’s face the fact that one of these had been seen recently at an Ukrainian battlefield!

Of only it had angled armour and the long 75 off the start.

Nothing new in the video.
Panzer IVH came much later and may not even encountered the KV1. The presentation was narrated poorly. Going to much greater detail about the tank requires accurate information. The video did not even mentioned about the side effects of having more armor.

Not the best!

If.Germany had built it as a priority , yes. Would be best.

But like an guy dropping his girlfriend for the crazier girlfriend, they built the panther. and tiger,.Tiger Ii. How many thousand IV's could have been built ?

The definition of a good tank is; cheap to produce, easy to repair/maintain, good survive-ability, effective in combat, upgradeable, adaptable. For me, the Panzer mkIV had it all. Awesome though the Panthers and Tigers were, if they’re not in the field in full working order, then they’re just a waste of resources. If Germany had concentrated on known products instead of trying to produce the biggest bad-ass tank around, then the war would have dragged on much longer. Thank you Mr. Hitler for being such a Pratt!

Panzer 4 was the best German tank. Sherman was the best during ww2.

To fully understand history one would have to imagine WHAT IF. Such as What If Hitler had 40,000 Tiger I tanks at his disposal vs what he really had 1,349 give or take. Let's say Hitler put off the start of WWII and just increased the the numbers of the Tiger I tank to 40K then Blitzkrieg would have a whole new meaning as he would have rolled over everything almost over night and needless to say we'd all be speaking German today. I'm glad Hitler Lost, don't take my comment wrong but I admire the effort Germany put forward with the limited number of tanks they did have vs what they faced. Say what you will about German Engineering, it was clearly ahead of its time. Folks, in general, just know that the US had the M4 Sherman and Russia had the T-34 but many don't realize just how many of each. Those numbers are hard to lock down but let's just say the US had easily over 40,000 and Russia produced easily over 70 to 80,000 just of those two types. Overall the Allies fielded some 220,000 Tanks while Germany only fielded 20,000 total Tanks. These numbers reflect only tanks, Germany used about 40,000 Trucks while the Allies fielded probably 200,000 Trucks if not more. Again it's hard to find actual numbers given the track keeping of the time. But imagine you have 20,000 USD and you're able to buy a house valued at 220,000 USD and that's what Germany almost did; they almost won. Yes I'm glad they lost but the effort it took to take them down proves how admirable of an opponent they were. "The War's long over and we're all just folks now" a favorite line from the movie Serenity, and it applies here as this is History we're talking about so let's talk. What if Germany had 40,000 Tiger I tanks, do you think He would have still lost WWII because I don't think he would have. I believe had he started WWII with 5,000 Tiger I tanks he would have easily rolled over most of the world before they knew what hit them. Great video as always and keep up the great work... I look forward to reasonable replies to my WHAT IF scenario and please feel free to present your own... Cheer's...

Well, that's why the Krauts won the war.... oh wait, they were losers, just like Trump and the mentally impaired that follow him.

Hitler was the weak link. If not for hitler Germany probably would have won.

Good history, but I have to wonder: all your Film, and Half your photos are shown Backwards. Is there a reason for this?

the german having thousands of panzer 2 3 and 4's, 1 singular kv2 "GONE"

Quite simply it wasn’t

Definitely the best tank of the war.