Sd.Kfz 223 Ausf B 5 Serie – Uncovering the Provenance Part 3 - Inside Track | Renault TSF Tank Kent

The process we are following with the 801 Typ v fahrgestell is one we follow with all of our restorations. Prior to stripping anything down we record everything photographically and where detail could be lost – draw. This fahrgestell is in a very poor state. It had spent many years buried in a wet location. The most crucial part to have survived is the fahrgestellnummer – 8110027. This chassis number should tell us everything about the vehicle – potentially opening the door to its operational history, the crew and the unit it served with and its tactical use. We cannot understand how many collectors do not explore or choose to ignore a vehicle’s tactical use if it doesn’t meet their ideal. Where the correct wooden body on an 8 ton halftrack is rejected in favour of an earlier sheet metal version (quite wrong for the chronological position of the chassis ‘it doesn’t look good’) or where a 3 ton zugmaschine chassis is pressed into service as a Sd.Kfz 251. An additional thread here is that something without a gun is somehow unacceptable, less sexy. The vehicle’s real history is lost as a result. . This leads to our current project – the ‘no name’ Typ v fahrgestell. The fahrgestell is and will be what it was. All we have to do is identify it. The Sd.Kfz 223 outcome has been discounted, the chance of her being an Sd.Kfz 222 is also remote as the first of these 5 Serie variants only emerged from May 1942 onwards. The first 5 Serie le.Pz.SpWg were completed in March and April 1942. 24 in March and only 7 in April claiming difficulties ‘schwerigkeiten’. The first two or three 5 Seriefahrgestellnummern were taken by versuchs le.Pz.Sp.Wg (prototype or concept vehicles) which points to the possibility that our chassis number 8110027 could have been assembled in March as the first 3 versuchs vehicles had long since been completed – 27 is the production chassis number 24. Even if that is too tight we are looking at a further 7 le.Pz.Sp.Wg assembled in April. That would mean 31 in total providing ample cover for our 8110027. All 31 le.Pz.Sp.Wg assembled in March and April were Sd.Kfz 260 and Sd.Kfz 261. Returning once more to the impressive database we looked to confirm which vehicles by chassis number occupy the area around our 8110027 to check whether the available assembly data for March and April would confirm our vehicle is one of the 31 Sd.Kfz 260 and Sd.Kfz 261. It is. The vehicles on either side of our chassis 8110027 are 8110026 which is a Sd.Kfz 260. The next one on from our fahrgestell is 8110028 also a Sd.Kfz 260! This does not appear to be an aberration as 8110033 is also a 260. The data for fahrgestellnummern ending in 29, 30, 31, 32 do not yet exist. 8110033 is the next Sd.Kfz 260 confirmed. The first Sd.Kfz 261 are confimed in chassis number ending in 34, 35 (blank), 36 and 37. The first Sd.Kfz 222 only appear at 811048 – a long way down. The holes in the data are obvious but enough data points exist to double up on the working hypothesis that our chassis (vehicle) is a Sd.Kfz 260 or 261. Our next article will examine the archaeological evidence of the chassis and body panels.

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