Sd.Kfz 223 Ausf B 5 Serie – Uncovering the Provenance Part 4 - Inside Track | Renault TSF Tank Kent

Our work on identifying the fahrgestell chassis has taken us as far as we can go without documentation proving the original tactical deployment of 8110027. We have proved it was within the group of Sd.Kfz 260 and Sd.Kfz 261 representing the earliest assembly of 5 Serie le.Pz.Sp.Wg. What we have so far been unable to prove is whether the fahrgestell (nee’ vehicle) was a Sd.Kfz 260 or Sd.Kfz 261. The gap in the database for 8110027 was disappointing but not a show stopper. We had taken delivery of the rear half of a 5 Serie aufbau body. This was dismantled and in plate form. The plates are badly corroded, in as bad a condition as the chassis and appear to have suffered significantly at the end of its operational life. There was no frontal armour. This had been presumably destroyed at the same time. The Aufbau had been buried for over 70 years. The fahrgestell and aufbau were both from the same source and had been recovered from the same geographical location. Our research into the Sd.Kfz 260 and Sd.Kfz 261 had only been fleeting given our earlier working hypothesis that this was a Sd.Kfz 223. A friend and member who is himself the proud owner of a Sd.Kfz 260 project has been working with us in identifying the components required for our 2 chassis and not the bodies. His Sd.Kfz 260 was quite distant from our planned Sd.Kfz 223. Well that distance has all but collapsed with our completed analysis of the Aufbau panels. Our research team has been hard at work studying the differences and distinguishing features of the Sd.Kfz 260 and Sd.Kfz 261. The first and real difference lies in the frame antenna of the Sd.Kfz 261 – omitted in the Sd.Kfz 260 in favour of a mast antenna. The standardised Aufbau features of the 5 Serie comparing the range of armoured cars from the Sd.Kfz 222, 223, 260 to the Sd.Kfz 261 reinforce these differences and provide us with the required navigational tools with which to determine what tactical variant we are faced with. The image provided shows one of the most critical panels. This panel distinguishes whether the original vehicle was fitted with a frame antenna or not. The large round fittings on the rear left and right panels just forward of the engine bay are common to all. What interested us was whether the roundels had proof that anything had previously been fitted to them. The roundels served as the base for the rear legs of the frame antenna. There was proof that something had at some point been fitted. Note the bolts standing proud of the roundel possibly indicating that something had been ripped off. This evidence was not conclusive but Hilary Doyle then raised the point that the hoist for the frame antenna for the Sd.Kfz 261 and Sd.Kfz 223 Ausf B had been moved from its forward position in the cabin (Ausf A) to the rear just in front of the firewall. There should be a small hole in which the pivot rod for the hoist was positioned above the roundel on the left rear side of the vehicle and the same for the right hand side. The hole is exactly where it should be on the panel. What do these panel features show us? We are looking at either a Sd.Kfz 223 or a …….Sd.Kfz 261. Returning once more to our chassis and the database, we have, thanks to laborious research and Hilary’s database, long since removed the possibility of 8110027 being a Sd.Kfz 223 for all the reasons given at the time. We were therefore faced with the dawning reality of 8110027 having originally been assembled by Weserhuette as a Sd.Kfz 261.

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