1942 - The Year of Transition
Russian resistance provided the first shock to the army plans for a short war with limited requirements. First came the encounter with the Russian T-34 tank, previously unknown, which proved to be considerably superior to any of the German types. Then came the heavy losses of equipment in the Battle of Moscow and the Russian counteroffensive of December and January. Up to the end of September only 500 panzer vehicles had been lost, but in the next three months almost 2,500 were destroyed or abandoned. By the end of 1941 the German army had lost 3,000 tanks and assault guns, far more than the number produced in the same period. By 1 January 1942 panzer stocks had been reduced to 4,000 vehicles.
The result was that on 23 January 1942 the decision was made at Hitler's headquarters to develop and increase the production of new and heavier tanks. A few months earlier, late in 1941, several firms had been asked by the High Command to design a tank which could cope with the Russian T-34. Early in 1942 prototypes of the Henschel-designed Tiger tank received trial runs and with modifications were approved for production. However the Tigers did not begin to come off the Henschel assembly line, even in small numbers, until late that year.
Three more assembly plants came into production in 1942: Vomag at Plauen, MNH at Hanover, and the Nibelungenwerke at St. Valentine, Austria. This latter plant was government controlled and by 1944 became one of the largest producers in the industry.
In February 1942, Hitler appointed Albert Speer Reichminister of Armaments and War Production, and under his direction the idea of still another heavy tank was conceived in March. Final designs were selected from drawings without prototype testing; tools and materials ordered immediately; series production was started late in 1942, and the first Panthers were being produced early in 1943 at the rate of moer than 15 per month. Of the three new tank plants completed and brought into production in 1942, none were devoted to the Tiger tank. One became an outstanding producer of Panther tanks, and the other two entered upon the production of Mark IV tanks and assault guns. The latter accounted for a large part of the increase in production of these vehicles which occurred in the following years. Total panzer production for 1942 amounted to 6,174.
Along with the initiation of development of heavy tanks early in 1942 came the mountin of a new long-barreled 7.5-cm gun on both the Mark IV tank and the assault gun on the Mark III/IV chassis. More than 200 panzer vehicles with the new gun were delivered in the first part of May for use during the summer offensive in Russia.
Meanwhile, losses of panzer vehicles during the summer were running at the rate of about 300 per month. This rate was high as compared with that of earlier years, but it was still lower than the monthly rate of production at the time and yielded a small increase in stocks. The prevailing opinion seems to have been that increased output in 1943, on the basis of plant expansion undertaken in 1942, would permit substantial additions to supply and would satisfy the still limited military requirements.
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