Erwin Rommel (full name: Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel) was born in 1891 and died probably by forced suicide in 1944. He was one of the most famous German generals of the Second World War - he was nicknamed the Fox of the Desert. Erwin Rommel gained his war experience from the first weeks of the First World War. In its course, as an infantry officer, he was active in Argons in France, Italy and Romania. In the course of this conflict, he often showed personal courage and skillfully led his troops into battle. For his achievements on the Italian front, he was awarded the highest order of imperial Germany - Pour Le Merite. After 1918, he remained in Reichswer. During this period, he also wrote a great and still up-to-date book "Piechota attacks!" (in German "Infanterie greif an!"). At the beginning of World War II, in recognition of his merits, he was the head of Adolf Hitler's Headquarters in Poland. However, already in the summer of 1940, he commanded the German 7th Armored Division with great success during the French campaign. However, in the years 1941-1943 he led the Afrika Korps during his fights in North Africa, often at that time presenting an unconventional, courageous, extremely offensive action, sometimes not taking into account the conditions of logistics. Ultimately, due to the numerical superiority of the Allied forces and its own problems with supplies - the campaign in North Africa was lost by the Axis countries. In the period 1943-1944 he held high command positions in France. Due to the still unclear role of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in the attack on Hitler of July 20, 1944, he was most likely forced to commit suicide in October 1944.
PzKpfw IV (Panzerkampfwagen IV) was a German medium tank from the Second World War. The first prototypes of the vehicle were created in 1936, and serial production continued in the period 1938-1945, ending with the production of about 8,600 vehicles. The D version of the tank was powered by a single Maybach HL 120 TRM engine with a capacity of 300 HP. It was armed with 1 75mm KwK 37 L / 24 gun and 2 7.92mm MG 34 machine guns.
The PzKpfw IV was created as a result of a competition announced at the end of 1934 by the German Armaments Department for a medium tank weighing up to 18 tons and armed with a 75 mm gun. The competition was won by the Krupp company, whose vehicle was put into mass production - as it turned out, it was a vehicle that can be safely called the "workhorse" of German armored forces during World War II and one of the most intensively developed and modernized Wehrmacht tanks. Numerous variants of the PzKpfw IV were created in the course of production. Chronologically, the first was the A version, armed with a 75mm short-barreled gun and a 230hp engine. However, versions B and C appeared quickly, in which several significant changes were made: first of all, more powerful engines (265 HP in version B and Maybach HL 120 TRM with 300 HP in C version - which were installed in PzKpfw IV until 1945 year), and the armor of the entire car was improved. The F1 and F2 versions turned out to be a real revolution, in which the frontal armor was increased to 60 mm, and the main armament was changed to the great, long-barreled 75mm KwK 40 L / 43 cannon, which in 1942 and 1943 allowed them to fight any Allied or soviet. The most frequently produced versions of the PzKpfw IV were the G, H and J versions, which were very similar to the F1 and F2 versions. The main armament has not changed significantly (it was still the KwK 40 cannon), as well as the engine and chassis. On the other hand, the armor was slightly strengthened, and from the beginning of 1943 armored screens (Schurzen) were installed on them. Numerous other vehicles were built on the chassis of the PzKpfw IV, such as the StuG IV assault gun, the Nashorn tank destroyer or the Wirbelwind self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. PzKpfw IV tanks were used on almost all fronts of World War II - from the September campaign in 1939, through the campaign in France in 1940, the Barbarossa and Typhoon operations in 1941, the Battle of Kursk in 1943, to the last operations of the German army against The USSR and the Western Allies in 1944-1945.
Sd.Kfz. 7 (nim. Sonderkraftfahrzeug 7) was a German half-track transporter from the Second World War. The first prototypes were built in 1933, and serial production continued in the years 1934-1945, ending with the production of about 12,000 copies of this vehicle. The drive was provided by a single motor Maybach HL 62TUK or a Maybach HL 64TR with 140 hp. Sd.Kfz. 7 did not have fixed armament as a standard.
The first models of the future Sd.Kfz. 7 were built in 1928 at the Krauss-Maffei company in Munich, but the vehicle did not enter serial production then because it violated the provisions of the Versailles Treaty. Only after the Nazis came to power in Germany, the technical solutions of earlier models were refined and the car was put into mass production relatively quickly. The Sd.Kfz vehicle. 7 was capable of transporting up to 12 soldiers and had a minimum armor not exceeding 8 mm. Despite the weight of up to 10 tons, the car had good off-road characteristics and high mobility. It was also mechanically refined and not unreliable. In the German armed forces, it served as an artillery tractor for cannons with a caliber from 37 to 88 mm. These vehicles were also used to tow 150 mm sFH18 howitzers. Based on the Sd.Kfz. 7, several specialized versions were created, including: Sd.Kfz. 7/1 (20mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun), Sd.Kfz. 7/2 (also a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, but with a caliber of 37 mm) or the Sd.Kfz. 7/5 (version being a self-propelled anti-tank gun cal. 75 mm). Cars of this type were used on all fronts of World War II in the period 1939-1945, both by the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe. Small amounts of Sd.Kfz. 7 served in Brazil, Bulgaria and Italy.