Pz.Kpfw.38(T) Variations In Action

The tank that has gone down in history as the Pz.Kpfw.38(t) was originally christened the LT vz. 38 or “Light Tank model 38” by its Czechoslovak manufacturers before WWII. Intended for the Czechoslovak armed forces, its early models were also supplied to Sweden, Iran, Peru, and Switzerland, and saw action during the 1941 conflict between Peru and Ecuador. But like the Czech lands themselves, the tank and its industrial producers were seized by Nazi Germany when Hitler’s forces took over the Central European country on the eve of WWII. Pressed into German service, the Pz.Kpfw.38(t) became one of the most widely used Czechoslovak fighting vehicles. It saw extensive action during Germany’s invasions of Poland in 1939 and France in 1940. The tank accounted for a significant number of the armored units that poured across the Soviet frontier on 22 June 1941. The excellent chassis was later used as a basis for tank hunters, self-propelled artillery, and anti-aircraft vehicles, and in the last year of the war for a Jagdpanzer 38 Hetzer.