Panzer IV turret armour

[cbo]

Originally Posted by Marek_Tucan

Would that (turret imbalance due to bigger gun weight) be also a factor with PzKpfw IIIN? It seems it got weaker front turret armor compared to IIIL/M.

Ausf. Ns were mainly based on Ausf L and M and had the same turret as they did, AFAIK. My references give a turret front thickness of 57mm for both types as well as Ausf. N.
But most of the front turret on these Panzer IIIs were covered by the mantlet, which in the vehicles armed with the 50mm gun was 50mm + 20mm spaced armour. The Ausf. N did not use spaced armour on the mantlet and thus had a 50mm thick mantlet.

The 7,5cm L/24 gun weighed 490 kg and the 5cm L/60 435 kg so they might have decided to save some weight by removing the spaced armour on the turret. Or perhaps they just didn't bother putting it on.
The Panzer III was the only German tank were spaced armour was used exensively and even though the armour on the Panzer IV was just as thin, only a few ever got that feature. So perhaps they just decided against it when they made the Ausf. N.

cbo