Spurious PzKfw IV "F2"

[Charles M]

As well as beiong an excellent computer game, WinSPW2 is also - like it or not - an educational tool, and errors such as the incorrect naming of PzKfw IV F2 [sic] unit numbers 024, 373 and 989 in the German OB list needs to be addressed. While convenient to use the term in the context of the game, it is wrong. Officially there was no Ausführung F2; in fact the vehicles were also early production Ausf. Gs. I used to work for the Tank Museum in Bovington, England, as an unpaid volunteer identifying and captioning photos of AFVs, mainly German. I therefore know the difference between an Ausf. F and a G. Although a number of authors loyally copy one another's statements it is only the more thorough researcher, like the late Tom Jentz who I had the pleasure of meeting in Bovington when we were both doing research there, who bothered to check the original German documents. I would refer readers to his Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. G, H and J 1942-45, New Vanguard # 39, Osprey Publishing Botley, 2001 in which he states that the F2 label was only used for a short time and in one of two cases only in the context of spare parts; pages 7-8 refer. Many writers may have fallen into the trap because some early Ausf. Gs were produced with spare Ausf. F turrets (which had the side vision ports deleted in later Ausf. Gs). Perhaps a note could be added to unit nos. 024, 373 and 989 to the effect that they are actually early model Gs?