LEICHTER PANZERSPAHWAGEN SDKFZ 223(Fu) IN 1/16 SCALE. In 1941, when German tank troops took the leadership in battle and swept over the North African desert, German armored radio cars not only fulfilled the important mission to feel the enemy but also contributed through their radio net toward bringing out a closer union of fighting power of all arms of service, which was indispensable to modern warfare. It forms an important part of fighting to collect information about the enemy. It is the reconnaissance battalion that performed such a very risky and important mission on the ground. The Germans used these light 4-wheeled armored cars both in secret and forced reconnaissance, to steal into the enemy’s territory and feel the enemy without being noticed. Owing to the progress of these armored cars, their mission was to wage a small fight for the purpose of grasping the numerical strength, organization, disposition and counter attack system and defensive position of the enemy, and to intercept the enemy’s code telegrams, and to make a quick dash with it’s superior mobility and cross-country ability. The 4-wheeled light armored radio car SdKfz 223(Fu) had been developed as one of the important vehicles for the mechanized reconnaissance battalion. The SdKfz 223(Fu) was a light-armed vehicle, it carried a machine gun on the low-silhouette open-top turret. This armored radio car was characterized by its folding square frame aerial antenna, which was kept erect in most cases. The reconnaissance battalions of the famed German Afrika Korps made masterful use of the intercepted British radio messages, as the British came to understand only too late and after great sacrifices. The fact that many of the operations of the German Afrika Korps that have been called strokes of genius in military history were possible only because of the constant information provided thanks to perfected Panzerspahwagen reconnaissance and surveillance armored radio cars. Just part of the essence of the German Army that fought in North Africa from 1941 to 1943. It was not a “Nazi” army of the ilk portrayed in war films, it’s members were soldiers, under military discipline and fighting in a war that they believed was necessary to protect the interest of their nation. In this sense they were patriotic in the same way that all soldiers of the period were. On the battlefield they fought fairly and with chivalry. The war in North Africa is held to have been a “civilized” war as far as wars go, no war can ever be civilized, it is a highly organized form of mass brutality and systematic killing. However, both sides in the African fighting showed respect to the dead of the other side, because of the high temperatures and swarms of flies that accompanied the troops it was of paramount importance for reasons of hygiene to bury corpses as quickly as possible. Burial parties handling corpses that had been in the open sun for more than a day had to hold moist cloths over their faces and to wear gloves to touch the bloated and fly-blown bodies. This was a particularly distasteful exercise and no one would have done it willingly. It was very uncommon for corpses in this condition to be looted, the stench of death was attached to everything that came with these dead bodies. The total number of German troops that served in North Africa between 1941 and 1943 was around 260,000. Most became POW’s, some were killed, the official figures are 18,594 killed and 3,400 posted missing. Today, there are 4,549 buried in the El Alamein cemetery (Egypt) 6,026 in the Tobruk cemetery (Libya) and just over 8,000 in Bordj Cedria (Tunisia).
Collection of my Armored cars
4 WHEELED ARMORED CAR SDKFZ 223(Fu)
