Have been chatting with Guy Hudson about my album of the 38t turret on the Franco-Spanish border. Panzer 38t turret between Cerbère and PortBou | WW2Talk He sent me this pic which that Robert Cappa took. This lead to a chat with von Poop about it. Anyone wish to join in the chat about this German turreted emplacement. See pics below.
Clever! - I see what you did there Owen... I read somewhere ages ago about these - and the 38t being surplus from the 'refurb to SPG' programme. Some fittings altered to simplify for a less maintenance environment. I'll have a think about the source.....
We were wondering if the turret in the Cappa photo is simply a Pz II turret or one of those purpose built for fixed emplacements ? Adam came up with some designations. Wondered what other members thought about it.
Reiterating my thoughts. Pz.II based, but maybe not quite a standard II turret. Closest to a IIb, maybe, but didn't dig out anything in a cursory look that fitted the flaps. Some variations of turrets were built specifically for emplacement. Very similar to an 'F Pz. DT4804' - upgunned Pz.II - but the flaps don't match. There's another II based one mentioned in Neil Short's book - DT4806 - but I couldn't find a picture of that the other day.
Chamberlain and Ellis say of the PzKw Ausf G /Neuer art (VK901) - 27 turrets were released for use in static emplacements. This turret however had no vision hatches in the sides.
