Originally identified as the '2cm MG Panzerwagen', the PzKpfw II light tank was designed to supplement the PzKpfw I by providing an automatic weapon capable of firing both a high explosive round and an armor piercing round. The design period was very short: the initial order for a tank design in the 10-ton class was issued by the Waffenamt in July 1934, and the first complete soft steel prototype was put through its paces in October 1935. Unfortunately, many of the teething problems had not been worked out when rapid expansion of the panzerwaffe and international politics forced the decision to order a comparatively large number of PzKpfw IIs. First issued to Panzer units in the spring of 1936, the PzKpfw II was armed with a 2cm KwK L/55 gun and was crewed by three men.

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of a German Sd. Kfz. 121 PzKpfw II Ausf. C light tank that was attached to the 6.Panzer Division, then participating in the invasion of France during the Spring of 1940. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Length: 2-1/2-inches
Width: 1-1/4-inches

Release Date: January 2011

Historical Account: "Panzers West" - In World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed on May 10th, 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and surround the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and many French soldiers were evacuated from Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo.

In the second operation, Fall Rot (Case Red), executed from June 5th, German forces outflanked the Maginot Line to attack the greater French territory. Italy declared war on France on June 10th. The French government fled to the city of Bordeaux, and France's main city of Paris was occupied by the German Wehrmacht on June 14th. On June 17th, Philippe Petain publicly announced France would ask for an armistice. On June 22nd, an armistice was signed between France and Germany, going into effect on June 25th. For the Axis Powers, the campaign was a spectacular victory.

France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north and west, a small Italian occupation zone in the southeast, and an unoccupied zone, the zone libre, in the south. A rump state, Vichy France, administered all three zones according to the terms laid out in the armistice. In November 1942, the Axis forces also occupied the zone libre, and metropolitan France remained under Axis occupation until after the Allied landings in 1944; while the Low Countries remained under German occupation until 1944 and 1945.