page_title: Panzer II
section_title: Armor
hierarchical_section_title: Panzer II / Design / Armor
caption_attribution_description: Information added by Wikimedia users.English: "In the West (Western campaign).- Panzer II (Ausf.c, A,B,C series) and Panzer I (Ausf.B) in the woods; KBK Lw [Kriegsberichter Kompanie Luftwaffe, "Luftwaffe war-reporting company"] 4"
context_page_description: The Panzer II is the common name used for a family of German tanks used in World War II. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen II.
  Although the vehicle had originally been designed as a stopgap while larger, more advanced tanks were developed, it nonetheless went on to play an important role in the early years of World War II, during the Polish and French campaigns. The Panzer II was the most numerous tank in the German Panzer divisions at the beginning of the war. It was used in both North Africa against the Western Allies and on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union.
  The Panzer II was supplanted by the Panzer III and IV medium tanks by 1940/1941. By the end of 1942, it had been largely removed from front line service and it was used for training and on secondary fronts. The turrets of the then-obsolete Panzer Is and Panzer IIs were reused as gun turrets on specially built defensive bunkers, particularly on the Atlantic Wall. Production of the tank itself ceased by January 1944, but its chassis remained in use as the basis of several other armoured vehicles, chiefly self-propelled artillery and tank destroyers such as the Wespe and Marder II respectively.
context_section_description: The Panzer II was designed before the experience of the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39 showed that protection against armour-piercing shells was required for tanks to survive on a modern battlefield. Prior to that, armour was designed to stop machine gun fire and high-explosive shell fragments.
  The Panzer II Ausf. A to C had 14 mm of slightly sloped homogeneous steel armour on the sides, front, and back, with 10 mm of armour on the top and bottom. Most of them were later given increased armour in the front of the vehicle, most noticeable by the changed appearance of the front hull from rounded to boxy shape. Starting with the D model, the front armour was increased to 30 mm. The Model F had 35 mm front armour and 20 mm side armour. This level of protection was still only proof against small arms fire. This amount of armour could be penetrated by towed antitank weapons, such as the Soviet 45mm, the British 2 Pdr and the canon de 47.
caption: An uparmored Panzer II on Western front May 1940 with a Panzer I in the background.
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