Sd.Kfz. 140/1

Sd.Kfz. 140/1

Sd.Kfz. 140/1

Germany

I Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
1.7	2.0	2.0

Class:

PREMIUM

Light tank

Purchase:Bundle or Gift

STORE

Description

The Sd.Kfz. 140/1 is a rank I premium German light tank with a battle rating of 1.7 (AB) and 2.0 (RB/SB). It was introduced during the Closed Beta Test for Ground Forces before Update 1.41.

General info

Survivability and armour

This vehicle is all-around better than the Flakpanzer I at the same BR in the tech tree. It has a 50mm front plate, a 30mm sloped turret, and four crew spaced out nicely.

Mobility

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	65	7	11	248	305	22.55	27.73
Realistic	59	7		142	160	12.91	14.55

The speed and power-to-weight ratio of the Sd.Kfz. 140/1 are both superior to the Flakpanzer I, being 58 km/h forward, -6 km/h backwards, and a power-to-weight ratio of 15.45 hp/ton.

Armaments

Main armament

This tank is equipped with the FlaK 38 (20 mm), which is one of the better low-rank guns. It has good HE for taking out planes, 46 mm pen AP-I, and 64 mm pen APCR. Unlike the Flakpanzer I, the APCR belt is full APCR instead of half.

Machine Guns

This tank has a coaxial 7.92 mm MG 42 machine gun that is a sufficient fallback to the FlaK 38. The MG42 is unlikely to be of help against other ground vehicles but is best used between reloads to maintain a semi-constant rate of fire on enemy aircraft.

Usage in battles

The Sd.Kfz.140/1 is simply better than the Flakpanzer I. Faster, more mobile, better-armoured, not hull-breakable, better APCR belt, less wobbly suspension, and better survivability. It does the same job as its main tree brethren, flanking and taking out specific targets of opportunity with the HVAP. Like the other two flankers, it cannot deal with B1 bis, B1 ter, or Valentine Mk I at all, but otherwise, it can shred everything it encounters.

The only cons it has versus the Flakpanzer I are gun depression of just -4 degrees (Flakpanzer's -10 degrees) and slower turret traverse of 12.4 degrees/sec (Flakpanzer's 24.5 degrees/sec). Also, the reload rate is half what the Flakpanzer I or Gepard have, 7.6 seconds vs their 3.9 seconds.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• 50 mm of frontal armour is quite good against the expected opponents
• 20 mm has a great rate of fire
• 20 mm HVAP rounds have incredible close range penetration values and can cause a large amount of spalling - unloading a full magazine can shred an enemy tank's crew/modules
• Has nearly 90 degrees of elevation, making it an effective in an anti-aircraft role
• Very fast and very mobile, making it a good flanker and brawler

Cons:

• Has a 30 mm plate of armor between the turret and chassis. Fairly easy to penetrate.
• Low gun depression of -4 degrees
• Rather large and very tall, not easy to hide
• Longer reload time between magazines compared to the regular tanks in the main tree
• HVAP is bad at penetrating well-angled tank armour, or tanks that are farther than 500 metres away
• API rounds are essentially worse than the HVAP rounds in every way with worse muzzle velocity, penetration values, as well as creating no spallling damage

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the ground vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/ History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

In-game description

The Aufklärungspanzer 38(t) reconnaissance tank was based on the Pz.38(t) towards the end of 1943, by the BMM construction office in Prague. The order specifications required a 20 mm automatic cannon and a 75 mm regular cannon.

A Praga AE engine with 160 hp at 2600 rpm replaced the Praga AC. This required a change in the exhaust system and the introduction of a longer exhaust pipe, which, together with a muffler, was put on the tank's roof. The tank's hull received a new superstructure, with modified inclination and with riveted joints for its armor plates.

The tank's armament consisted of a 20 mm automatic KwK38 L/55 cannon paired with a 7.92 mm MG42 machine gun. The guns could be pointed anywhere between -4 and 70 degrees and so could fire at air targets. The tank's ammunition included 300 shells and 1,500 machine gun rounds.

The open-top hexahedral turret, manufactured by the company Appelt, was equipped with a metal mesh to protect against hand grenades. The tank's armor thickness ranged from 8 to 50 millimeters. Its operational weight reached 9,750 kg. At this weight, its maximum highway speed was 52 kph, and its maximum highway range was 240 kilometers.

The Aufklärungpanzer 38(t) tank was accepted into the Wehrmacht in 1944, but large-scale production of the machine was never successfully introduced. A total of 70 tanks were produced.

The tanks were used on both the West and the Eastern Fronts.

Its design was successful, reliable, and advanced. However, the rivet joints in its armor plating were a disadvantage.

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

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• topic on the official game forum;
• encyclopedia page on the tank;
• other literature.