Mirage Hobby 1/72 German Tank Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. E Fall Barbarossa, USSR 1941 (728055)

The Panzer IV Ausf. E was the production variant in service when Operation Barbarossa opened on 22 June 1941 — the largest land invasion in history, which sent three million German and Axis troops crashing into the Soviet Union along a front stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The Ausf. E incorporated appliqué armour plates bolted over the original hull and turret faces to improve protection, lessons learned from the Polish and French campaigns. In the opening weeks of Barbarossa, Panzer IVs advanced hundreds of miles as Soviet defences collapsed, but the encounter with T-34s and KV-1s made clear that the short 7.5cm gun of the Ausf. E was inadequate against Soviet medium and heavy armour — driving the urgent development of the long-gun Ausf. F2 that would follow. Mirage Hobby's 1/72 kit captures the Ausf. E in its Barbarossa markings and configuration.

The opening shot of Barbarossa — the Panzer IV Ausf. E in June 1941.