French civilians swarm over a Panther PzKpfw Ausf G, Place de la Concorde, Paris, during the Liberation.  The tank appears to have burned - possibly attacked by a petrol bomb, though this is unclear.  Most of the tanks available to the city's German commander, von Choltitz, were obsolete French models.  This shows that not all were of this character.  Best regards, JR.

Panther in Paris.

Column of PzKpfw I tanks pass a formation of German sidecar troops, Poland, September, 1939.  The Panzer I (as had been shown in the Spanish Civil War) was barely proof to machine-gun bullets, and its dual machine-gun armament gave it no effective tank-on-tank capacity.  Nonetheless, the Germans' shortage of more effective tanks forced the Panzer units to press these vehicles (essentially training/demonstration vehicles) into battle in Poland.  Consequently, where they were lucky enough to encounter them in favourable conditions, Polish artillery, cannon-armed light tanks and even (very rare) cannon-armed Polish tankettes inflicted heavy losses on panzer units composed of PzKpfw I.  

The PzKpfw I continued to constitute an important element in the Panzer forces in the course of the 1940 western campaign.  An illustration, as much as anything else, to Germany's unpreparedness for a major war in 1939.  Best regards, JR.

German tanks and sidecars in Poland, 1939.

German Panzer II with 20 mm (0.79 in) gun and machine-gun in rotating turret.  15th Panzer Division