Vehicles of the 5th Panzer Division in the Balkans, April 1941.  Best regards, JR.

5th Panzer in the Balkans.

Panzer IV D of 5th Panzer Division, Belgium or France, 1940.  The "inverted Y/." mark used by this unit in 1940 is visible on the side.

The 5th was, basically, a workhorse Panzer Division, serving in a number of theatres through the war.  Their experience in the Western Campaign of 1940 was a bit fraught, particularly in the earlier part of the campaign.  They found themselves a bit stuck at the river crossing bit, a plight not improved by the fact that the dynamic and unscrupulous commander of 7th Panzer, Erwin Rommel, appropriated some of their river crossing gear for use by his Division.  Eventually, they did get across to clear ground, and performed very effectively against French forces thereafter.  As they did in later campaigns.

The PzKpfw IV, though "under the radar" as far as many Tiger and Panther fans, turned out to be the backbone of the Panzer and Panzerjager forces to the end of the war. Apart from Ausf D (which provided essential cover for the lighter panzers in the 1940/'41 period) this contribution came in the form of later more heavily armed and armoured models, and as the base for assault and tank destroyer self-propelled guns.  Best regards, JR.

PzKpfw IV D of 5th Panzer Division, 1940.

Panzer troops, headed by a PzKpfw IV D, enter Graudenz, (in Polish, Grudziadz), 3 September, 1939.  The city was highly exposed to German attack, and fell in a three-day battle at the very start of the war.  The enthusiastic welcome is explained by the fact that this city was heavily Germanised in the 18th and 19th century by German kings/emperors aware of its potential and actual importance as a strategic centre and trading centre for the grain trade.  This had to some extent been reversed by natural process producing Polish settlement, and by the policy of independent Poland in the interwar period.  However, Graudenz was still substantially occupied by ethnic Germans in 1939.  Best regards, JR.