It was only in the spring of 1941 that the PzIII rose to first place, becoming the most numerous tank built in Germany, a position it held until the end of 1942. To compare, Krupp alone built 290 Pz.Kpfw.IVs in 1940, and BMM built 370 Pz38(t)s. This is a small number, especially considering that German manufacturing shifted to a wartime schedule and up to 7 factories were building this tank simultaneously. Only 896 vehicles of this type, including command tanks, were built in 1940.
The issues that the German Pz.Kpfw.III medium tank encountered can be tracked by the rate of its production.
