Blown shell racking section from destroyed German Panzer 3 tank of the 14th Panzer Division recovered near the town of Kalach in the area they captured in the battle of July-August 1942 in Stalingrad front

This is a rare find a blown apart shell racking section for the 5cm shell from inside a destroyed German Panzer 3 tank. The metal structure section where you can still see the shell hoes in it which has ripped and bent by the force of the explosion when the tank was destroyed it is 10 inches long by 6 inches wide it is rusty but still very solid it is relic but has cleaned up very well and is perfect for display or any collection and a nice bit of tank from this early war tank. The internal part comes from the site of a destroyed Panzer 3  tank near the town of Kalach in the area they captured in the battle of July-August 1942 on the Stalingrad front in Russia it comes with 2x A5 laminated information cards and 2 of the pictures on the listing shows what it looked like in the tank.

The Battle of Kalach took place between the German Sixth Army and elements of the Soviet Stalingrad Front between July 25 and August 11, 1942. The Soviets deployed the 62nd and 64th Armies in a Don River bridgehead west of Kalach with the intent of impeding the German advance on Stalingrad which they managed to do for a few weeks before they were destroyed or captured by the German 6th Army then they advanced to Stalingrad.

The 14th Panzer Division struck into the Kalach bridgehead. Their spearheads made contact southwest of Kalach by late afternoon, trapping the main body (eight rifle divisions) of the Soviet 62nd Army in an encirclement. Joined by L1 Army Corps the Germans began systematically destroying the surrounded Soviet forces. The pocket was wiped out in four days, by 11 August. Nearly 50,000 prisoners were taken, and the Germans claimed the destruction of a thousand Soviet tanks and 750 guns, although the claims of destroyed Soviet tanks are considered a little exaggerated. These losses threw the Soviet leader Josef Stalin into a panic and compelled him to feed more reserves into the fight at Stalingrad.