The original purpose of the German remote controlled vehicles was for minefield clearance, the intention being to guide a small unarmoured tractor through the minefield while it towed a threepart roller device to explode the mines. It seems to have been under permanent radio control, with no provision for a driver at all, although a speed control lever was fitted to its side. It was steered by a 'driver' walking alongside. The contract for these was placed with Borgward in 1939 and resulted in a small fully-tracked vehicle with a concrete superstructure, the Borgward B I. Fifty were used to clear some of the Maginot Line minefields after the fall of France. Those not destroyed in the process were expended in experi-ments to prove the concept of driving the vehicle into the minefield with an explosive charge, which when set off would explode nearby mines by sympathetic detonation. This idea worked rather better than the mine-rollers, so 100 of an improved version were built as the Borgward B II.
No record apparently survives of the B III, and the next version was the B IV built from April 1942. This had a proper driver's compartment on the starboard side, with seat and full controls, and was driven to striking range before the driver disembarked and turned on the radio control. A charge was dropped at the target and the B IV driven back, still under radio control, before the charge was detonated. With a 450 kg charge this created quite a bang with good results in actual minefield clearance, but since there was no way of marking the cleared lane, the attacking Panzers often came to grief anyway. The charge layers were also used for direct attacks on enemy strong points with reasonable success, although their thin armor and resulting vulnerability to direct fire must have lost many vehicles and drivers.
Over 600 of the original A version were built before production changed in June 1943 to the improved B type, with slightly heavier armor to protect the driver, folding armor shields around his head, an escape hatch in the starboard side, and improved tracks. The A variant had used tracks with rubber blocks, similar to those of the SdKfz 250 and 251 halftracks, and had just a clear windscreen for the driver. It was used in during Barbarossa and other operations on the Eastern Front, and the vehicles surviving were returned to the factory for rebuilding in early 1943 where many were fitted with the driver's head shields and had appliqué armor welded to their fronts. Some were retrofitted with new tracks, but those not suitable for rebuilding were left unchanged and were used for training. The final version, the B IV C, had a completely new body, but only a few were built before the war ended.
Control Tanks
All these vehicles of course needed to be steered, and control of the early versions was from Pz I B Kleine Befehlswagens fitted with the radio control set, an extra aerial for it, and a panoramic periscope in the superstructure roof. The B IVs used a variety of control tanks, Pz IIIs of various models, Tiger I, Tiger II and also StuG III Ausf G being known from photographs. All were fitted with the radio gear and extra aerial, but the only other external differences for the normal tanks were on the Pz IIIs which were fitted with an armored box at the turret rear and a large stowage bin on the starboard track guard.
Dragon's Kit
Dragon has produced a double kit containing a Pz III and Borgward B IV B, and I built it almost straight from the box for this report. The Pz III is an Ausf J type from their Imperial series, using the old but still good Gunze Sangyo hull and other parts from their own Pz III and StuG III kits, and gives the choice of long or short 50 mm gun barrels. The Gunze Sangyo kit was hailed as outstanding when it first appeared, although it does have the drawback that the torsion bar suspension is molded to the hull so articulation on a rough ground diorama is impossible without a great deal of work. Modellers wanting such a diorama might do better to transfer the 'command tank' parts to one of Dragon's own Pz III kits with separate suspension arms. This will also reap the benefit of Dragon's greater detail in the joint of the upper and lower hulls, though the difference isn't particularly obvious except on close inspection. With either choice Dragon's separate track links allow the proper sag to be built into the tracks. Although they are molded without the correct hollow guide horns the 'dimpled' appearance of the horns is reasonably convincing as a depiction of horns clogged with mud and earth. Excellent alternatives with hollow guide horns are available from Friulimodel and Model Kasten, but will effectively double the cost of the model.
There are no particular snags in building the command tank, and the new parts fit very well. The result is a good representation of a Pz IIIJ with the extra equipment as used by the remote control units in southern Russia. I was disappointed that the air intake grilles were not only provided in solid plastic (what happened to Dragon's lovely etched steel fret which was included in earlier kits?) but were also too small to fit the ex-Gunze Sangyo side intakes. They don't look too bad after painting them black and dry-brushing the camouflage color over the 'mesh' areas, but detail enthusiasts will definitely want to use an aftermarket etched set here.
The Borgward
This is a nice little kit, delicately molded but having a slight flavor of Eastern European manufacture in its separate hull bottom, front, side, and rear plates. Nevertheless they all fit well, and most of the driver's area is well represented by a seat, instrument panel, and steering bar. Even with the separate escape hatch left open, the absence of pedals, gear levers and the transmission and radio control set isn't really evident. In fact all hatches are separate, which makes me wonder if an engine and transmission accessory set is intended for later release. Note that you'll need to paint the hull interior matte black to avoid bare plastic showing through the correctly-molded hatch beside the driver, which was raised on short pillars to give air flow to the radio equipment. I painted the driver's floor area as red primer and the interior walls in dark yellow, which was the factory-applied exterior color when the Ausf Bs were built and was probably applied to areas visible from above in this vehicle as with other open-topped ones.
The suspension is delicate, as near scale size as could be expected in plastic moldings, so care was needed to avoid breaking the road wheel arms when I fitted the tracks. These are the flexible type, not 'link-and-length', but are very well detailed on both sides. Since they're molded glueable plastic there's no need to staple or sew their joint, and they're just the right length to allow the correct amount of sag when superglued to the tops of the second, third and fourth road wheels.
Strangely, Dragon has not provided the silencer for the Borgward but only a stub exhaust pipe projecting from the upper rear body. However, I managed to add the missing silencer while still only using the contents of the kit box! This was simple. The silencer scales out to 3.5 mm diameter and 26 mm long, and it so happens that a sprue section of exactly these dimensions can be cut from tree F in the kit. Cut 1.5 mm off the business end of the exhaust stub and fix it to the center of the port end of the new silencer. Then shape the remaining stub to fit against the curve of the silencer and fix it as seen on my model - easy and a great improvement.
Colours and Markings
Here's the only real problem, as the Pz III and BIVB had only a small window of action together. Dragon has, in a way, acknowledged this by providing decal markings that put the two in two different units! Those Pz III markings are for 1 Companie of PzAbt 300 (FL) which continued using Pz IIIs of various types until early 1943, but the Borgward markings are for 315 (FKL) Panzer Companie, and the vehicle wasn't delivered until July 1943. I decided to use the markings given, with a slight modification of the Pz III, to produce a control tank of PzAbt 300 in Sebastopol in July 1942, painted gray with a smeared mud 'pattern' over it and the name Strolch. The Borgward was of 315 Companie in France during the summer of 1943, in dark yellow with a green over sprayed pattern. If you really want to show the B IV B with a Panzer III, they did see service together at Kursk. However, you will need to fit the radio control modifications to a Pz III L or M kit with spaced armor for the driver's front plate and gun mantelet, or with hull schurzen (skirts) as well as these. Otherwise you can show the Borgward with a StuG III G and place the Pz III with the B IV Ausf A expected from Dragon very soon. Either would be a more believable combination than Dragon's peculiar choice.
References
Regrettably, there's no Osprey New Vanguard title covering these special purpose vehicles but other references do exist. Gepanzerte PionierFahrzeuge by Thomas L Jentz with scale drawings by Hilary L Doyle (Darlington Productions, 1998) has photographs, a scale plan and useful information on the Borgward and its control tanks. German Remote Control Tank Units by Markus Jaugitz, in two volumes subtitled 1940-1943 and 1943-1945 respectively (Schiffer Military/Aviation History, 1996) has even more information and photographs on all the charge layers, their operational use and their control vehicles. The Jaugitz books will give you plenty of ideas for this kit. How about the B IV B with a Tiger II in Normandy?
Final Verdict
Despite Dragon's mismatching of the vehicles the Borgward is a very nice model, and by matching it with other kits as suggested above you can make an accurate diorama. The Panzer III J is also good, if not quite up to the expected modern standard, and will go nicely with the Borgward B IV A when that kit arrives. So on the whole I recommend the double kit; after all, what other chance will you get to build a B IV B in polystyrene?
by John Prigent