To compensate for the low quality of their guns, the Germans further extended then technological lead by refining the special command tanks which had the main guns removed to make room for additional radio equipment.
These command tanks (Befehlspanzer) were factory conversions of ordinary gun tanks which were used by relatively senior tank commanders at squadron, company, battalion or regiment level to observe and to coordinate the actions of their subordinates on the battlefield. Command tanks generally mounted extra wireless sets, for these purposes, and in order to incorporate these extra wireless sets and sometimes extra wireless operators, something usually had to be removed from the tank. Generally speaking this was either ammunition, which is extremely bulky, or the main armament of the tank itself. Obviously removing either, and particularly the main gun, considerably disadvantaged a command tank on the battlefield.
The cohesion which came from the smooth flow of commands was one of the obvious reasons that the inferior German tanks of 1941 and 1942 were able to overcome the superior T-34s and KV-1s, but these command tanks soon drew special attention and attempts were made to disguise them with dummy guns - a length of wood or pipe, fashioned to represent the main gun.
Even when a dummy gun was used, however, the extra wireless antennae needed were another way with which the enemy could identify enemy command tanks and knock them out. This disconcerting factor was not mitigated by the rigid German practice of numbering their tanks in sequence, starting with the commander’s vehicle, which frequently carried the number 001, displayed prominently on the turret - a sure invitation!
During 1942, the Red Army’s armada of T-34s was growing ominously. New Russian tank armies were coming into being, and in the wake of the terrible defeat at Stalingrad the German soldiers prayed for an answer. It was now a race between German engineering and Soviet manufacturing.