Quote Originally Posted by discovery1
Hmmm. I belive the pzIII was supposed to have a 50 mm gun, not a 37, but for some reason(uniformity of supply?) used a 37 mm.
As I recall the German ordnance dept wanted to equip the PzIII with the 37mm gun simply because they had a lot of 37mm guns lying around. The field commanders however wanted the 50mm gun. A compromise was reached in that the tank was fitted with the 37mm but built to accomodate the larger 50mm should the need arise, which in retrospect was a wise decision.

But of course, not only the 37mm but also the 50mm was quickly found to be inadequate on the Eastern Front.