This is one of the rarest WWII German vehicles still around today, the Panzerkampfwagen II Ausf. L, more commonly known as the Luchs - German for Lynx.
The Luchs is a light tank of small proportions, at just 2.5 meters (8 ft) wide and 4.6 meters (15 ft) long. It is armed with a 2 cm KwK 38 L/55 autocannon operated by the commander. The rest of the crew consisted of a loader, radio operator and driver.
One of the Luchs’ most stand out features is its overlapping wheels on torsion bar suspension. A 180 hp 6 cylinder Maybach in the rear gave the 13 ton Luchs a top speed of just under 40 mph.
Only around 100 were built in total (for comparison, 1,350 of the relatively rare Tiger I were built). Of these, just two remain today; one at the Musée des Blindés in Saumur, and this one, which is located at The Tank Museum, Bovington.
