A photograph of my grandfather in a panzer?

Original image available here:
http://www.panzernet.net/panzernet/stranky/galerie/tanky/pz4/galeriepzkpfwIV144.htm

This posting will concentrate in its entirety on the image above. Although I know what units my grandfather served in, and although I have the small, personal photo album he gave to my grandmother, I have thus far no idea what kind of panzer he served in. I have a general idea when it comes to Pz.Abt.40.(z.b.V.) since they had a quite limited choice of panzers, but when it for instance comes to 3.Pz.Div. I am totally in the dark.

That is why I became quite astounded when I came across the photograph pictured above on http://www.panzernet.net/ The thing that immediately caught my eye was the uncanny resemblance the tank commander had to my grandfather. Now I know that the picture itself is quite small and that if you stare at something long enough you begin to see what you want to see. This is of course something I carry with me all the time when I look at photographs of panzermänner and their respective panzers. I do have an extremely hard time disregarding the fact that the two men share the same firm jawline, same base of the nose as well as other general facial features though. But hunches and "wishful thinking" is not good enough when it comes to research. And that is not something I operated solely on in this particular case... Let me explain:

First of all the panzer itself; a Pz.Kpfw IV ausf B, was not identified by the people of panzernet.net as belonging to any particular panzer division -i.e. it was more or less unidentified. What, quite literally, gave me goose bumps in this case was the moment I noticed that the panzer belongs to the 3.Pz.Div. The identifying mark, the white outlines of a bear, can be seen just on the side of the turret. Compare it to the right hand side example shown here: http://www.feldgrau.com/PzDiv.php?ID=3 And, furthermore, as soon as I identified the panzer as belonging to the 3.Pz.Div I had to try to date the photograph itself somehow. Which increased the possibilities and chances somewhat...

Second: It is a quite early photograph of a 3.Pz.Div. Pz.Kpfw IV -that much is a given. It is not as early as the campaign in Poland though, and this is evident from the Balkenkreuz at the side of the hull. During the Polish campaign these were painted as big white crosses -a dandy little affair that was changed at the end and just after the campaign as the panzermänner, through bitter experience, learned that the Polish anti-tank crews used the all-white Balkenkreuz as an aiming spot. The outlined, black and white Balkenkreuz was authorized for use in October 1939.

Third: The panzer, the Pz.Kpfw IV ausf B was a model, or variant if you will, that went into production in 1938. 42 ausf B were produced between April and September alone of that year. They stayed in service until 1943. The short barrel of the main gun is another hint that this is a quite early photograph since the longer barrels did not show up until roughly around 1942.

Fourth: The panzermänner themselves. This is perhaps the most telling part of the whole photograph: The are wearing the panzer berets (Schutzmütze); a garment that was becoming increasingly unpopular with the panzermänner during 1939/1940 and discontinued as of January 15th, 1941 and then phased out after that.

All this points towards the photograph dating from after October 1939 but probably before 1941 (at the latest). Now, my grandfather served with the 6./Pz.Rgt6, 3.Pz.Div. from 1935 until March of 1940 (when his company was transferred to the newly formed Pz.Abt.40.(z.b.V.). Pz.Rgt.6 had 9 Pz.Kpfw IV's in August of 1939 (10 in May 1940) -how many of those that were in the 6. Kompanie I do not know though.

Could this photograph depict a Pz.Kpfw IV from my grandfather's 6. Kompanie (as well as my grandfather himself)? It is phesible yes, but not anything I am willing to put my money on. Especially since there is no identification numbers visible on the side of the turret. (There is the slight possibility that the numeral "2" is what is visiblejust to the right of the 3.Pz.Div. insignia -which would make this a 2. Kompanie (2nd Company) panzer- but I can not tell for certain. Possible it is my grandfather: yes. Beyond the shadow of a doubt: Definately not. It might as well be a panzer, with another panzersoldat than my grandfather, from just after he has been transfered to his new unit. Without total, undeniable identification of which unit in 3.Pz.Div. the panzer belongs to I can never know for certain. If anyone out there can identify this panzer properly I would love to hear from you.