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sells best, then military green and red. The Panther was a tank fielded by Germany in World War II that served from mid-1943 to the end of the European war in 1945. It was intended as a counter to the T-34, and to replace the Panzer IV and III, though it served along with them and the heavy tanks until the end of the war. The Panther's excellent combination of firepower, mobility, and protection served as a benchmark for other nations' late war and immediate post-war tank designs and it is frequently regarded (along with the Soviet T-34 Tank) as the best tank design of World War II.[1] Until 1944 it was designated as the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther and had the Ordnance inventory designation of Sd.Kfz. 171. On 27 February 1944, Hitler ordered that the Roman numeral V be deleted from the tank's designation. he Panther was a direct response to the Soviet T-34. First encountered on 23 June 1941,[citation needed] the T-34 outclassed the existing Panzer IV and Panzer III. At the insistence of General Heinz Guderian a team was dispatched to the Eastern Front to assess the T-34. Among the features of the Soviet tank considered most significant were the sloping armor, which gave much improved shot deflection and also increased the effective armor thickness against penetration, the wide track, which improved mobility over soft ground, and the 76.2 mm gun, which had good armour penetration and fired an effective high-explosive round. Daimler-Benz (DB) and Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg AG (MAN) were given the task of designing a new thirty to thirty-five-ton tank, designated VK3002, by April 1942 (apparently in time to be shown to Hitler for his birthday). The two proposals were delivered in April 1942. The Daimler-Benz (DB) design was a direct homage to the T-34. It resembled the T-34 hull and turret form. Daimler-Benz offered both leaf spring suspension and torsion-bar suspension variants, whereas the T-34 originally used coil springs. The Daimler-Benz's turret was smaller than the turret of the MAN design. Unlike the T-34, both variants had a three-man turret crew: commander, gunner, and loader. But as the planned gun was much longer and heavier than the T-34's, mounting it in the Daimler-Benz turret was difficult. Plans to reduce the turret crew to two men to stem this problem were eventually dropped. The MAN design embodied more conventional German thinking: it was higher and wider with a substantial turret placed centrally on the hull, a petrol engine and torsion-bar suspension. The MAN design was accepted in May, 1942 in spite of Hitler's preference for the DB design. One of the principal reasons for this was that the MAN design used an existing turret designed by Rheinmetall-Borsig while the DB design would have required a brand new turret to be designed and produced, substantially delaying the commencement of production.[citation needed] The MAN design also had better fording ability, easier gun servicing and higher mobility due to better suspension, wider tracks and a bigger fuel tank. A mild steel prototype was produced by September 1942 and, after testing at Kummersdorf, was officially accepted. It was put into immediate production. The start of production was delayed, however, mainly because there were too few specialized machine tools needed for the machining of the hull. Finished tanks were produced in December and suffered from reliability problems as a result of this haste. The demand for this tank was so high that the manufacturing was soon expanded beyond MAN to include Daimler-Benz, Maschinenfabrik Niedersachsen-Hannover (MNH) and Henschel & Sohn in Kassel. The initial production target was 250 tanks per month at MAN. This was increased to 600 per month in January 1943. Despite determined efforts this figure was never reached due to disruption by Allied bombing, manufacturing bottlenecks, and other difficulties. Production in 1943 averaged 148 per month. In 1944, it averaged 315 a month (3,777 having been built that year), peaking with 380 in July and ending around the end of March 1945, with at least 6,000 built in total. Strength peaked on 1 September 1944 at 2,304 tanks, but that same month a record number of 692 tanks were reported lost ( If the over-hanging gun and sloping armor are ignored, the Panther was a conventional German design. The weight of the production model had increased to 43 tonnes from the planned 35. The Panther was the first Axis tank design where modern features were more prominent than early World War II-era ones.[citation needed] Once the problems caused by the vulnerability of the engine and the transmission were solved, it proved to be a very effective fighting vehicle. Engine The Panther was powered by a 700 PS (690 hp, 515 kW)/3000 rpm, 23.1 litre Maybach HL 230 P30 V-12 petrol engine that drove two front drive sprockets via the gearbox and steering unit. The engine was generally considered reliable, and had a fatigue life of up to 2000 kilometers. Maybach HL230 engines were fitted with a governor in late 1943 that limited the engine revolutions to 2500 rpm and power to 600 PS (592 hp, 441 kW). The installation of the governor also reduced the tank's top speed from 55 km/h to 46 km/h. Suspension The suspension consisted of front drive sprockets, rear idlers and eight double-interleaved rubber-rimmed steel bogie wheels on each side, suspended on a dual torsion bar suspension. The Panther's suspension was costly and time-consuming to manufacture and the interleaved system made replacing inner bogies time consuming. However, it provided excellent flotation and stability and contributed to the Panther's generally excellent tactical mobility. Shortage of rubber[citation needed] brought in the very limited use of all-steel flat disc wheels with resilient steel tires. Steering Tank control was accomplished through a seven-speed AK 7-200 synchromesh gearbox, designed by ZF, and a MAN single radius steering system, operated by steering levers. The steering system allowed a single, fixed radius of turn at each gear. The higher the gear, the bigger was the turning radius. If the radius was bigger than desired, the steering brakes could be used to tighten the turn. The weakest parts in the tank were, throughout its career, the final drive units. The main reason was that the units could not be manufactured using hollow spur gears, due to the shortage of suitable gear-cutting machinery in Germany during the war. The final drives were in fact so weak that their fatigue life was sometimes as low as 150 km. The US M4 Sherman tank, in contrast, had a double helical gear arrangement on its final drive which placed no limits on maximum speed. Crew The crew was made up of five members: driver, radio operator (who also fired the bow machine gun), gunner, loader, and commander. Armor The armor consisted of a thick homogeneous steel glacis (i.e. frontal hull) plate sloped back at 55 degrees from the vertical, welded but also interlocked for strength. The combination of thick 80 mm armor with a high degree of slope made the Panther's glacis armor extremely effective: very few Allied or Soviet weapons could penetrate it. The front of the turret was covered by a 100 mm thick cast mantlet, made in the shape of a transverse half-cylinder. The transverse-cylindrical shape of the mantlet meant that it was more likely to deflect shells, but it was discovered that the lower section of the transverse-cylindrical mantlet created a shot-trap: if a non-penetrating hit bounced downwards off the mantlet's lower section, it could penetrate the thin forward hull roof armor, and plunge down into the front crew compartment. Penetrations of this nature could have had catastrophic results since the front crew compartment housed the driver and radio operator sitting along both sides of the massive gearbox and steering unit combination, topped with the radio equipment. From September 1944, a slightly redesigned mantlet with a much thicker "chin" design was fitted to the Panther G, the chin being intended to prevent such deflections. The main weakness of the Panther tank was its much thinner (40–50 mm thick) side armor. The thinner side armor was necessary to keep the tank's overall weight within reasonable bounds, but it made the Panther vulnerable to attacks from the side by most Allied and Soviet tank and anti-tank guns. German tactical doctrine for the use of the Panther thus emphasised the importance of flank protection. Five millimeter skirt armor, Schürzen, intended to provide protection for the lower side hull from Soviet anti-tank rifle fire was fitted on the hull side. Zimmerit ceramic coating against magnetic mines also became standard with the Ausf. A, and retrofitted to older versions until deleted from new Panthers from about September 1944. [edit] Armament Panzerbefehlswagen Panther Ausf. A (Sd.Kfz. 267) of the Panzergrenadier-Division Großdeutschland photographed in southern Ukraine in 1944. The main gun was a semi-automatic 7.5 cm Rheinmetall-Borsig KwK 42 (L/70) with 79 rounds (82 on Ausf. G). The main gun used three different types of ammunition, APCBC-HE (Pzgr. 39/42), HE (Sprgr. 42) and APCR (Pzgr. 40/42), the last of which was usually in short supply. While the gun was of only average caliber for its time, the Panther's gun was one of the most powerful tank guns of WWII, due to the large propellant charge and the long barrel, which gave it a very high muzzle velocity and excellent armor-piercing qualities. The flat trajectory also made hitting targets much easier, since accuracy was less sensitive to range. The 75 mm gun actually had more penetrating power than the main gun of the Tiger I heavy tank, the 8.8 cm KwK 36 L/56. The tank had normally two MG 34 machine guns of a specific version designed for use in armored combat vehicles featuring an armored barrel sleeve. An MG 34 machine gun was located co-axially with the main gun on the gun mantlet; an identical MG 34 was located on the glacis plate and fired by the radio operator. Initial Ausf. D and early Ausf. A models used a "letterbox" flap opening, through which the machine gun was fired. Later Ausf A and all Ausf G models use a more conventional ball mount in the glacis for this machine gun. The Ausf A introduced a new cast commander's cupola. It featured a steel hoop to which a third MG 34 or either the coaxial or the bow machine gun could be mounted for use in the anti-aircraft role, though it was rare for this to be used in actual combat situations. [edit] Combat use Panther tanks of the Großdeutschland Division advance in the area of Iasi, Romania in 1944. Panther Ausf. Ds on rail cars awaiting to be shipped to their units in April/May 1943. The Panther was intended to supplement the Panzer IV and replace the Panzer III medium tanks. Each German Panzer (armored) division had two tank battalions; the intent was to equip one battalion in each division with Panthers, retaining the lighter, older, but still useful Panzer IV in the other battalion. Beginning in mid-1943, battalions were gradually converted to Panthers. The Panther first saw action at Kursk on 5 July 1943. Early tanks were plagued with mechanical problems: the track and suspension often broke, and the engine was dangerously prone to overheating and bursting into flames. At Kursk, more Panthers were disabled by their own failings than by enemy action. For example, the XLVIII Panzer Corps reported on 10 July 1943, that they had 38 Panthers operational and 131 awaiting repair, out of about 200 they had started with on 5 July. Heinz Guderian, who had not wanted Hitler to order them into combat so soon, later remarked about the early Panther's performance in the battle: "they burnt too easily, the fuel and oil systems were insufficiently protected, and the crews were lost due to lack of training." Guderian also stated, however, that the firepower and frontal armor were good. While many of the Panthers used at Kursk were damaged or suffered from mechanical difficulties, only a small number was lost for good; the tanks also achieved success, with 263 Soviet tanks claimed destroyed.[citation needed] Although its frontal armour was thinner than the Tiger's, it was also much more sloped and proved harder for Soviet shells to penetrate. After Kursk, the tanks suffering from damage or mechanical breakdowns were repaired and the inherent design problems of the early Ausf. D models were fixed, making the Panther a truly formidable tank. Later in 1943 and especially into 1944, Panthers appeared in increasing numbers on the eastern front. By June 1944, Panthers were about half of the German tank strength both in the east and the west. At the end of the war it was the third most produced German armored fighting vehicle. In 1943-1944, a Waffen-SS special operations group was formed by Otto Skorzeny, to infiltrate enemy defenses. A small number of Panthers and Stug-IIIs in this group were repainted with US Army insignia. The Panthers were altered with thin sheet metal to resemble US Army M10 Tank Destroyers. Perhaps the best known German Panther commander was SS-Oberscharführer Ernst Barkmann of the 2nd SS-Panzer Regiment, 2nd SS-Panzer Division "Das Reich". Panther turrets, from battle damaged and retired vehicles along with specially manufactured ones, were also mounted in fixed fortifications. Turrets (mechanically traverseable) were mounted on concrete emplacements (Pantherturm III - Betonsockel - concrete base) or welded steel boxes (Pantherturm I - Stahluntersatz - steel sub-base), which housed the ammunition storage and fighting compartment along with crew quarters. Such emplacements were located in the fortifications of the Atlantic Wall, West Wall, Gothic Line, Hitler Line (one of those was located at Piedimonte in Monte Cassino area) and in the east (about 12 in Berlin). A total of 268-280 turrets were installed as of 26 March 1945.[citation needed] [edit] Panther battalion organization Composition of a panzer battalion equipped with Panther tanks, 1943. Two panzer battalions would comprise the panzer regiment of a panzer division. * Battalion Command (composed of Communication and Reconnaissance platoons) * Communication Platoon - 3 × Befehlswagen Panther SdKfz.267/268 * Reconnaissance Platoon - 5 × Panther * 1st Company - 22 × Panther o Company Command - 2 × Panther + 1st Platoon - 5 × Panther + 2nd Platoon - 5 × Panther + 3rd Platoon - 5 × Panther + 4th Platoon - 5 × Panther * 2nd Company - 22 × Panther (composed as 1st Company) * 3rd Company - 22 × Panther (composed as 1st Company) * 4th Company - 22 × Panther (composed as 1st Company) * Service Platoon - 2 × Bergepanther From 1943 to 1945, many modifications were made to unit organization by reducing both number of companies and platoons due to the war situation. [edit] The Allied response The Soviet response to the large numbers of Panthers on their front was swift. In 1943 the Red Army was still equipped with T-34 tanks armed with the same 76.2 mm gun as in 1941. This gun was ineffective against the Panther's frontal armor, meaning the Soviet tank had to flank the Panther to destroy it, while the Panther's main gun could penetrate the T-34 at long range from any angle. Plans were made to improve the T-34 with an 85 mm gun and new and more spacious three-man turret, producing the T-34-85. Although this tank was not quite the equal of the Panther, it was much better than the 76.2 mm-armed versions and made up for its quality shortcomings by being produced in greater quantities than the Panther. New self-propelled anti-tank vehicles based on the T-34 hull, such as the SU-85 and SU-100, were also developed. By mid-1944, the Red Army was deploying far more T-34-85s than the Germans had Panthers. A German comparison of German tanks with the new Soviet T-34-85 and IS-2 heavy tank (with a 122 mm gun), from 23 March 1944, stated that "the Panther is far superior to the T-34/85 for frontal fire (Panther Ausf G could penetrate frontal armor of T-34-85 at 2,000 m, while T-34-85 could penetrate frontal armor of Panther Ausf G at 500 m), approximately equal for side and rear fire, superior to the IS-2 for frontal fire and inferior for side and rear fire." In 1943 and 1944, a Panther was able to destroy any Allied enemy tank in existence at ranges of 2,000 m, while in general veteran Panther crews reported a 90 percent hit rate at ranges up to 1,000 m.[citation needed] The Panther weighed about as much as the new Soviet IS-2 heavy tank, and indeed this vehicle is a closer match than the much lighter T-34. Later in the war (1944 and on) Soviets found the quality of German armour dropped, lack of alloying metals made the plates too brittle. In November 1943 at Kubinka, during trials of guns proposed to be mounted on the IS-2, a 122-mm round fired from the A-19 gun passed clear through a captured Panther, penetrating both the front and rear armour.[2] The Western Allies' response was inconsistent. The Panther was not employed against the western Allies until early 1944 at Anzio, where Panthers were employed in small numbers. The Panther was thought to be another heavy tank that would not be built in large numbers. Thus the US Army entered the Battle of Normandy expecting to face a handful of German heavy tanks alongside large numbers of Panzer IVs. Instead, almost half the German tanks in Normandy were Panthers, whose frontal armour could not be penetrated by the 75 mm guns of the US Sherman tanks. The US eventually produced large numbers of 76 mm-armed Shermans, 90 mm-armed tank destroyers, and eventually the Pershing heavy tank. Even with these better weapons, it was still difficult to penetrate the frontal armor of the Panther. British forces responded to the heavier German tanks with the 17-pounder gun mounted in the Sherman (the Sherman Firefly), as well as towed 17-pounders. By the conclusion of the Normandy campaign, British forces were fielding roughly a 1:4 ratio of Fireflys to 75 mm Shermans in their tank units. In 1945, they deployed the Comet tank. The Panther remained a major German tank until the end of the war. Later versions of the Panzer IV with long 75 mm KwK 40 L/48 guns were slightly cheaper to produce and more reliable, and so they remained in production alongside the Panther. However, the main reason for the prolonged Panzer IV production was that the reorganization of the German tank industry to manufacture Panthers rather than Panzer IVs would have resulted in an unacceptable, albeit temporary, decrease in overall tank production. Around the time of the Battle of the Bulge, as part of Otto Skorzeny's Operation Greif commando mission, a number of Panther tanks assigned to Skorzeny's Panzerbrigade 150 were disguised to look roughly like an M10 Wolverine by welding on additional plates, applying US-style camouflage paint and markings. This was carried out as part of a larger operation that involved soldiers disguised as Americans and other activities. The disguised Panthers were detected and destroyed. [edit] Further development Panther II on display at Patton Cavalry and Armor Museum, Fort Knox, KY. The turret on display was not originally fitted to this hull and was installed later. Design work on the Panther II began in February 1943. The main aim was to secure maximum interchangeability of parts with the Tiger II heavy tank in order to ease manufacturing. The Panther II had a hull similar to the Tiger II, and also shared nearly-identical steel tired road wheels (seven versus the Tiger II's nine), "contact shoe" and "connector link" track, suspension and brakes. One of the parts to be changed was the gun-mantlet, which had to become smaller. This was referred to in German as Turm mit schmaler Blende (narrow-mantlet turret). The Panther II project never got further than a single chassis that now can be seen in the Patton Museum. The only other significant differences between the Panther and the Panther II were running gear and increased armor protection. The turret was exactly the same on both types. The Panther II was only designed with the 7.5 cm KwK L/70 in mind, and the 8.8 cm KwK L/71 idea didn't enter into consideration after the Panther II project had been dropped. Later in the war, in March 1944, work started again on a Panther turret with a smaller forward aspect. This led to the development of the Schmalturm (narrow turret). In August a Versuchsturm (trials turret) was completed. This was mounted on the chassis of a regular Panther Ausf. G. The Schmalturm featured thicker armour, a built-in stereoscopic rangefinder, the capability to carry the 88 mm KwK L/71 and eliminated the shot-trap under the mantle, but weighed less than the original turret. A partially destroyed example of a production Schmalturm is on display at the Bovington Tank Museum. In that same period, development of the Panther led to the Ausf. F, slated for production in April 1945. The key points for this mark of Panther were the new Schmalturm with its improved armor protection, and an extended front hull roof which was also slightly thicker. A number of Ausf. F hulls were built at Daimler-Benz and Ruhrstahl-Hattingen steelworks; however there is no evidence that any completed Ausf F saw service before the end of the war. Indeed, since some key components for the Schmalturm were never completed, the operation of any Panther Ausf. F built would have been seriously impaired. The Panther Ausf. F is not to be confused with the Panther II, which was an entirely new design with a heavier chassis.