Panthers in Combat: Opening Round
The initial Panther Ausf. D models received an underwhelming start to her now-respected combat career. In her earliest of forms, these at the Battle of Kursk, she fell not so much to enemy shells and anti-tank guns but to mechanical failures of the gearbox and running gear. Some that did manage to fight were destroyed by the massed Soviet forces utilizing tactical maneuvering and engagement of the thinner Panther sides. Such was the weakness in their side armor that German tankers were taught to always face the enemy with their thicker frontal armor for their own protection. This was not always put into practice at Kursk and Soviet tankers soon took advantage of the weakness. However, the front armor protection of Panthers was excellent and those German tankers that used this benefit to their advantage would live to fight another day. The frontal armor rendered 57mm anti-tank guns completely useless while 76mm cannons needed precise hits - though these were never a sure kill shot - to penetrate a Panther. On the contrary, the 75mm (7.5cm) KwK 42 L/70 long-barrel main gun of the Panther proved excellent, especially when coupled with an excellently trained crew and superior German optics. This combination allowed Panthers to engage and destroy Soviet T-34s as far out as 3,200 yards. Regardless, the combat debut of the Panther was a mixed bag - those that operated as designed were only as successful as their crews allowed them to be, others were felled either by Soviet tank crews, anti-tank guns or faulty engineering. One key mechanical failing of the Ausf. D was the steering system which went on to be a well-documented "Achilles Heel" of the Panther series throughout the war. All told, it is reported that of the 200 Panthers fielded by the German Army in the Kursk offensive, some 160 were rendered ineffective. After nine days of fighting, only 43 remained operational. In all, 842 Ausf. D models were produced.
The Panther Line Grows
Confusingly, the Ausf. D model was then followed on the production lines by the Ausf. A model (SdKfz 171). Production began at MNH, Daimler-Benz, Demag and MAN facilities in August-September of 1943 and more or less maintained the qualities and features of her forerunner. The Ausf. A was given a new turret yet utilized the same chassis as the Ausf. D. The turret of the Ausf. A introduced an all-new cupola for the commander's position which was now of cast armor fitted and with seven periscopes for viewing outside regions of the vehicle. This made the Ausf. A slightly taller than the Ausf. D before it. Additionally, the position could mount an 7.92mm MG34 machine gun for anti-aircraft defense. The original Ausf. D mounted a simpler cylindrical cupola with six vision blocks. The radio operator's periscope was removed and a sighting device was added directly to his bow-mounted machine gun. The letter-box opening of the bow machine gun was deleted and replaced with a ball mount. The turret pistol ports used for point defense against infantry assaults were replaced by an integrated grenade launcher (Nahverteidigungswaffe - Close Defense Weapon) meant to keep enemy infantry at bay. At the end of the Ausf. A production run in May of 1944, a further 2,192 Panthers had been produced.
The Ausf. G then followed the Ausf. A into service with production beginning in March of 1944. Again, MAN, MNH and Daimler-Benz all contributed to the numbers. Unlike the Ausf. A, the Ausf. G featured a revised wider chassis yet fitted the turret of the Ausf. A models. The new chassis was identified by its different 29-degree angled (from 40-degrees in earlier forms), single-piece, evenly tapered side armor hull plates and, internally, it was produced with thicker torsion bars along its suspension system to account for the tank's heavier-than-anticipated weight. The driver's visor was eliminated along the glacis plate and his outward vision was replaced by a periscope. To help keep the Panther's operating weight in check with the new changes, armor protection at the lower front hull was decreased from 60mm to 50mm. Likewise, the forward floor armor was decreased in protection from 30mm to 25mm. As combat actions throughout 1944 shown the superstructure roof ahead of the gun mount to be weaker than anticipated, armor was thickened in this region. Only later in September of 1944 was a redesigned curved cast gun mantlet with a squared off bottom "ledge" introduced to help deflect enemy projectiles away from the turret base and superstructure roof. In fact, American tank crews were taught to aim for the turret ring of Panthers if approaching them head-on to take advantage of this design weakness. A lucky shot under the mantlet could kill both the driver and the radio operator. 2,953 Ausf. G models were produced in whole.
Panther Command Tanks and Others
The Panther was converted into 329 command tanks (known as "Befehlspanzer Panther") to help govern battlefields. This meant the loss of some ammunition to make room for additional communications equipment. The additional antenna identified this Panther type externally which did, however, maintain its inherent lethality. Other Panther forms included the 347 examples making up the fleet of "Bergepanther" battlefield Armored Recovery Vehicles (ARVs). As the new 40+ ton Panthers exceeded the towing power of traditional 20-ton movers of the German Army, these specialized Panther hulls served to tow damaged Panther combat tanks back for repair or off of key roadways. Forty-one examples of the Beobachtungspanzer Panther observation post vehicles were also converted from existing Panther tanks. The Panther hull served as the basis for the excellent Jagdpanther tank-killer.
Panther Walk-Around
Internally, the crew of five consisted of the driver and radio operator in the hull and the gunner, loader and commander in the turret. The driver maintained his position in the front left hull and operated the various steering levers and foot pedals while managing engine and performance functions through an instrument panel. The radio operator sat in the front right of the hull and managed electronic communications (something Soviet T34s lacked) while also being responsible for the operation of the 7.92mm bow-mounted machine gun. Both forward positions were cramped by Allied standards and featured padded seating while the transmission cover divided the two forward crew emplacements down the middle. The transmission was a ZF AK 7-200 series system with seven forward speeds and a single reverse gear.
The gunner sat in the front left of the turret with the commander immediately behind and above him. The gunner fired the main gun through an electrically induced action but also had a backup mechanism should the primary fail. The turret was powered traversed and a manual function was installed in the event of a systems failure. The manual traverse function was also utilized by the gunner for precise aiming and the coaxial machine gun was actuated by a foot pedal. The Panther could not fire on the move and required the vehicle to come to a complete stop before loosing a round against an enemy target. The commander was afforded a seat for commanding purposes but a fold down platform enabled him to raise his head, arms and shoulders out of the cupola turret when on march. The loader held a position in the right side of the turret. The main gun breech system divided the turret into two equal quadrants down the middle. Ammunition was stowed in horizontal racks along each hull side and in vertical racks front and rear of the turret ring. The gunner and the commander shared the same entry/exit hatch while the loader was given his own at the rear turret wall. The driver and radio operator each had flat access hatches above their respective positions.
A key external defining characteristic of the Panther series was its large front glacis plate which was relatively featureless and uninterrupted. The glacis plate was heavily sloped and tapered towards the center of the hull. The sides of the hull were equally sloped and tapered. The hull roof was flat and venting at the rear of the design helped to cool the engine while also doubling as a passenger platform. The rear face of the hull was noticeably angled outward at its top and slanted inwards towards the vehicle underside. Vertical exhaust stacks were fitted along this rear face between a pair of outboard storage containers. A tow line, personal field equipment and a gun barrel cleaning kit (housed in a horizontally-set tube) were mounted along the left side superstructure hull face.
The Panther utilized multiple rubber-tired (later steel-rimmed) road wheels in an overlapping fashion. While this served to displace more of the vehicle's weight across the track systems, this tended to wear the tracks out faster than a normal set of tank road wheels would. The overlapping nature of the road wheels also lent themselves poorly to cold weather actions where the frigid Soviet winters would freeze the packed mud and snow into place, rendering the Panther immobile if left alone for long periods. Once frozen, this required heavy work by the Panther crew to free the wheel systems - an issue not regularly encountered by the Soviet T34s. The wide track system ran about the hull sides with the drive sprocket located at the front of the hull and the track idler at the rear. Extra track link sections and road wheels could be stored about the hull as needed.
The drivetrain of the Panther was conventional by German tank standards. It consisted of the gearbox, steering brakes and steering gear at the front of the hull with the engine held at the rear along with the applicable radiator systems, internal fuel tanks (x4) and engine cooling fans.
The main gun consisted of the long-barrel 75mm (7.5cm) KwK 42 L/70 series. This instrument was a tapered cylinder with a double baffle fitted to the barrel muzzle (to help counter recoil) and measured in at over 19 feet in length. The base of the gun was protected by an armored mantlet. The weapon was manually fed by the loader and electrically actuated by the gunner and semi-automatic in operation. A bin at the base of the turret collected up to five spent shell casings though this compartment could also be used to hold ready-to-fire 75mm projectiles. Dangerous fumes were evacuated from the fighting compartment via a flexible hose attached to a roof-mounted fan system near the loader.
75mm ammunition arrived to Panther tanker crews in single-piece forms that included both the projectile warhead and charge. The Ausf. D and Ausf. A Panther production models were generally afforded 79 projectiles made up of HE and AP warhead types. Counts of each was left up to the crew though an even "50/50" split proportion was generally observed. The Ausf. G production model managed as many as 82 x 75mm projectiles.
While standard practice said 120 x 75mm projectiles and 3,500 x 7.92mm rounds of machine gun ammunition be carried, wartime availability dictated such actions. In one report, a Panther crew managed 9,000 x 7.62mm ammunition for their two machine guns.
The primary AP (Armor-Piercing) tank-killing round used by Panther tanks was the 31lb Panzergranate 39/42. The round, coupled with the main gun's throwing power, enabled the Panther to defeat up to 112mm of sloped armor out to 1,000 yards. Even at near-2,200 yards, the main gun could still count on defeating up to 88mm of sloped armor. The Panzergranate 40/42 was a specially developed AP round designed to defeat up to 150mm of sloped armor, suitable for engaging the later generations of Soviet heavy tanks such as the Josef Stalin "IS" series. The HE (High-Explosive) round of choice became the Sprenggranate 42. Where this projectile came in handy was in defeating enemy infantry concentrations and fortifications that out-distanced the coaxial machine gun.
The firepower of the Panther's 75mm main gun was such that the gunner needed not account for elevation until the target was outwards of 2,000 yards - the outgoing velocity, range and penetration power of the weapon ran primarily on a flat trajectory within this range. If there was a shortcoming in the design it was that the gun could not effectively be fired while the tank was on the move and the turret traversal function is said to have worked poorly if the tank was positioned along a slope.
All Panther production models were powered by a single Maybach HL 230 P30 V-12, liquid-cooled gasoline engine delivering 700 horsepower at 3,000rpm. Top speed was 34 miles per hour with a range out to 124 miles on road (62 miles otherwise). Lifespan of an individual engine was reportedly just 600 miles. Weight was listed at 44.8 tons. The communications suite (Fu 5 and Fu 2, Intercom) was a steady presence throughout all three major production variants.
End of the Line
Allies in the West first came across Panther tanks in Normandy in 1944, following the massive D-Day amphibious landings in June. Panthers proved stout defenders as their front armor was nearly impenetrable to the weapons of British, Canadian and American troops. Conversely, the 75mm main gun of the Panther could relatively easily engage the formations of Shermans coming their way. It was such that as many as four Shermans could be called upon to tackle a single Panther - two to draw its fire and a pair to engage the Panther along its 2-inch armored sides. Rear shots at the engine compartment were something of a rarity but highly effective if achieved. After Allied successes across most of Northern France, the Panther fell into the assaults making up the "Battle of the Bulge" in the Ardennes Forrest - essentially "Hitler's Last Gasp" in the West. During this battle, and to provide the Americans with further confusion, some Panthers were disguised to resemble Allied M10 tank destroyers.
Seeing the value of the Panther, especially once its many mechanical issues were rectified, the system was heralded as the lead battle tank of the Third Reich in early 1944. She was to spearhead any new offensives against the enemy and utilize her stellar qualities against a lesser foe. This meant that the target production goal was to provide the German Army with up to 400 Panther tanks a month to be churned out of German factories. However, the Allied bombing campaign, coupled with advances by army forces on the ground, led to a shortage of supplies and captured assembly lines.
As Germany fell further and further into ruin, more and more Panther-producing factories fell under Allied control in turn. The MNH facility at Hannover was one such locale and the British assumed control and forced the production of a few extra examples for evaluation back on the British mainland. Similarly, the Panther ended up on American test fields at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. To the British and the Americans, the Panther was known simply as the "Mark V".
The end of the Panther's reign effectively ended with Hitler's suicide, the Soviet capture of Berlin and the surrender of the German Army, the latter in May of 1945.
As production was split between the various major contractors across Germany, it was not uncommon got subtle nuances to appear between each model type. MAN was responsible for 35% of overall Panther production with Daimler-Benz and Mashinenfabrik Niedersachsen-Hannover each contributing 31%. Other firms rounded out total production output which ended with 6,334 tanks in circulation.
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