After meeting the Soviet T-34 tank in late 1941 the German army was considerably shaken to find that there was a tank better than its PzKpfw IV. Although work on a successor to the PzKpfw IV had started as early as 1937, which eventually became the Tiger heavy tank, it largely incorporated features from the earlier development prototypes and owed nothing to the T-34 design. After examining captured T-34s during an "on the spot" investigation, the key features of the T-34 design were assessed. The three main characteristics were:
- the sloped armor which gave optimum shot deflection
- the large road wheels which gave a stable and steady ride
- the overhanging gun, a feature previously avoided by the Germans as impracticable
Having received the commision's report on November 25 1941, the Heereswaffenamt contracted with two armament firms, Daimler-Benz and MAN, to produce designs for a new medium tank in the 30-35 ton class. To be ready for the following spring, the specifications called for a vehicle with 60mm frontal armor and 40mm side armor, a high velocity 75mm gun and the front and sides to be sloped like the T-34. In April 1942, the two designs were submitted, with an interesting contrast. Daimler-Benz proposal was an almost unashamed copy of the T-34 in layout, with the addition of a few refinements. It had a hull shape similar to the T-34 with turret mounted well forward; the driver sat within the turret cage. A diesel engine was fitted with transmission to the rear sprockets. Paired steel bogies without rubber tyres were suspended by leaf springs. Other features included jettisonable fuel tanks on the hull rear in T-34 fashion.
Hitler was impressed with the Daimler-Benz "T-34 type" proposal, although he suggested that the gun be changed from the 75mm L/48 model to the longer L/70 weapon, and prototypes went into production. Leaf springs were cheaper and easier to produce than torsion bars, and the diesel engine would have been an advantage in later years when petrol supply became restricted. However, the Heereswaffenamt preferred the MAN design, since simply copying the T-34 was unpatriotic and there were mechanical features of the T-34 which made copying an impractical proposition for German manufacturers.
The MAN design displayed original German thinking, sophisticated rather than simple. It had a higher, wider hull than either the Daimler-Benz design or the T-34, with a large turret placed well back to offset as much as possible the overhang of the long 75mm gun. Torsion bar suspension was used with interleaved road wheels, while a Maybach petrol engine was proposed, with drive to the front sprockets. The internal layout followed conventional German practice with stations for the driver and hull gunner/radio-operator in the front compartment.
Militarily, there were two important prerequisites in the comparison of the two models: mass production should start in december 1942, and the weapon should be of superior quality to counter the numerical material superiority of the enemy. Daimler-Benz was not able to produce the turret for the deadline, and needed modifications on the turret as well. The recommendation of the MAN's proposal was presented to Hitler on 13 May 1942, and accepted. At the same time the specifications were restated, increasing the frontal armor thickness to 80mm, a change increasing the weight to 44 tons. By that time much of the design, like wheels and suspension, had been completed and subcontractors at work; throwing additional strain on components designed for the original weight, which leaded to problems of unreliability in action.
Panther Ausf. A
In September 1942 the first pilot model of the MAN design was completed and tested in the MAN factory grounds at Nuremberg. The second pilot model was transported to the Heereswaffenamt test ground at Kummersdorf for official army trails. The first Panther models which came of the MAN line from November 1942 were designated as PzKpfw V Panther Ausf A. These were "pre-production" vehicles having 60mm thick front armor as originally called for, and with the commander's cupola cut into the turret side wall. From January 1943, however, Panthers appeared with all the design improvements suggested from trials with the pilot model. The Ausf. B with a different gearbox was never realised, and no record of an Ausf. C has been found. The first full production type was the Ausf. D, which characteristics were the 'dustbin' cupola, the vision port and machine-gun port on the glacis, and smoke discharges on the turret sides.
Late in 1943 the Ausf. A went into production, and had improvements as an armored cupola with periscopes and anti-bazooka side plates. This lettering is an anomaly never explained, and might have reulted from an administrative or phonetic error, since the logical designation was Ausf. E. The Panther Ausf A was the main type encountered by the Allies in the Normandy fighting. It was planned to build at a rate of 250 vehicles a month, but at the end of 1942 this target was increased to 600 a month. To reach such a target a larger Panther production group was necessary, and Daimler-Benz were to build Panthers as well. Even aircraft production was cut back to free manufacturing facilities and to conserve fuel for use in tanks. However, the monthly target was never reached, with a monthly average of 154 tanks in 1943 and 330 in 1944. By February 1945 4814 Panthers had been built.
The Panther had the driving and transmission compartment forward, the fighting compartment and turret in the centre, and the engine compartment at the rear. The driver sat on the left-hand side forward with a vision port in front of him in the glacis plate. This was fitted with a laminated glass screen and had an armored hinged flap on the outside which was closed under combat conditions. Forward vision was then given by two fixed episcopes in the roof. The wireless operator, who was also the hull machine-gunner, sat on the right side forward. In the early Ausf. D models, he was provided with a vertical opening flap in the glacis plate through which he fired a MG34 machine-gun in action. In the Ausf. A and G this arrangement was replaced by an integral ball-mount. The radio equipment was fitted to the radio-operator's right and was located in the sponson which overhung the tracks.
In the turret the gunner sat on the left hand side of the gun and was provided with an articulated binocular sight (later changed to a monocular sight). He fired the gun electrically by a trigger fitted on the elevating handwheel. The co-axial machine-gun, fitted in the gun mantlet, was fired by the gunner from a foot switch. Traverse was by hydraulic power or hand. The loader occupied the right side of the turret, who had a large round access/escape hatch at the rear face of the turret (which was also used for loading ammunition). The vehicle commander was at the left rear of the turret, necessary by the length of the breech which divided the turret into two. A prominent cupola was provided with six vision slits in the Ausf. D. In the Panther Ausf. A and G an improved cupola was fitted which had seven periscopes. This had a hatch which opened horizontally. A ring wasfitted above the cupola to mount a MG34 for air defence.
The Panther had on each side double torsion bar suspension for the four inner and outer road wheels, an idler wheel with an adjusting shaft for track tension, two shock absorbers and a drive sprocket. The first, third, fifth and seventh wheels from the front were double while the intervening axles carried spaced wheels overlapping the others on the inside and the outside. The interleaved running
gear gave the Panther equal ground pressure and the road wheels moved little while traversing rugged terrain. Disadvantages were the difficult replacement after damage (eg by a mine) and the accumulation of clogged mud, clay and ice. In addition, a single damaged wheel often needed the removal of several road wheels.
The 80mm glacis plate was sloped at 33o to the horizontal, an angle specifically selected to deflect shells striking the glacis upwards clear of the mantlet. The three-man turret was armed with a 75mm KwK 42 L/70 gun and was capable of dealing with a T-34 or KV at any practical fighting range. It was developed by Rheinmetall who had been asked to design a high velocity version of the 75mm weapon which could penetrate 140mm armor at 1000 meters. It had a baffle at the muzzle end of the barrel which acted as a muzzle brake, absorbing 70% of the recoil when firing. The single baffle was later replaced by a double baffle muzzle brake. The high velocity meant a flat trajectory, which meant less likelihood of missing the target due to miscalculation of range. During road marches the gun was held in place with a barrel lock, which folded down onto the forward hull when not in use. Whereas the pzKpfw II, III, IV and Tiger tanks carried the crew's baggage in a compartment on the rear of the turrets, the stowage boxes on the panther were mounted on the right and left of the outer rear hull wall.
Panther Ausf. G
The final production model of the Panther in its original form was the Ausf. G. By this time the designation PzKpfw V had been dropped following a personal directive from Hitler on 27 February 1944, and the vehicle was simply known as the Panther Ausf. G. It had altered superstructure sides (mainly to simplify production), the hull sides were increased in thickness from 40mm to 50mm and altered in angle of slope. The gun mantelet's lower part was made thicker and vertical so as to prevent shells from deflecting and entering through the hull roof. The driver's vision port was replaced by a rotating vertical periscope since the fixed episcopes restricted vision, and the vision port was dispended. The Ausf. G was thus easily recognised from the front since it had an unpierced glacis plate. Some very late production vehicles had all-steel resiliently sprung wheels of the type subsequently fitted to the late production Tiger and Tiger II. In very late production vehicles the cylindrical stowage box for the gun pull-through and cleaning
gear was removed from the left side and mounted across the hull at the rear of the engine compartment.
Panthers were first used in action during operation "Zitadelle" in the Kursk region on July 5, 1943. Panther Abteilung 51 and 52 (with a total of 192 factory fresh and untested Panthers Ausf. D) were subordinated to Army Group South, but by the evening of the first day of operations only 40 Panthers were still combat ready. The haste with which the design had been evolved, and the speed with which it had been put into production, had led to many "teething" troubles. In particular the complicated track and suspension gave trouble, with frequent breakage's, while the engine presented cooling problems. In the early months of service more Panthers were put out of service by mechanical faults than by Soviet anti-tank guns. The troops were however enthusiastic about the new gun, the majority of enemy tanks were taken out at a distance of 1500 to 2000 meters.
The Panther became one of the finest medium tanks of WW2, with a growing increase in the number of operational Panthers and a drop in the number of Panthers lost. Overheating was overcome by fitting a second cooling pump and modifying the cooling distribution. Later Panthers proved very much more reliable than the vehicles involved in the Kursk debacle. Many of Germany's top panzer aces achieved their finest victories with this vehicle. Soldiers like SS-Oberscharfuhrer Ernst Barkmann, who in an exposed spot with his sole Panther knocked out nine American M4 Shermans before withdrawing, were quick to prove the outstanding qualities of this tank. According to statistics of the American army, destroying a Panther costed five Shermans or about nine T-34's. It was undoubtedly Germany's best tank design, giving the almost ideal balance between armor, speed, weight and firepower. An important derivative of the Panther was the Jagdpanther, a self-propelled anti-tank gun or tank-destroyer. Other conversions were the Befehlspanzer Panther, which was fitted with extra radio equipment and associated aerials, and the Bergepanther, a recovery vehicle specially for work with tanks in the 45-ton class.
The crew of a Panther, Eastern Front, April 1944
A clandestine use of the Panther took place during the last desperate German offensive in the West, in the Ardennes. At least ten Panthers were effectively disguised and marked to resemble US Army M-10 tank destroyers. The cupola was removed, together with external stowage boxes on the hull. The turret and nose were disguised with thin sheet metal to resemble the shape of the M-10, including the distinctive rear overhang of the vehicle's turret counterweight. Despite being finished in very convincing US markings, the effect of the phoney M-10s was nullified by the general confusion already present at the beginning of the 'Battle of the Bulge'.
The ever-increasing air superiority of the western Allies made daytime travel almost impossible for tank unit, and great emphasis was placed on the development of an infra-red device to be used by the Panzertruppe for traveling and firing at night. Guderian demanded that an IR gun sight created for the 75mm Pak had to be developed for the Panther as well. The disadvantage of having the commander's head exposed outside the vehicle when using the equipment was negligible considering that the device was only to be used at night. The headlamp gave the commander the ability to see ahead of the vehicle roughly 100 meters. The inadequate range of the Panther's IR viewing system led to the development of an IR observation vehicle (Sd.Kfz.251/20 "Uhu") with a 60cm searchlight, and during tactical operations one observation vehicle would be assigned to a Panther unit comprising five tanks. The visibility range of the infra-red viewer mounted on the Panther was increased to 700 meters through the capability of the Uhu's searchlight. During the Ardennes offensive several Shermans were knocked out in the middle of the night by Panthers using IR night-scopes. After locating US tanks with the IR scope, the Germans fired flares at the Shermans to light the target completely, and knocked them out.
In February 1943 MAN and Henschel were asked to produce improved designs for the Panther and Tiger respectively, to ensure maximum interchangeability of parts. Henschel produced the Tiger II which went into production at the end of 1943. The improved Panther, the Panther II or Panther Ausf. F, was to have a hull similar to the existing Panther but with the same form of interleaved all-steel resilient wheels as the Tiger II. The armor on the hull top was to be doubled to 25mm. The major change was a new designed turret, known as the Panzerturm Schmal (small turret). The object was to reduce weight, simplify production, reduce frontal area and enable a larger gun to be fitted. It was to have a built-in stereoscopic rangefinder and a gyrostabiliser for both the sight and the gun.
The new small turret proved a most successful design, with 30% more armor with the same weight, and could accommodate the L/70 gun, a lengthened L/100 version or the 88mm Tiger II gun. The wide mantlet was replaced by a small Saukopf (pig's head) mantlet of conical shapes. The rapid deteriorating conditions of the war with facilities curtailed and the need for continued supply of types already proven in service meant that the Panther II never went into production. Had the war dragged on, the Panther and Panther II would have become the backbone of the German panzer divisions.
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