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Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia
The Panther was a German medium tank deployed
during World War II on the Eastern and Western Fronts in Europe from mid-1943
to its end in 1945. It had the ordnance inventory designation of Sd.Kfz. 171.
Until 27 February 1944, it was designated as the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther
when Hitler ordered that the Roman numeral "V" be deleted. Contemporary
English language reports sometimes refer to it as the Mark V.
The Panther was intended to counter the Soviet
T-34 and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV. Nevertheless, it served
alongside the Panzer IV and the heavier Tiger I until the end of the war. It is
considered one of the best tanks of World War II for its excellent firepower
and protection, although its reliability was less impressive.
The Panther was a compromise. While having
essentially the same engine as the Tiger I, it had more efficient frontal hull
armour, better gun penetration, was lighter and faster, and could traverse
rough terrain better than the Tiger I. The trade-off was weaker side armour,
which made it vulnerable to flanking fire. The Panther proved to be effective
in open country and long range engagements, but did not provide enough high
explosive firepower against infantry.
The Panther was far cheaper to produce than the
Tiger I, and only slightly more expensive than the Panzer IV. Key elements of
the Panther design, such as its armour, transmission, and final drive, were
simplifications made to improve production rates and address raw material
shortages. The overall design remained somewhat over-engineered. The Panther
was rushed into combat at the Battle of Kursk despite numerous unresolved
technical problems, leading to high losses due to mechanical failure. Most
design flaws were rectified in the German retreat, though the bombing of
production plants, increasing shortages of high quality alloys for critical
components, shortage of fuel and training space, and the declining quality of
crews all impacted the tanks's effectiveness.
The weight of the production model was increased
to 45 tonnes from the original plans for a 35 tonne tank. Hitler was briefed
thoroughly on the comparison between the MAN and DB designs in the report by
Guderian's tank commission. Armour protection appeared to be inadequate, while
"the motor mounted on the rear appeared to him correct". He agreed
that the "decisive factor was the possibility of quickly getting the tank
into production". On 15 May 1942, Oberst Fichtner informed MAN that Hitler
had decided in favour of the MAN Panther and ordered series production. The
upper glacis plate was to be increased from 60 mm (2.4 in) to 80 mm (3.1 in).
Hitler demanded that an increase to 100 mm (3.9 in) should be attempted and
that at least all vertical surfaces were to be 100 mm (3.9 in); the turret
front plate was increased from 80 mm (3.1 in) to 100 mm (3.9 in).
The Panther was rushed into combat before all of
its teething problems had been corrected. Reliability was considerably improved
over time, and the Panther proved to be a very effective fighting vehicle, but
some design flaws, such as its weak final drive units, were never corrected.
The crew had five members: driver, radio operator
(who also fired the bow machine gun), gunner, loader, and commander.
The first 250 Panthers were powered by a Maybach
HL 210 P30 engine, V-12 petrol engine, which delivered 650 metric hp at 3,000
rpm and had three simple air filters. Starting in May 1943, the Panthers were
built using the 700 metric hp (690 hp, 515 kW) at 3,000 rpm, 23.1 litre Maybach
HL 230 P30 V-12 petrol engine. To save aluminium, the light alloy block used in
the HL 210 was replaced by a cast iron block. Two multistage
"cyclone" air filters were used to improve dust removal. Due to the
use of low grade petrol, the engine power output was reduced. With a capacity
of 730 litres (160 imperial gallons; 190 US gallons) of fuel, a fully fuelled
Panther's range was 200 km (120 mi) on surfaced roads and 100 km (62 mi) cross
country.
The HL 230 P30 engine was a very compact tunnel
crankcase design, which kept the space between the cylinder walls to a minimum.
The crankshaft was composed of seven discs, each with an outer race of roller
bearings, and a crankshaft pin between each disc. To reduce the length of the
engine further, by one-half a cylinder diameter, the two banks of 6 cylinders
of the V-12 were not offset the "big ends" of the connecting rods
of each cylinder pair in the "V" where they mated with the crankpin
were thus at the same spot with respect to the engine block's length rather
than offset; this required a "fork and blade" matched pair of conrods
for each transversely oriented pair of cylinders. Usually, "V"-form
engines have their transversely paired cylinders' conrods' "big ends"
simply placed side by side on the crankpin, with their transverse pairs of
cylinders offset to match. This compact arrangement with the connecting rods
was the source of considerable problems initially. Blown head gaskets were
another problem, which was corrected with improved seals in September 1943.
Improved bearings were introduced in November 1943. An engine governor was also
added in November 1943 that reduced the maximum engine speed to 2500 rpm. An
eighth crankshaft bearing was added beginning in January 1944 to reduce motor
failures.
The engine compartment space was designed to be
watertight so that the Panther could ford water obstacles; however, this made
the engine compartment underventilated and prone to overheating. The fuel
connectors in the early models were not insulated, leading to the leakage of
fuel fumes into the engine compartment, which caused engine fires in the early
Panthers. Additional ventilation was added to draw off these gases, which only
partly solved the problem of engine fires. Other measures taken to reduce this
problem included improving the coolant circulation inside the motor and adding
a reinforced membrane spring to the fuel pump. Despite the risks of fire, the
fighting compartment was relatively safe due to a solid firewall that separated
it from the engine compartment.
Engine reliability improved over time. A French
assessment in 1947 of their stock of captured Normandy Panther A tanks
concluded that the engine had an average life of 1,000 km (620 mi) and maximum
life of 1,500 km (930 mi).
The suspension consisted of front drive sprockets,
rear idlers and eight double-interleaved rubber-rimmed steel road wheels on
each side in the so-called Schachtellaufwerk design, suspended on a dual
torsion bar suspension. The dual torsion bar system, designed by Professor
Ernst Lehr, allowed for a wide travel stroke and rapid oscillations with high
reliability, thus allowing for relatively high speed travel over undulating
terrain. The extra space required for the bars running across the length of the
bottom of the hull, below the turret basket, increased the overall height of
the tank and also prevented the provision for an escape hatch in the hull
bottom[dubious discuss]. When damaged by mines, the torsion bars often
required a welding torch for removal.
The Panther's suspension was overengineered and
the Schachtellaufwerk interleaved road wheel system made replacing inner road
wheels time consuming (though it could operate with missing or broken wheels).
The interleaved wheels also had a tendency to become clogged with mud, rocks
and ice, and could freeze solid overnight in the harsh winter weather that
followed the autumn rasputitsa mud season on the Eastern Front. Shell damage
could cause the road wheels to jam together and become difficult to separate.
Interleaved wheels had long been standard on all German half-tracks. The extra
wheels did provide better flotation and stability, and also provided more
armour protection for the thin hull sides than smaller wheels or
non-interleaved wheel systems, but the complexity meant that no other country
ever adopted this design for their tanks. In September 1944, and again in
March/April 1945, M.A.N. built a limited number of Panthers with overlapping,
non-interleaved steel-rimmed 80 cm diameter roadwheels originally designed for
Henschel's Tiger II and late series Tiger I Ausf. E tanks. These steel-rimmed
roadwheels were introduced from chassis number 121052 due to raw material
shortages.
From November 1944 through February 1945, a
conversion process began to use sleeve bearings in the Panther tank, as there
was a shortage of ball bearings. The sleeve bearings were primarily used in the
running gear; plans were also made to convert the transmission to sleeve
bearings, but were not carried out due to the ending of Panther production.
Steering was accomplished through a seven-speed AK
7-200 synchromesh gearbox, designed by Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen (ZF), and
a MAN single radius steering system, operated by steering levers. Each gear had
a fixed radius of turning, ranging from 5 m (16 ft) for 1st gear up to 80 m
(260 ft) for 7th gear. The driver was expected to judge the sharpness of a turn
ahead of time and shift into the appropriate gear to turn the tank. The driver
could also engage the brakes on one side to force a sharper turn. This manual
steering was a much simplified design, compared to the sophisticated
dual-radius hydraulically controlled steering system of the Tiger tanks.
The AK 7-200 transmission was also capable of
pivot turns, but this high-torque method of turning could cause failures of the
final drive.
The Panthers' main weakness was its final drive
unit. The problems stemmed from several factors. The original MAN proposal had
called for the Panther to have an epicyclic gearing (planetary) system in the
final drive, similar to that used in the Tiger I. Germany suffered from a
shortage of gear-cutting machine tools and, unlike the Tiger tanks, the Panther
was intended to be mass-produced. To achieve the goal of higher production
rates, numerous simplifications were made to the design and its manufacture.
This process was aggressively pushed forward, sometimes against the wishes of
designers and army officers, by the Chief Director of Armament and War
Production, Karl-Otto Saur (who worked under, and later succeeded,
Reichminister Speer). Consequently, the final drive was changed to a double
spur system. Although much simpler to produce, the double spur gears had
inherently higher internal impact and stress loads, making them prone to
failure under the high torque requirements of the heavy Panther tank. Because
of the significant numbers of breakdowns, the Wehrmacht was forced to move the
Panther D and Tiger I tanks by rail, throughout 1943. The tanks could not
participate in major movements of more than 100 km without adversely affecting
unit strengths due to breakdowns.
Initial production Panthers had a face-hardened
glacis plate (the main front hull armour piece), but as armour-piercing capped
rounds became the standard in all armies (thus defeating the benefits of
face-hardening, which caused uncapped rounds to shatter), this requirement was
deleted in March 1943. By August 1943, Panthers were being built only with a
homogeneous steel glacis plate.[50] The front hull had 80 mm (3.1 in) of armour
angled at 55 degrees from the vertical, welded but also interlocked for
strength. The combination of well-sloped and thick armour meant that heavy Allied
weapons, such as the Soviet 122 mm A-19, 100 mm BS-3 and US 90 mm M3 were
needed to assure penetration of the upper glacis at all combat ranges.
The armour for the side hull and superstructure
(the side sponsons) was much thinner (4050 mm (1.62.0 in)). The thinner side
armour was necessary to keep the tanks' weight down, but it made the Panther
vulnerable to hits from the side by all Allied tank and anti-tank guns. German
tactical doctrine for the use of the Panther emphasized the importance of flank
protection. 5 mm (0.20 in) thick spaced armour, known as Schürzen, intended to
provide protection for the lower side hull from Soviet anti-tank rifle fire,
was fitted on the hull side. Zimmerit coating against magnetic mines started to
be applied at the factory on late Ausf D models beginning in September 1943; an
order for field units to apply Zimmerit to older versions of the Panther was
issued in November 1943. In September 1944, orders to stop all application of
Zimmerit were issued, based on false rumours that hits on the Zimmerit had
caused vehicle fires.
Panther crews were aware of the weak side armour
and made augmentations by hanging track links or spare roadwheels onto the
turret and/or the hull sides. The rear hull top armour was only 16 mm (0.63 in)
thick, and had two radiator fans and four air intake louvres over the engine
compartment that were vulnerable to strafing by aircraft.
As the war progressed, Germany was forced to
reduce or no longer use certain critical alloys in the production of armour
plate, such as those including nickel, tungsten and molybdenum; this resulted
in lower impact resistance levels compared to earlier armour. Allied bombers
struck the Knaben mine in Norway and stopped a key source of molybdenum;
supplies from Finland and Japan were also cut off. The loss of molybdenum, and
its replacement with other substitutes to maintain hardness, as well as a
general loss of quality control, resulted in an increased brittleness in German
armour plate, which developed a tendency to fracture when struck with a shell.
Testing by U.S. Army officers in August 1944 in Isigny, France showed
catastrophic cracking of the armour plate on two out of three Panthers
examined.
The main gun was a Rheinmetall-Borsig 7.5 cm KwK
42 (L/70) with semi-automatic shell ejection and a supply of 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 it was of a calibre common on Allied tanks, the
Panther's gun was one of the most powerful of World War II, due to the large
propellant charge and the long barrel, which gave it a very high muzzle
velocity and excellent armour-piercing qualities among Allied tank guns of
similar calibre, only the British Sherman Firefly conversion's Ordnance QF
17-pounder gun, of 3 inch (76.2mm) calibre, and a 55 calibre long (L/55)
barrel, had more potential hitting power. The flat trajectory also made hitting
targets much easier, since accuracy was less sensitive to errors in range
estimation and increased the chance of hitting a moving target, though these
same attributes made the gun a poor infantry-support weapon using HE ammo. The
Panther's 75 mm gun had more penetrating power than the main gun of the Tiger I
heavy tank, the 8.8 cm KwK 36 L/56, although the larger 88 mm projectile might
inflict more damage if it did penetrate.
The tank typically had two MG 34 armoured fighting
vehicle variant machine guns featuring an armoured 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 enclosing its underlying thin, vertical arrowslit-like aperture, through
which the machine gun was fired. In later Ausf A and all Ausf G models
(starting in late November-early December 1943), a ball mount in the glacis
plate with a K.Z.F.2 machine gun sight was installed for the hull machine gun.
The front of the turret was a curved 100 mm (3.9
in) thick cast armour mantlet. Its transverse-cylindrical shape meant that it
was more likely to deflect shells, but the lower section created a shot trap.
If a non-penetrating hit bounced downwards off its lower section, it could
penetrate the thin forward hull roof armour, and plunge down into the front
hull compartment. Penetrations of this nature could have catastrophic results,
since the compartment housed the driver and radio operator sitting along both
sides of the massive gearbox and steering unit. Also, four magazines containing
main gun ammunition were located between the driver/radio operator seats and
the turret, directly underneath the gun mantlet when the turret was facing forward.
From September 1944, a slightly redesigned mantlet
with a flattened and much thicker lower "chin" design started to be
fitted to Panther Ausf G models, the chin being intended to prevent such
deflections. Conversion to the "chin" design was gradual, and
Panthers continued to be produced to the end of the war with the rounded gun
mantlet.
The Ausf A model introduced a new cast armour
commander's cupola, replacing the forged 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.
The first Panthers (Ausf D) had a hydraulic motor
that could traverse the turret at a maximum rate of one complete revolution in
one minute, independent of engine speed. This was improved in the Ausf A model
with a hydraulic traverse that varied with engine speed; one full turn taking
46 seconds at an engine speed of 1,000 rpm but only 15 seconds if the engine
was running at 3,000 rpm.[70] This arrangement was a weakness, as traversing
the Panther's turret rapidly onto a target required close coordination between
the gunner and driver, who had to run the engine to maximum speed. By
comparison, the M4 Sherman's electrically traversed turret rotated at up to 360
degrees in 15 seconds and was independent of engine speed, which gave it an
advantage over the Panther in close-quarters combat. A hand traverse wheel was
provided for the Panther gunner to make fine adjustment of his aim.
Ammunition storage for the main gun was a weak
point. All the ammunition for the main armament was stored in the hull, with a
significant amount stored in the sponsons. In the Ausf D and A models, 18 rounds
were stored next to the turret on each side, for a total of 36 rounds. In the
Ausf G, which had deeper sponsons, 24 rounds were stored on each side of the
turret, for a total of 48 rounds. In all models, four rounds were also stored
in the left sponson between the driver and the turret. An additional 36 rounds
were stored inside the hull of the Ausf D and A models 27 in the forward hull
compartment directly underneath the mantlet. In the Ausf G, the hull ammunition
storage was reduced to 27 rounds total, with 18 rounds in the forward hull
compartment. For all models, three rounds were kept under the turntable of the
turret. The stowage of 52 rounds of ammunition in the side sponsons made this
area the most vulnerable point on the Panther since penetration here usually
led to catastrophic ammunition fires.
The loader was stationed in the right side of the
turret. With the turret facing forward, he had access only to the right sponson
and hull ammunition, and so these served as the main ready-ammunition bins.