Rare WW2 Panther Ausf.A footage - Postwar test footage - Panzerkampfwagen V.
The Panther was a German medium tank developed in 1938 out of a project to replace the Panzer III and IV called the VK 20 series and design proposals were send in by Krupp, Daimler Benz and MAN.
The VK20 design was abandoned as the requirements increased to a vehicle weighing 30 tonnes after he German army encountered the Soviet T-34 and KV-1 tanks.
This would lead to the VK (DB) design, which would resemble the T-34 in hull and turret and i would also be powered by a diesel engine.
The two designs were reviewed from January to March 1942.
The MAN design embodied a more conventional configuration, with the transmission and drive sprocket in the front and a centrally mounted turret and the Daimler-Benz design was viewed to be superior to MAN’s design. But because the MAN design used an existing turret designed by Rheinmetall-Borsig, and a mild steel prototype of the MAN design was produced by September 1942 and, after testing at Kummersdorf, it would be officially accepted.
In January 1943 MAN produced the first production series Panther Ausf.D tank.
It would be called the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther until 27 February 1944, when it was ordered that the Roman numeral “V“ be deleted.
The early Panther tanks were eventually send back in April through May 1943 for a major rebuilding program, because of major breakdowns.
The first 250 Panthers were powered by a Maybach HL 210 P30 V-12 petrol engine, late versions would have got the Maybach HL 230 P30 V-12 petrol engine, but these first engines were plagued with mechanical problems. The engine was dangerously prone to overheating and suffered from connecting rod or bearing failures. Petrol leaks from the fuel pump and fuel-lines were also a problem and would produced fires in the engine compartment, this problem was never really solved and the Panther was the actual real Ronson tank.
The Panther would see action with the Panzer Abteilung 51 on 9 January, and then Panzer Abteilung 52 on 6 February 1943, It would be seen as a necessary component of Operation Citadel, but the attack was delayed several times because of their mechanical problems, the same problems came back in the Battle of Kursk.
Later versions of the Panther would be the A and G, and the last version was the F which would never see any action.
Many features of the Ausf.D like the drum-shaped commander’s cupola and the thin rectangular hull machine gun port were still present on early production Ausf.A Panthers. They only changed mid production and not at the same time. Other modifications were introduced during the production run. Ausf.D and Ausf.A tanks were also upgraded with different features once they had been issued to a Panzer Division when they went to a maintenance or repair unit.
Some changes to the Early and Late A tanks were changes to the turret and the gun mantle on the Ausf.A turret was wider than the one fitted to the older Ausf.D, the shape of the cast turret side had changed to a dish shape protrusion to fit the new seal for the gun mantle, three pistol ports were removed to make the armour stronger and of course the round drum like commander’s cupola, which would be replaced by a new dome shaped cast armor commander’s cupola. and in late November 1943 a ball mount Kugelblende with a spherical armoured guard was introduced onto the front glacis plate.
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■ Information obtained from several sites.
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