Panther Medium Tank, German Army Waffen-SS and Luftwaffe Units, Eastern Front, 1944 | Armorama™

This is a review by Randy L Harvey of the book, Panther Medium Tank, German Army Waffen-SS and Luftwaffe Units, Eastern Front, 1944 from Pen & Sword Books by author Dennis Oliver.


This is partial text from the full article (usually with photos) at https://armorama.com/news/panther-medium-tank-german-army-waffen-ss-and-luftwaffe-units-eastern-front-1944
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I read the article and it says that it includes information about 9SS & 10SS Panzer Regiments. This would not be correct for the time scale concerned by the book, as 9SS didn’t receive their Panthers until June 1944, in Normandy and 10SS didn’t get theirs until January 1945, when they were serving in the East but out of the timescale concerned. While serving in the East, during early 1944 during the attempt to open the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket and evacuate 1 Panzer Army from the Tarnopol area, II SS Pz Kps (9 & 10SS) only had the II Abteilung of their Panzerregimente, equipped with Pz IV.

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FYI. The information in the book regarding the 9th and 10 SS details when they were initially slotted to receive the Panthers but due to various reasons did not receive them as planned and discusses where the units were deployed such as the 9th to Normandy. It doesn’t say that they had the Panthers during the time frame discussed in the book, it describes how they were supposed to get the Panthers but did not get them when planned.

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Ah, that would make sense. I believe that they theoretically had a few, but the I Abteilung was still working up. Furbringer has photos of a Befehlpanther being used by the division, during an inspection by Guderian, however it wasn’t taken east AFAIK.

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