It could happen that one of you might know the blogger. The blog is a collection of information with a lot of pictures, though no cited source, but I can say that most of them are from old documents, might be outdated, but serviceable as visual clues.
Never the less, the site is sensitive and NSFW - the blog author mix it with pin-up stuff. I don’t want to overstep the forums guideline.
You can best search the blog yourself, or just ask me for the link. Cheer.
Panther External Appearance & Design Changes by Roddy MacDougall & Martin Block1
This 286 page book will be published worldwide making the Panther Book a “must have” for lovers of history. Authors Roddy Macdougall and Martin Block, with the assistance of Panzer Tracks team bring the most comprehensive study of the formidable Panther tank to date.
More than ten years of preparation have gone into this book; There are interviews with some of the personnel involved in the development and manufacture of the Panther tank. This is the first book about the Panther tank that includes detailed explanations for each of the assembly plants including specifications, Zimmerit application methods and full colour illustrations of the camouflage painting patterns along with detailed perspective drawings of the specific features.
There are numerous of photographs with a significant number of them published for the first time! This isn’t simply just another book, this is the standard by which all books about the Panther tank will be compared, don’t miss out once they’re gone, they’re gone!
Hey thanks Wade! I have all the Panzer Tracts and Jentz books but I’ve never seen this one before. It looks like it’s to the point but very comprehensive. I just ordered one.
I think it was mentioned above the Panther F and II…it is a better bet not to even mention them probably as they only made a prototype hulls and the turrets… They weren’t produced or fielded in combat… Hence the reason you always find them in the What if campaigns…
Best just stick to Ds, A’s and the G.
Okay, “simple” Panther question - why did they come out D, A, and G? Why not A, B, and C? The Germans are so strict about nomenclature, what the heck happened with the Panther? Is there a definitive answer?
That’s an excellent question Matt, I don’t think anyone knows for sure.
My pet theories are:
A) Rumors it was intended to foil Allied intelligence.
B) So the tank crews wouldn’t feel like they were beta-testing a new unproven, unreliable design in a life & death show down at Kursk.
C) D is for Defective or in German “Defekt”
The Ausf D was developed as the Ausf A, but its designation was changed before production began in January 1943. Tests on the first few machines revealed a large number of flaws with the new tank. Most seriously the engines caught fire and the final drive chains broke, in a worrying sign of the mechanical unreliability to come.
I had the divine privilege of sitting with Tom Jentz for what turned out to be hundreds of hours over the years at his booth at AMPS. This was one of the questions I asked him and he replied, “I wasn’t at that meeting.”
Seems pretty unlikely that the Germans would have even considered using a D turret on an A or G or an A turret on a G.
Panther production was robust enough that turrets from damaged tanks being returned to the homeland were being salvaged to use as static Panther Turm gun emplacements. It wouldn’t seem that there was any significant shortage that would have necessitated the use of an obsolete turret on a later production tank.
Sorry guys, took a little time to get back here. Thanks for the heads up, The book from Abteilung is exactly what i was looking for and it in inbound.
I was primarily looking for the differences between manufactures. I was aware of the differences from Ausf D to Ausf A to Ausf G, but I learned a few things still and this thread will likely be helpful to others besides me.
After looking over first hand, in my opinion if interested in topic this is one of those rare must buy books. That’s coming from someone that’s bought like three hard back reference books since 2013.
I’m a Panther lover (there’s no five-step program to solve my addiction). I have both ‘Panther’ by Anderson, and the Haynes Panther Manual by Healy. Both are excellent references, but neither of them have an answer for D vs A.
The Panther Ausf D being first probably comes from something that was obvious at the time. Like the new tank being an urgent project. In the Panther External Appearance book the authors talk about how the teething issues were known and problems expected. MAN provided a team to basically get all of the early tanks closer to acceptable standard even the other manufacturers.
Urgent Project translated by Googld as Dringendes Projekt
Panther Urgent- Panther Dringend or Panther Ausf D
Maybe it’s something long those lines.
BTW - Panther External Appearance is one of those rare fun to read reference books. Confirmation of my long standing guess that a very few of serial first production Panthers were painted in Dunkelgrau RAL 7021 has already made the book worthwhile! They weren’t issued to combat units but used for testing and driver training.
That does sound plausible. After all, weren’t the Marder III variants designated Ausf. H or M due to the placement of the engine, Heck/Rear, or Mitte/Middle, as opposed to any alphabetical order variants.
Also, don’t forget that the D variants had a binocular openings for the gunner on the port side of the mantlet; the A and G versions had monocular openings.