Tankograd Publishing has released it updated edition on the WWII German Panther AFV.
This is partial text from the full article (usually with photos) at https://armorama.com/news/tankograd-panther-colors-details
This is partial text from the full article (usually with photos) at https://armorama.com/news/tankograd-panther-colors-details
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The book has some interesting details of the interiors of the PzKpfW V G and Jagdpanther (both of which appear to be from the Wehrtechnische Dienststelle Trier in Germany) that are confusing with regard to the interior colors – the turret interior for what looks like the back third (from about 120° from straight ahead across the back of the turret) look to be dunkelgelb, as do various fittings like the brass catcher and the interior of the commander’s cupola. The Jagdpanther is odder, with most of the interior being painted in dunkelgelb, although the shade is different from the interior of the rear hatch, and the gun is almost entirely in the schwarzgrau color normally used for equipment like the transmission. Both of these appear to be at variance with the standardized interior painting; does anyone know if this is specific to the two vehicles at Wehrtechnische Dienststelle Trier, or is this a known variation on the normal interior colors?
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Being Museum vehicles colours are often wrong due to paint jobs since capture.
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I would hope that the Trier Military Technical Center would have access to the proper internal color scheme; the book notes the inaccuracies in the external appearance – an early ‘G’ from the glacis plate and lack of the mantlet ‘chin’ and Zimmerit, but with the flame dampeners on the exhaust system and raised ventilator housing on the rear deck – a mix of pre-9/44 and post-10/44 features. It also notes details like canisters for the modern fire-suppression system in the ammunition rack at the left rear of the fighting compartment (a requirement for an operating vehicle), but doesn’t mention anything about the internal colors – and with front and side turret walls in elfebein, but the rear of the turret walls in dunkelgelb, it leads me to wonder why it was done this way instead of elfebein for all the interior walls.
The List of Surviving Panthers, under a photograph matching the appearance of the vehicle used for color photography in the book, notes that it was built at the Panther factory under direction of the British Army REME at the end of the war and was previously owned by the Shrivenham Study Collection, so if Wehrtechnische Dienststelle Trier simply acquired the vehicle and didn’t do any restoration beyond installing minor bits like the ahistorical coarse screens over the engine-deck vents and the fire-suppression system, the odd internal paint scheme may be the ‘fault’ of the Shrivenham Study Collection.
The Jagdpanther, from the same survivors list, supposedly comes from Saumur, then was completely restored by the Heeresinstwerk at Darmstadt, again presumably possessing the same proper internal color specification, but if they only did external work and the interior is from work done at Saumur, who knows. Unfortunately, for neither of these vehicles are details for the origin of the internal colors given.
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