Rare WW2 Panther Ausf.G/F footage - Panzerkampfwagen V.

Rare WW2 Panther Ausf.G Battle of the Bulge - 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 30.02(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.
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.

Later versions of the Panther would be the A and G, and the last version was the F which would never see any action.

The Ausf G saw several changes, most people always seem to think this has to do with the turret, but the turret and 7.5cm Kw.K L/70 gun was the same one used on the earlier Ausf.A.
On 4 May 1944, during a meeting at the M.A.N. company, a decision was made to design a new Panther tank chassis. Work had already started on developing a new version of the Panther tank called Panther II but that was far from completion. Some of the lessons learnt from that design process were used in formulating the plans for the Ausf.G tank chassis.
The new chassis pannier side armor was sloped at 29 degrees. The thickness in the armor was increased from 40 mm to 50 mm and the rear side armor wedges at the end of the superstructure were not part of the new design.
A perceived weak spot was the driver’s armored vision port cut into the front glacis plate. This was deleted in the design of the Ausf.G chassis. and the total look of the chassis was changed and this is also the way to identify a Panther Ausf, G.
There were many other minor changes but the overall thinking behind the design was to simplify the construction process to enable more tanks to be built as fast as possible.
Another simplification of the production process was to introduce less complicated hinged hatches above the heads of the driver and radio operator.
Some problems were never to be solved like the petrol leaks from the fuel pump and fuel-lines.
A few minor changes were made to the turret during the production and a new gun mantle was gradually introduced. It had a ‘chin’ guard to stop enemy armor piercing shells ricocheting off the bottom of the mantel and penetrating the roof of the chassis, but this is a a extreme rarity on the Ausf.G.

The Ausf.G was, however, not the last Panther version. Two major overhauls were attempted, the Panther II and the Ausf.F.
In November 1943, Rheinmetall designed a new turret with a narrow front plate.
The narrow turret presented a smaller target and spared weight as well. The design was refined in March 1944, under the name of Schmale Blende Turm-Panther (Schmallturm).
The complete Ausf.F. never saw any real combat, but a few managed to be completed by 20-23 of April 1945, they would have immediately seen combat defending Berlin with the II Abteilung/Panzer Regiment 2, However, at least one Pz.Kpfw. Panther Ausf.F mounting a Pz.Kpfw. Panther Ausf.G. turret was seen defending Berlin in 1945.

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■ Information obtained from several sites.
■ Wikipedia
■ tanks-encyclopedia
■ the.shadock.free.fr/Surviving_Panzers
■ preservedtanks
■ pantser.net
■ the.shadock.free.fr/Tanks_in_France

■ Some music is from the YouTube Audio Library.

■ Music used:
EpidemicSound.com

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