The Germans began the war with the USSR, when the Wehrmacht had not yet been armed with the medium-heavy Panther tank. The production of this combat vehicle was launched in Germany only by the end of 1941. The Panther tank was produced in a mass series, at the Krupp factories in 1942-43. In total, about 6 thousand units were produced. As soon as the production of Panther reached the planned level, these tanks began to appear on all European fronts. In 1943, two hundred Panther tanks participated in the battle on the Kursk Bulge , not including evacuation and command vehicles.
In the fall of 1941, the Germans realized how dangerous the T-34 tank of the
Soviet Army was for them
, they sounded the alarm and suspended the release of the tank, which was massively leaving the assembly line. Within four months, the Panther was improved and thus an almost new 35-ton tank of the same name was developed. He was launched into the series. The Panther tank was created as opposed to the T-34 tank. The German designers in some ways even copied the Soviet T-34, the engine compartment and the main transmission lines. But the similarities ended there. In addition,
German tanks ran on gasoline, and Soviet
tanks on diesel.
In full combat gear, the Panther tank weighed 45 tons, it was too heavy a car, but its weight could only be reduced by armor, but they did not dare to do so. All tower armor plates were tilted to better reflect direct-hit projectiles. The length of the tank was 6860 mm, width 3280 mm, height 2990 and the distance from the ground to the hull, i.e. clearance - 565 mm. The gun was almost two meters long. The ammunition of the gun consisted of 81 armor-piercing shells, which allowed a fairly long battle. In addition to the cannon, the Panther tank was armed with two machine guns.
The tank’s power plant consisted of a 12-cylinder 700-horsepower gasoline engine, with which the Panther walked along the highway at a speed of about sixty km / h. Machine protection was composed of rolled steel armor with
surface hardening. The hull of the tank consisted of 40 mm armor, and the frontal part was 60 mm thick. The tower in the sides carried armor with a cross section of 45 mm, and the forehead of the tower and the mask of the gun - 110 mm.
The Panther’s
undercarriage was able to withstand the weight and maneuverability of the car was at a fairly good level. However, a crew of 5 people had to put up with crowding in the fighting compartment.
In early 1943, the Wehrmacht decided to modernize the Panther, taking into account the conditions of the Eastern Front. The Panther 2 tank appeared, the processing mainly concerned the protection of the tower, for which the armor was significantly strengthened. The frontal armor became 125 mm thick, and the cannon mask received armor 150 mm thick. Panther 2 began to weigh 47 tons. The increase in weight was offset by a new power plant, a Maybach engine with a capacity of 900 hp was installed on the tank. and an eight-speed hydraulic transmission.
The gun was also replaced, 88 mm KVK was installed, more rapid-fire and possessing high armor-piercing power. Also, the car was equipped with night vision devices and a telescopic range finder. Rheinmetall company proposed to install anti-aircraft air defense system on the tank. But at this stage, the development of the new Panther 2 tank stopped due to the difficult situation for the German command on all fronts. Although the German tank "Panther" in its original form continued to produce until the end of the war.