Panzerkampfwagen V "Panther" The king of all mediums

What was the one tank that inspired people to shit their pants for almost five years? Of course, it must be the Panther. Often confused by people that don't understand the difference between the German word for Armour and the wild black cat , the Panther is (due to human stupidity) , the only tank that comes to people's minds when they think "German Tank World War II".

Panther Tank


Unlike the more famous M4 Sherman and t34-76 tanks, the panther just doesn't get enough credit. The reason why the panther isn't called the "best tank of world war II" is because too few were produced, and the panzer mark IV was a far easier to produce and more widely used German tank.

But at that time, every tanker of French, American, Soviet or English origin can tell you: if you saw a panther, you shat your pants. Not only did the panther have 33% more frontal and side Armour than any other medium tank ever mass produced, but it carried a whopping 88 mm cannon (same as tiger prototype) , which could pretty much obliterate even the heaviest allied tank ever fielded (tog II lol ).

Just imagine it like this: The Panther had sloped armour like the t34, it had a larger gun, it was faster than the t34, and the sherman , and it's turret traverse speeds were far faster than the sherman or t-34.

That pretty much means one thing: head on anything you send against the panther will DIE. As a result, the preferred allied method of avoiding these lolcat tanks was to ambush them , hitting the weaker side armour , or kill them with air-strikes , no tank ever had much armour on the roof we suppose.  Direct Confrontation was never the logical option , as statistics show  (for every killed panther , 8 shermans were destroyed by a panther).

Later upgraded to a super velocity 75mm rifle, the panther gained far more superb accuracy on the move, while still and even while fully rotating. This 75 was lighter than the 88 and could be stabilized on the upper turret , meaning that while turning, as oppose to the m4 , it could fire shots with relative accuracy.

panther facing Sherman-  photo creds: Military Channel "greatest tank battles"-


The main issue with the panther , although it was a total kickass vehicle , was the complexity of the design. Often , it would take weeks to build a panther, while the americans could build 3 shermans a day with the same resources. Soviet sources stated that for every panther built, 30 t-34-76 tanks were created.

To add to the problems, the panther's complex wiring , like the Tiger II's and the Lowe's , often caused circuit malfunctions , famously "inability to fire the main cannon". Some have even reported that wiring caused some early panthers to com bust spontaneously.

Still, in reality we never had anything that could even dream of matching it, or piercing it reliably. So sometimes men literally had to go to a downed panther, pry the hatch open , and toss a grenade in-- even the rear was hard to penetrate.

panther front


This literal badass could have been the best mass produced tank of world war two (because the tiger and tiger II weren't exactly ultra mass produced) , but in reality the difference in numbers were it's utter downfall. And of-course, there was the lack of air-support. Still , show some respect for the panther!

Panther In museum trapped behind cages ,waiting to maul you


The Germans later would draw up plans for a "Panther II"  , which would take the Tiger II frontal armour , and turret, but would be about as fast and maneuverable as the panther. The design was created to replace the Tiger II and Panther simultaneously , however the defeat of nazi Germany meant it never became a reality.