THIS AUCTION IS FOR A NEARLY MINT CONDITION 76-PAGE SOFTBOUND BOOK WRITTEN BY WALTER J. SPIELBERGER AND UWE FEIST IN 1968. 

IT IS A SUPER-DETAILED REFERENCE TO THIS WW2 GERMAN PANZER.  INCLUDES HUNDREDS OF BW PHOTOS, SCALE DRAWINGS, COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS.  FULL OF DEVELOPMENT DETAILS AND OPERATIONAL EMPLOYMENT HISTORY.  ALL MAJOR VARIANTS ARE FULLY DESCRIBED.  SD.KFZ 171 PANTHER, SD.KFZ 173 JAGDPANTHER, BERGEPANZER RECOVERY VEHICLE

THE PANZERKAMPFWAGEN V PANTHER IS ONE OF THE BEST-KNOWN GERMAN TANKS IN EXISTENCE AND IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE GREATEST TANKS OF WORLD WAR II. WHEN GERMANY INVADED RUSSIA IN JUNE 1941, PANZERTRUPPE ENCOUNTERED KV SERIES AND T-34/76 TANKS, FAR SUPERIOR IN FIREPOWER AND ARMOUR PROTECTION TO ANY PANZER IN SERVICE AT THE TIME. IT WAS THEREFORE DECIDED TO DESIGN A NEW MORE POWERFUL MEDIUM TANK, WHICH COULD BE QUICKLY PUT INTO PRODUCTION. THIS BOOK DETAILS THE RESULT, THE PANTHER MEDIUM TANK, AVAILABLE FOR SERVICE IN JANUARY 1943. LATER MODELS ENSURED THAT IT BECAME ONE OF THE MOST FEARED TANKS OF WWII.

PANTHER TANK DEVELOPMENT

PANTHER AUSF. D

ZITADELLE

AUSF. D EXHAUST

PANTHER AUSF. A (AUSF. A CUPOLA, BALL MOUNTED MG 34, AUSF A EXHAUSTS, PANTHER TRACK)

THREE PAGES OF COLOR PROFILES

PANTHER ROADWHEELS

FLAK MG 34 FLIEGERBESCHUSSGERAT FUR MG 34

PANTHER AUSF. G

BERGEPANTHER TANK RECOVERY VEHICLE

JAGDPANTHER HUNTING PANTHER TANK DESTROYER 88mm PAK 43/3 L/71

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Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia

Panther is the common name of a medium tank deployed by Germany in World War II from mid-1943 to the end of the European war in 1945. It was intended as a counter to the Russian T-34, and as a replacement for the Panzer III and Panzer IV. While never replacing the latter, it served alongside it and the heavier Tiger tanks until the end of the war. The Panther's excellent combination of firepower, mobility, and protection served as a benchmark for other nations' late war and post-war tank designs, and it is regarded as one of the best tanks of World War II.

Until 1944, it was designated as the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther and had the ordnance inventory designation of Sd.Kfz. 171.

The Panther tank was a compromise of various requirements. While having essentially the same engine as the Tiger I tank, it had better frontal armor (including the benefit of a sloped armor, increasing effective armor depth), better gun penetration, was lighter and thus faster, and could traverse rough terrain better than the Tigers. The tradeoff was weaker side armor. The Panther proved to be deadly in open country and long range engagements, but vulnerable in close-quarters combat. Also, the 75 mm gun fired a slightly smaller shell than the Tiger's 88 mm gun, providing less high explosive firepower against infantry.

The Panther was also far cheaper to produce than the Tiger tanks, and only slightly more expensive than the Panzer IV, as its design came to fruition when the Reich Ministry of Armament and War Production was making great efforts to increase war production. Key elements of the Panther design, such as its armor, transmission, and final drive, were compromises.

The Panther tank arrived in 1943 at a crucial phase in World War II for Germany. Rushed into combat at the Battle of Kursk with un-corrected teething problems, which resulted in breakdowns and other equipment failures, the Panther tank would thereafter only be fighting outnumbered in Germany's steady retreat against the Allies for the remainder of World War II. Its success as a battlefield weapon was thus hampered by Germany's generally declining position in the war, with the loss of airpower protection by the Luftwaffe, the loss of fuel and training space, and the declining quality of tank crews. Nevertheless, the Panther tank commanded respect from the Allies, and its combat capabilities led directly to the introduction of heavier Allied tanks such as the Soviet IS-2 and the American M26 Pershing into the war.

The Panther was a direct response to the Soviet T-34 and KV-1 tanks. First encountered on 23 June 1941, the T-34 outclassed the existing models of the Panzer III and IV. At the insistence of General Heinz Guderian, a special Panzerkommision was dispatched to the Eastern Front to assess the T-34. Among the features of the Soviet tank considered most significant were the sloping armor, which gave much improved shot deflection and also increased the effective armor thickness against penetration, the wide track, which improved mobility over soft ground, and the 76.2 mm gun, which had good armor penetration and fired an effective high explosive round. Daimler-Benz (DB) and Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg AG (MAN) were given the task of designing a new 30- to 35-ton tank, designated VK30.02, by April 1942 (apparently in time to be shown to Hitler for his birthday).

The demand for this tank was so high that the manufacturing was soon expanded beyond MAN to include Daimler-Benz, Maschinenfabrik Niedersachsen-Hannover (MNH) and Henschel & Sohn in Kassel.

The first 250 Panthers were powered by a Maybach HL 210 P30 engine, V-12 gasoline engine which delivered 650 metric hp at 3,000 rpm and had three simple air filters. Starting in May 1943, the Panthers were built using the 700 PS (690 hp, 515 kW)/3000 rpm, 23.1 litre Maybach HL 230 P30 V-12 gasoline engine. To save aluminum, the light alloy block used in the HL 210 was replaced by a cast iron block. Two multistage "cyclone" air filters were used to automate some of the dust removal process.

The suspension consisted of front drive sprockets, rear idlers and eight double-interleaved rubber-rimmed steel road wheels on each side — in the so-called Schachtellaufwerk design, very similar to the Tiger I's own road wheel arrangement, pioneered for large-scale production German full-track AFVs in 1942 — suspended on a dual torsion bar suspension. The dual torsion bar system, designed by Professor Ernst Lehr, allowed for a wide travel stroke and rapid oscillations with high reliability, thus allowing for relatively high speed travel by this heavy tank over undulating terrain.

Steering was accomplished through a seven-speed AK 7-200 synchromesh gearbox, designed by Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen, and a MAN single radius steering system, operated by steering levers.

The main gun was a 7.5 cm Rheinmetall-Borsig KwK 42 (L/70) with semi-automatic shell ejection and a supply of 79 rounds (82 on Ausf. G). The main gun used three different types of ammunition: APCBC-HE (Pzgr. 39/42), HE (Sprgr. 42) and APCR (Pzgr. 40/42), the last of which was usually in short supply. While it was of only average caliber for its time, the Panther's gun was one of the most powerful tank guns of World War II, due to the large propellant charge and the long barrel, which gave it a very high muzzle velocity and excellent armor-piercing qualities. The flat trajectory also made hitting targets much easier, since accuracy was less sensitive to range. The high velocity increased the chance of hitting a moving target.