ezekill said: It moves like a heavy, armor that boundaries medium and heavy, hits like a TD and may God have mercy when it points at your tank.
And it quickly wears out the forward drive-train due to being nose heavy, the final drive in the transmission was so poorly made it had to be replaced every 150km and would break if you didn't baby the tank or tried to rotate in place, the engine either catches on fire before it even reaches the battle or needs to be replaced after 1000km, fumes from the gas lines escape into the crew compartment and poison the crew, the armor shatters like peanut brittle, it can't rotate it's turret on a incline, and the gunner only has a single unstabilized fixed-zoom optic.
Oh, and the side armor can be penetrated by anti-tank rifles.
Koucchan said: Was there even anti-tank rifles in the second WW? When people say "anti-tank rifle" I can only think about the Barret.
The Soviet Union used the PTRD-41 and PRTS-41 anti-tank rifles that fired a 14mm bullet. Standard AP-I ammo for them was capable of penetrating the Panther's side hull armor at 100 meters, and the side hull armor of late-model Panzer IV's at 500 meters.
The Germans and western Allies used anti-tank rifles during the opening phaases of the war, but phased them out in favor of man-portable shaped charge weapons like the Bazooka, PIAT and Panzerfaust.
Koucchan said: Was there even anti-tank rifles in the second WW? When people say "anti-tank rifle" I can only think about the Barret.
Panzerbusche 39, PRTS, Boys anti-tank rifle.. Few of the more common ones.
But the 40-50mm side armor actually was strong enough to withstand regular anti-tank rounds.. Maybe a point-blank range shot with a tungsten round could penetrate it.
W4lt3r said: But the 40-50mm side armor actually was strong enough to withstand regular anti-tank rounds.. Maybe a point-blank range shot with a tungsten round could penetrate it.
Nope. The entire Panther II project was started due to the lack of side armor, and then abandoned after they figured out that they could just hang 5mm pieces of metal to cover up most of the areas where 14mm bullets could penetrate.
The tank was also vulnerable to Soviet anti-tank grenades, since the RPG-43 and RPG-6 could penetrate over 90mm of armor. Crews of M4 Shermans without the 76mm gun would use white phosphorus smoke shells against them, because not only would they blind the gunner, they'd either catch the Panther on fire or cause it's crew to bail out in fear of fire.
The tank was also vulnerable to Soviet anti-tank grenades, since the RPG-43 and RPG-6 could penetrate over 90mm of armor.
Well, too be fair to the Germans, infantry sneaking in close to toss AT grenades and satchel charges was something that all sides had to worry about during the war.
Also: late-war Panther models fixed most of the egregious performance issues (like the "your engine is now on fire, lol") although it remained a maintnence hog all the way to the end of the war.
Nope. The entire Panther II project was started due to the lack of side armor, and then abandoned after they figured out that they could just hang 5mm pieces of metal to cover up most of the areas where 14mm bullets could penetrate.
The tank was also vulnerable to Soviet anti-tank grenades, since the RPG-43 and RPG-6 could penetrate over 90mm of armor. Crews of M4 Shermans without the 76mm gun would use white phosphorus smoke shells against them, because not only would they blind the gunner, they'd either catch the Panther on fire or cause it's crew to bail out in fear of fire.
Actual fact.
WW2 German soldier Pfc. Georg Mussbach, who was with the German 116th Panzer Division, one of the units involved in the "Battle of the Bulge", was a crew member on a Panther tank. The Panther he was in was hit by white phosphorus grenades while in the Ardennes. The 1st shot hit the Panther's left set of tracks, which disabled it. After that 21 more phosphorus grenades hit the Panther, as counted by Mussbach and his crew. In his words: "We sat inside the tank and counted 22 hits on our tank.", "It's not very enjoyable. The only feeling you have is 'Am I going to survive this?'" It wasn't until the 22nd hit that the Panther finally caught fire, and he and his crew were allowed to get out.
The Germans attacked during the Battle of the Bulge with over 1700 armored vehicles. More than 500 irreplaceable Panzers were destroyed however...
It's worth pointing out that the PTRD/PRTS 41 was actually not as effective as it should have been against many tanks.
Simply put, they didn't have tungsten bullets, and even though steel bullets could theoretically have enough force to penetrate some tanks, in practical terms, the steel bullets would shatter against the side armor of tanks they theoretically could have penetrated. (Low manufacturing standards on the Soviet side during the wartime doubtlessly contributed to this problem.) It also required use from fairly close range to have full penetrative power, and the gun would have a muzzle flash and kick up dust clouds that completely gave your team, which was within easy machine-gunning range, position away. Oh, and it was six and a half feet long, and forty pounds, so good luck running from an angry tank with that.
Because of this, they were downgraded from "anti-tank rifle" to "anti-material rifle", and used more against things like the halftracks, instead.
Even this was problematic, however, as the rifles were never fitted for scopes. (They were designed to be used point-blank against tanks.) Apparently, they were accurate out to 2000 meters, which puts it at basically the same ranges that a Barret M82 .50 cal BMG would be accurate out to, and have more penetrative power than the American version of the Anti-Material Rifle, but the Russians basically decided to just stick to RPGs and incendiaries, instead. (Keep in mind, the longest-distance kills on record are using a Barret M82 from over a mile and a half away to shoot an insurgent... through the wall he was hiding behind.)
Hypothetically, a redesigned version of the same weapon designed for use with scopes and ammo that could more properly penetrate armor would be basically a Barret M82 with a more powerful round. You could easily use that against the likes of helicopters.
YourFilmkurier
German for "Film courier", a newspaper about film from that time.Führer
"Führer" means "Führer"Triumph des Willens
German for "Triumph of the Will", the 1935 Nazi propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl.Yes
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