Pzkpfw 5:
Panther
&
Its Variants
By Lawrence Scott
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 Lawrence Scott
By the end of the French and Polish campaigns German high command had been relatively pleased with the Panzers II, II and IV, even though notable losses had been sustained. The result of this was that there was no real push by German high command to push forwards tank development.
Furthermore, German high command failed to listen to reports that the Russians were developing a new series of tanks in terms of the T-34 and the KV tanks.
These failings by the Germans meant that soon after the start of operation Barbarossa they encountered the far superior T-34/76 and KV-1’s. Luckily for the Germans the Russians hadn’t had time to produce many of these tanks so their effects were limited and the Germans were able to keep on pushing onwards.
However, it became clear to some that a new tank was needed to match the T-34’s and KV’s. Consequently Heinz Gudarian set up the ‘Panzer Kommision’ to study the remains of captured Russian T-34’s.
Thus development of a new tank was started, however, in the mean time the Panzer III and IV were up gunned so they could take on the T-34’s and KV’s.
Chapter 1: Development History
The information collected from the ‘Panzer Kommision’ brought up a few key points that had never been included in German tank development thinking.
Firstly, the T-34/76 was equipped with a large 76.2mm gun, which was more than capable of penetrating all the German armour at the beginning of the Russian campaign. However, at the time the Germans often had difficulties penetrating the KV’s and the T-34’s frontally. Consequently, it was clear that any new tank would need to be fitted with a large high velocity gun.
Secondly, all German tank design had been based on building a box like structure, which whilst works fine does not maximise armour protection. The T-34 made use of sloped front armour, which meant that any shell would have to penetrate a diagonal piece of metal, which meant that it was thicker compared to the German armour, which was vertical.
Finally, the Russians had the advantage of understanding their terrain and the difficulties it could create in adverse weather conditions during winter. Consequently the Russians fitted the T-34 with wide tracks, which gave it good off-road speed and manoeuvrability.
With the knowledge gained by the studying of the captured T-34’s, Hitler ordered on November 25th 1941 a new tank to be built that could match the T-34. By December of the same year, the order had been passed onto MAN and Daimler-Benz. Both companies then proceeded to start drawing up new plans and prototypes, the first of which was ready in March of 1942. The VK3002 was the first prototype designed by Daimler-Benz and was based on the previously rejected VK3001.
Shortly afterwards MAN also released their prototype the DB version of the VK. When it came to proposal the VK3002DB was recommended to Hitler. However, MAN had learnt from some of its earlier mistakes and had made some last minute design alterations, which secured that its design was chosen and given the designation Panther.