Panther Ausf.G. - Grandmenil - Walkaround.

Originally uploaded on Dec 25, 2015.

The Panther was a German medium tank developed in 1938 out of a project to replace the Panzer
III and IV called the VK 20 series.
The two designs were reviewed from January to March 1942.
The MAN design and the Daimler-Benz design, the Benz design was viewed to be superior.
But because the MAN design used an existing turret designed by Rheinmetall-Borsig, and a mild steel prototype of the MAN design was produced by September 1942 and, after testing at Kummersdorf, it would be officially accepted.

In January 1943 MAN produced the first production series Panther Ausf.D tank.
It would be called the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther until 27 February 1944,
when it was ordered that the Roman numeral "V" be deleted.

The early Panther tanks were eventually send back in April through May 1943 for a major rebuilding program, because of major breakdowns.

Petrol leaks from the fuel pump and fuel-lines were also a problem and would produced fires in the engine compartment, this problem was never really solved and the Panther was the actual real Ronson tank.

Later versions of the Panther would be the A and G, and the last version was the F which would never see any action.

The Ausf. G. saw several changes, most people always seem to think this has to do with the turret, but the turret and 7.5cm Kw.K L/70 gun was the same one used on the earlier Ausf.A.
On 4 May 1944, during a meeting at the M.A.N. company, a decision was made to design a new Panther tank chassis. Work had already started on developing a new version of the
Panther tank called Panther II but that was far from completion.
Some of the lessons learnt from that design process were used in formulating the plans for the Ausf.G tank chassis.

The new chassis pannier side armor was sloped at 29 degrees.
The thickness in the armor was increased from 40 mm to 50 mm and the rear side armor wedges at the end of the superstructure were not part of the new design.
A perceived weak spot was the driver’s armored vision port cut into the front glacis plate.
This was deleted in the design of the Ausf.G. chassis. and the total look of the chassis was changed and this is also the way to identify a Panther Ausf, G.

There were many other minor changes but the overall thinking behind the design was to simplify
the construction process to enable more tanks to be built as fast as possible.

Some problems were never to be solved like the petrol leaks from the fuel pump and fuel-lines.
A few minor changes were made to the turret during the production and a new gun mantle was gradually introduced.

This Panther Ausf.G. belonged to the 2nd SS. Panzer Division.
During the battle several Panther tanks ran into a minefield and were abandoned. This tank is displayed
with turret number 407, which is wrong and it would probably had turret number 214, other sources say It was abandoned in a field probably because
it ran out of fuel on 26 December 1944. It was salvaged after the battle and placed closer
to this spot and in the 60's it was repainted and placed at the Grandmenil crossroads.

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■ Information obtained from several sites.
■ Wikipedia
■ tanks-encyclopedia
■ the.shadock.free.fr/Surviving_Panzers
■ preservedtanks
■ pantser.net
■ the.shadock.free.fr/Tanks_in_France

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