Growl of the Panther Tank

[McCoy]

I didn't blow it up but I found it in that size n' I suspect that the first one is a version that's been shrinked in size from the one that I did find. Take a note that the photo appears to be taken a while after December 19 n' that all the equipment on #225 is gone.

I've even seen claims that the #225 wasn't a steel wheeler but that isn't credible to my eyes as I clearly can see that it indeed is a steel wheeler. All the wheels looks to be Panther wheels except the station two steel wheel that indeed can be a Tiger II wheel, bad postin' on my part earlier when I posted Tiger I instead of II.

[LAH 1 SS]

Ah ok mate i thought you had blown it up sorry. This panther is very interesting will tslk about it some more when i do some more looking at it

[LAH 1 SS]

After blowing some more of the panther up, the steel road wheels are definately the later style seen on the final version tiger 1 and the tiger 2 production run. The steel wheel's had the bolt pattern changed on the tiger 1 after april 44 becuase the previous bolt pattern would work loose. Now the MAN panther g's with steel wheels were produced in september 44 and were of the larger 800m diameter, there was a limted number of these produced. The MAN panther's with the last station steel were produced in march/april 45. There was also a larger idler wheel produced in october 44, it was 650mm in diameter and self cleaning. I know these are photo's of tiger's but the first photo is a photo of the original steel wheel bolt pattern that was used on pre 44 tiger tank's. Please just look at the bolt pattern where the wheel bolt's to the axle


here is the second type of bolt pattern seen on the final tiger 1, tiger 2 and the panther note the difference (granted this one is shot to peice's but please look where the wheel bolt's to the axle see the differnce)



Here is also the general layout of the SW panther i hope some of this help's guys




Here are two print's from a trojca manual which shows the drive sprocket, the wheels and the two design's of rear idler used in the panther production

[Pirate-Drakk]

Great stuff LAH!!!!

[cyberia]

Ditto!

[McCoy]

Thanks mate!

[cyberia]

An amazing photograph that metaphors old and new warfare...

A Panther tank on the Eastern Front passes a wounded horse on the battlefield

[cyberia]

Nice clean shot of a Panther's camo scheme, date and location unknown

[kostas13]

Originally Posted by cyberia

An amazing photograph that metaphors old and new warfare...

A Panther tank on the Eastern Front passes a wounded horse on the battlefield

nice pictures ......this tank belongs to 5 ss.pzdv."Wiking" i think.....in Kowel area Poland early springs 1944.
This tank and this division it's from my favorites.

[cyberia]

Originally Posted by kostas13

nice pictures ......this tank belongs to 5 ss.pzdv."Wiking" i think.....in Kowel area Poland early springs 1944.
This tank and this division it's from my favorites.

Very cool, thanks for the additional info kostas.