Figure 1.--Here we see what was left of a Mark V Panther, disabled during the fight for Berlin. The photograph was probaly taklen about September 1945. Notice the destruction in the background. The Panther was an excellent tank, but overwhealned on the battle field by much larger numbers of Allied tanks and Allied air superiority. The children aee using ir as a playground--notice mostly the boys are interested. We don;t believe this wa the inrenion. Probably the Germans were in the process of burying the tank and only leaving the turret above ground as a armored / armed block house when the advancing Red Aemy reached them. Rhe Germans proavky ran out of fuel. Soon almost all German miliraty equipment would be removedm in oart so the children could not play with NAZI military artifacts.
The Mark V Panther is often seen as the best all around tank of the War, although militart historians do debte this. The tank seen here on a berlin street after the War is a Panther (figure 1). With the onset of Barbarossa (June 1941), despite their huge successes, the Germans were shocked by he Red Army's new T-34. Hitler's whole war concept was that German war spirit and technological superiority could gain victory over target countries that outweighed Germany in population, industry, and resourcesy. The Battle of Britain brought that concept into question as Britain mnatched Luftwaffe air craft--although Hitler ignored it. And now it was found that the Soviets were producing better tanks than Germany. Notably the suscess of Blitzkrieg and Germany's great military success (1939-41) were based on planes and tanks. And now the Wehrmacht had confronted planes and tanks that were more than a match for them. Priority was given to developing a new German tank to match the Soviet T-34. It was to be the answer to the T-34, but would nitb be available for 2 years. The Mark V Panther surely was the most elegantly designed tank of the War with a superb ballance of firepower, armor protection, and mobility. In this it was unmatched by any other tank of the War. Hitler wanted a war winner and delayed the Kursk offensive so it could be rushed to the front without asequate testing (July 1943). This bought the Soviets time to prepare the Kursk defenses for the German blow. The Panther at first failed, to live up to expectations. [Green] Part of the problems at Kursk was that it was delivered into combat right off the assembly lines. Once fully tested and refined it proved to be a superb battle tank. It has been described as an engineering masterpiece. The Panther incorporated important features to deal with the T-34s like sloped armor. It was not the fastest or most heavily armored, nor did it have the greatest firepower. It was an elegant design that achieved that perfect balance of firepower, armor protection, and mobility--virtually the most that could be achieved with World War II technology. [Green] There were weakness. The Panther was superbly enginered. But this meant that it was more costly and more dicficult to build tham the simpler American and Soviet tanks. This limited the number that could be built. The Germans buld some 6,000 Pathers. It was also difficult to maintain in the field. And 6,000 tanks was not going to be a war winner against owerrs countries producing tens of thousands of tanks.
Sources
Green, Michael and Gladys. Panther: Germany's Quest for Combat Dominance (2012), 256p.
