This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Germany, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Germany on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.GermanyWikipedia:WikiProject GermanyTemplate:WikiProject GermanyGermany articles
This article has been given a rating which conflicts with the project-independent quality rating in the banner shell. Please resolve this conflict if possible.
This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.
All other pages concerning the numbered German tanks of WWII have the name format "Panzer <Roman numeral><name, if available>" from the Panzer I all the way up to the proposed designs of the Panzer IX and Panzer X so moving this page would make it consistent with the rest.
Furthermore renaming this page to "Panzer V Panther" would remove any possible confusion with the Panther KF51, the latest MBT design of Rheinmetall Landsysteme and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann which was publicly unveiled in 2022, and would thus increase clarity.
I think Wikipedia policy is to use the most common name, and as far as I know, few sources use the roman numeral when talking about the tank in question.Sus scrofa (talk) 16:49, 15 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Osprey publish Foreign Panthers (NVG 313), Panther vs Sherman (DUE 13), Panther vs T-34 (DUE 4), Modelling the Panther Tank (MOD 30), Panther Medium Tank 1942–45 (NVG 67), Panther Variants 1942–45 (NVG 22), Panther (Thomas Anderson), and Panther: Germany's Quest For Combat Dominance (Michael Green, Gladys Green) but The PzKpfw V Panther (orignal Vanguard series) is out of print. GraemeLeggett (talk) 22:00, 16 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Well Osprey also publish M4 Sherman vs Type 97 Chi-Ha and Modelling the US Army M4 (75mm) Sherman Medium Tank but you're proposing the change, so burden is on you to show that sources tend to use "Panzer V Panther" rather than current article title. GraemeLeggett (talk) 06:49, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
First of all what does it matter what one publisher chooses to publish and which titles they choose to use? Since when have they become the ne plus ultra?
Well the Sherman was always officially named M4 Sherman. The Panher was Panzerkampfwagen V with the suggestive byname of Panther and was later officially renamed to Panzerkampfwagen Panther, dropping the V the same way as the Tiger dropped the VI. Denniss (talk) 11:28, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The article states that the tank was influenced by the sloped armour of the T34 which it is alleged provided superior protection.
This is simply untrue: The mass of a plate and the thickness of it (in a given orientation) covering a given area is unaffected by it's slope.
In other words it's true that if you angle a plate to some orientation, it becomes thicker, but you will need more plate to cover the same area, ending up with the exact same weight-to-thickness ratio.
Now an angle might help deflect a shell, but that effect is insignificant for high velocity shells (they melt/'dig in' at any angle) which were the dominant AT weapons of the time.
(Think why an Leopard II a4 got straight plates at it's frontal turret) ~~. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:7660:289A:0:319B:6167:915F:9FA2 (talk) 22:18, 19 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
In my opinion, the segmented look that this article's intro has doesn't look too good and also doesn't really have any flow to it. For example, here is the start of the intro
On 27 February 1944 it was redesignated to just PzKpfw Panther, as Hitler ordered that the Roman numeral "V" be deleted.[citation needed] In contemporary English-language reports it is sometimes referred to as the "Mark V".
I propose we get rid of the spaces and male it look like this (with an edit or 2 to help flow and readability)
The Panther tank, officially Panzerkampfwagen V Panther (abbreviated PzKpfw V) with ordnance inventory designation: Sd.Kfz. 171, is a German World War IIMedium Tank that was used on the Eastern and Western Fronts from mid-1943 to the end of the war in May 1945. On 27 February 1944, it was redesignated to PzKpfw Panther, as Hitler ordered that the Roman numeral "V" be deleted.[citation needed] In contemporary English-language reports it is sometimes referred to as the "Mark V"
Having removed today from image's caption in WP:Infobox the part about Model D being recognisable by drum-shaped commander's cupola and "letterbox" machine gun slot in the hull (because not only Ausf. A had them, as can be confirmed here: => https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/germany/panzer-v_panther.php; but those features appear to have been present also in Ausf. G, as can be seen in the following image below in Wikimedia):
That got me thinking that it might be a good idea to add a short section about easy-to-recognise differences between models.
And it seems that the only such reliable feature was the "chin" on gun mantlet in Ausf. G - there is no easy way to differentiate between Model A and Model D... 🙄
Does anybody have any objections to my adding such a section?
Also, I don't think your image above shows the "letterbox" type machine gun port, which had a simple cover, your picture shows ball mounts. Strangely, the left tank in your image also has the driver vision port in the front hull, which was normally on earier models. (Hohum@) 19:15, 29 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
That driver vision port on the opposite site of the MG port was still featured in Ausf. A, just the MG ball mount was introduced in late Nov/early Dec 43 according to Panzer Tracts 5-2 Denniss (talk) 21:12, 29 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Great to have this discussion started and find people interested in it. 😎
As you both (Denniss and Hohum) clearly know what you're talking about and are obviously much more knowledgeable on the subject than me, can I appeal to either one of you to go ahead and add such a section to the article? One can see how this topic could be confusing, what with various changes spanning various models of Panther (A, D and G; presumably no need to bring Ausf. F into the discussion here).😉
Or does it really boil down to this: with early-design vs. later-production differences for each model, the only reliable recognition feature is the anti-ricochet "chin" on gun mantlet in Ausf. G and there is no easy way to differentiate between Model A and Model D? In which case I could add that brief summary to "Development and production" section of the article... Those two images in side-by-side comparison are available in Wikimedia separately (as there might be some objection to Gothic script of the lettering in it being perceivably pro-Nazi):
I think the solution to the question is a single line of text noting when the change is introduced in production rather than a section. GraemeLeggett (talk) 11:46, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]