The T-34 was the greatest tank of World War II

A Tank is a vehicle of warfare. The large scale warfare of World War II, required a tank which could be produced at an enormous rate. To simply set aside the production aspect of a tank, and base it's greatness solely on its "design" and "performance" is ignoring the fundamental purpose of what a tank does, that is to kill the enemy. Countries such as Germany produced a number of extreme tank designs which were very high performance, and had excellent designs, yet were so expensive and required such workmanship that mass production was impossible, these tanks could not be considered the greatest tank of World War II. Production is vital to the role that a tank is built for, you cannot ignore it, and on this alone the Panther is a failure. Yet there are many other reasons as to why the Panther was a failure. The Panther's design was stolen directly from the T-34. Upon seeing how great a tank the Russians had created, Germany decided to steal the design. However; thanks to "superior" German over-engineering, the Panther was no where near as reliable as the Russian T-34 and could not be made on anywhere near the scale that the T-34 could be. First up the Armor, the Panther's side Armour, was only 40–50 mm thick, and unlike the T-34 had no slope, the original T-34/76 could penetrate this Armour at over 1,000 meters with AP shells and from even longer range with the more advanced APCBC shells. The T-34/85 could penetrate the Panther's side Armour at over 2500 meters with standard AP shells. This is where the speed of the T-34 reigns supreme. In combat the T-34 was able to both numerically overwhelm the Panther tank, and flank it in order to hit the weak side Armour. So that thick advanced 80mm sloped front Armour, whose design was stolen from the T-34, was worthless thanks to the weak side Armour. Next we have the Armament, the Panther's main gun took an entire minute to traverse 360 degrees. This meant that when the fast moving T-34 flanked the Panther tank, it could not turn it's gun fast enough to stay on target. As one could imagine a big and powerful gun is not much use when you are to slow to target your enemy. In addition thanks to a design flaw in the overly engineered Panther, many enemy rounds which hit the turret manlet would bounce down penetrating the thin top Armour, this directly above the main ammunition storage, the driver, and the radioman. If the Panther crew was lucky only the driver and radioman would be killed by the penetrating round; however unfortunately for the Panther, many of these penetrations resulted in catastrophic explosions which demolished the entire tank. So without even penetrating the Panther, a simple bounced round could destroy the entire tank. The Panthers cabin, as I just discussed above was extremely vulnerable to bounced shots. In addition thanks to the awkward placement of vital gearboxes and steering units, repairs took an inordinate amount of time. The designers also thought it was a smart idea to store ammunition partially spread out, throughout the entire hull. This meant that penetrations of the cabin could easily result in catastrophic failure. The Panther's engine, was quite simply worthless. Why? Because by the time the Panther had been introduced Germany was on the defensive. What is the point of a tank which can go fast, if you are marching backwards? The Panther was simply not able to take advantage of its speed, for tactical reasons the Panther was mainly used in stationary positions. To add on to this the Panther's transmission was horrendous. Germany did not have access to quality steel, and this resulted in significant gearbox failures which put the entire tank out of commission. Again what is the point of a powerful engine if the transmission is broken? To add to this the Panther suffered from numerous suspension problems. The German over-engineering of the suspension system resulted in numerous failures which removed the tank from combat, and caused a number of crews to have to scuttle their tanks for fear of letting the Russians capture it. Overall the engine was worthless, thanks to Germany's retreat, the poor quality transmission, the over-engineered suspensions, and numerous other mechanical failures. The Panther was Germany's answer to the T-34. But it was a spectacular failure. The over-engineering of the Panther resulted in poor reliability, the only good parts of the Panther were those which were copied nearly directly from the T-34, such as the sloped front Armour. This is without even bringing up the fact that the Panther was made in incredibly low numbers, compared to the T-34. If the Panther was as cheap as the T-34, and produced in as great of numbers as the T-34, and was more rugged and reliable like the T-34, and was less over-engineered like the T-34, and was used in an offense like the T-34, well it would be the T-34 and would be the greatest tank of World War II. Unfortunately for Germany the Panther was a paper tiger, it looks big and scary but in actuality it just wasn't a good tank. The T-34 was far and away the best tank of World War II, and most certainly was a better tank than the Panther.