Panzer V Panther

The Kampfpanzerwagen V Panther is a medium tank used by the Nazi Germany Burgewehr Sturmbull that was heavier than the "heavy" Panzer IV. This was the last tank produced before the Invasion of Poland. This is probably the most normal looking tank built by the Germans in WWII and is also, like, the first MBT, therefore it is weird. 
== Why Hitler Wanted This ==
Adolf Hitler found the existence of the T-34 and that thing had angled armor increasing its effective armor, so Hitler asked his panzer designers to design a tank that had thick, angled armor. The panzer designers made the blueprints for the Panther which used a new layered road wheel track design because they knew that the thing would be way heavier than the Panzer IV. This is the first tank in the main panzer lineup that used layered road wheels which Hitler didn't ask for, but he didn't care (he probably should've cared).
Hitler wanted the Panther to be used for blitzing enemies, so it needed to be fast and powerful and have a terrible reverse gear. 
== Armor, Armament, & Amenities ==
The Panther was built with 80 mm of hull armor like the Panzer IV Ausf. H, but it was angled for better effective armor than the Pz IV. It was armed with the 8.8 cm KwK 36 LK cannon, which was great against enemy armor. It also carried three MG34s, one in the hull, one in the turret, and one on the turret. It needed a 536 hp engine because this thing was quite heavy. The layered road wheels helped with distribution of weight.
== The Jäger Variant ==
The Kampfpanzerwagen V Jäger Ausführung Panther Polenwagen, or just Polenwagen or Jadgpanther, is the tank hunter variant of the Panther designed by Frank Steindong and the last tank made before the Invasion of Poland. 
It's the Panther but with even thicker and angler armor and also no turret. The lack of a turret made this thing go way faster than the normal Panther. 
It was armed with a big 10.5 cm Pak 38 LK gun that could (theoretically) destroy almost every enemy tank even when they were angled optimally (since it could penetrate over 100 mm of armor). 
== The Issue(s) ==
The main issue with the Panthers is that they were freaking expensive and complicated to build. They also lacked in other mobility features other than going forward: the reverse gear was better than nothing and the neutral steering was somewhat lame. The transmission was also of the most Deutsche Qualität and broke every 37 miles of constant use. It would break even faster if it tried to climb hills or if the driver had to turn, so Panther drivers went straight forward through muck instead of taking a winding road to save everyone the hassle. 
The Panthers lacked the firepower to knockout most KV and IS tanks when those were introduced. 
== Comparison With Panzer IV ==
In comparison with the Panzer IV H, the Panther has many advantages, devantages, and trade-offs. In mobility, the Panzer IV had slower acceleration and lower top speed due to a worse engine, but its better transmission allowed it to reliably neutral steer and reverse. The Panzer IV transmission also broke down only every 94 miles. The average Panther had higher firepower than the average Panzer IV, but some people had their Panzer IVs upgraded with the Panther's cannon, so the best way to test firepower would be to test the things around the cannon, luckily Mr. Beast was able to do that. He found out that people liked stealing Panzer IVs more than stealing Panthers. But most of all, he found that the Panzer IV had a smaller profile than the Panther. In fact, a bunch of Allied soldiers hated the Panzer IV because of how small it was in comparison to the Panther. However, the Panther's high profile allowed for better crew visibility and ability to shoot over a bus. Armor is also something the Panther has fantastic advantage over the Panzer IV. The Panther and Panzer IV have the same width of frontal armor, but the Panther has better frontal armor because of the angling, which made the Panther's armor better than the Tiger's. For side armor, they perform equally as bad, but the Panther doesn't make it obvious as to where the ammo is stored. 
So, with this overwhelming evidence, mega nerds say that the Panzer IV is the best medium panzer the Nazis have designed, which goes up to the Mega Rare tier of WW2 tanks alongside the T-34-85 and the Sherman 76s.
== Historians Think About This Thing ==
Historians think that the Panther was overengineered (see the layered road wheels) and was the beginning of the production of worse and worse tanks, in terms of expenses and other features, from the Germans in WWII.
Hitler was not disappointed with the Panthers though, since he wanted the complicated road wheels to be used on every main battle tank after the Panther. Seemingly, Hitler knew that the Panther would attain mythical status like the T-34. 
== Trivia ==
* If you like this tank, then you are Good Enough! (see Wehr Intelligence Index)
* The Panther was 2.6x more expensive than the Panzer IV Ausf. H. 
** The Polenwagen was 1.9x more expensive
Category:Panzer Battalion
Category:Tank
Category:Weapon
Category:German
Category:Nazi
Category:Weird
Category:German Origin