Re: Kugelblitz and Company.
PANTHER II
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During summer 1942, even as MAN began manufacturing its two Versuchs Panther pre-production tanks, the High Command had already grown concerned that the level of protection the new tank possessed might prove insufficient for the combat conditions likely to emerge on the Eastern Front in the immediate future. The initial German response was to investigate the feasibility of adding 20mm-thick bolt-on armoured plates to strengthen the vehicle's protection, as had been done previously with the Panzer III and IV tanks. However, MAN soon discovered that such work presented extraordinary technical problems that effectively precluded up-armouring the existing Model D design in this manner.
This setback forced the Germans in December 1942 to begin thinking of a new Panther version - the 47-tonne Panther II - that had thicker homogenous armoured plates. The Panther II was to have 100-150mm-thick turret and hull frontal armour instead of the 80-100mm thickness on the Model D. In addition, its side armour was to have 60mm-thick plates instead of the 40mm plates carried by the Model D. Controversy still exists today as to the precise details of the Panther II project, in part because there remains ambiguity in the extant German documentation. Tom Jentz has argued that in December 1942 the Panther II design remained identical to that of the Model D except for the thickness of the armour. Walther Spielberger, in contrast, believes that from its very inception the Germans intended the Panther II to incorporate significant features that would distinguish it markedly from the Model D.
Jentz argues that it was only during mid-February 1943 that the Germans altered the initial Panther II design to make it more than just an up-armoured Model D. For now, the High Command decided that the new tank would incorporate many features of the Panzerkampfwagen
VI Model B King Tiger heavy tank then being designed by Henschel, as well as have a completely new turret design. Spielberger, however, believes that commonality with the King Tiger was a key inspiration behind the Panther II design from its first inception in late 1942. Irrespective of these debates, both scholars agree that by spring 1943 the Panther II design incorporated features of the King Tiger, including the 700bhp Maybach HL230 engine, and resilient steel-tyred, rubber-cushioned, large road wheels. While the King Tiger would mount nine pairs of these road wheels, the Panther II would have seven pairs of identical wheels. The original Panther, in contrast, had eight pairs of non-steel-tyred road wheels. Even the 60cm-thick tracks of the Panther II would act as the narrow (transportation) tracks for the King Tiger. Incorporation of these features raised the weight of the Panther II to , 51 tonnes. During February 1943, the High Command contracted DEMAG to commence development work on the Panther II, then slated to enter service in September 1943, and simultaneously informed the existing Panther manufacturing firms that they would continue producing standard Panther tanks only until late 1944, and then switch over to construction of the Panther II.
The health of the Panther II project, however, declined significantly during summer 1943, and in June plans to develop the tank were temporarily halted in favour of continuation of the Model D and Model A production runs. One explanation for this was that the Germans had discovered that by adding Schurzen side skirts to the Model D, the risk posed to the vehicle's 40mm hull side armour was significantly reduced; this development undermined a major justification for developing the Panther II. Consequently, during July 1943, the High Command contracted MAN to produce just two prototype Panther II vehicles. With the impetus for the Panther II project dwindling, and given the many other pressing production demands MAN then faced, development work on the two prototype Panther II tanks languished. Indeed, by the end of the war, MAN had only completed one Versuchs Panther II chassis, but without a turret. The American Army captured this vehicle in the last weeks of the war, fitted it with a recently completed Panther Model G turret, and shipped it off to America, where it remains today on public display.
The turret the Germans earmarked for the Panther II never got beyond the design stage, and today controversy still exists over the precise form it would have taken. Initially the Germans planned to mount in the Panther II the same 7.5cm KwK 42 L/70 gun mounted on the standard Panther tank. Spielberger argues that the Germans intended to mount this gun in the Narrow Turret (Schmalturm) then being developed for the new Model F Panther tank. Jentz, however, argues that the Germans intended to mount a slightly different turret in the Panther II - the Narrow Gun Mantlet Turret. Whatever their precise designs, both turrets sought to reduce the size of the turret front and mantlet, to help increase vehicle survivability. To further complicate the matter, during February 1945 the Germans began work to re-arm a modified version of the Narrow Turret with the 8.8cm KwK 43 L/71 gun of the King Tiger. From this Spielberger contends that if the Germans intended to mount the Narrow Turret in the Panther II, it follows that from spring 1945 they planned that the Panther II would mount the 8.8cm-gunned Narrow Turret and not its original 7.5cm-gunned version. Other plans that the Germans developed later in 1945, however, suggest that they simply intended to mount the 8.8cm-equipped Narrow Turret on any available Model G Panther chassis, to form (in effect) an upgunned version of the Model F Panther. Clearly, in the chaos that increasingly engulfed the Reich in the last months of the war, the Germans unveiled all sorts of often contradictory plans concerning future tank development. Given that German firms never completed a single Panther II tank, it seems unlikely that these controversies over what turret and main gun the vehicle would have mounted will ever be definitely solved.
"PzKw V Panther Medium Tank 1942 - 45", Dr Stephen A Hart, Osprey Publishing, pages 17 - 20.
Your translation to all that is as good as mine. All my personal knowledge on it is I have seen and some where have pics of the Panther II hull that is here in America. This particular source talks of the 8.8cm being mounted, others which I have read say the turret ring was too small for such a mounting. So again, your translation is as good as mine.
Either way, it don't really matter, there was only one hull built the rest is speculation and interpretation.
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