I'm not afraid to admit I've got a bit of a Crush on the Panzerkampfwagen Fünf Panther.
In my honest opinion, it is the best looking tank of the war, and I was quite excited to
meet this one when I went to Tank fest this year.
Since I came back, I've been trying to play them in game, and I've made some rather
interesting and controversial discoveries.
Which ones?
Let's find out, in the second episode of War Thunder Classics.
The story of the Panther begins with Operation Barbarossa, and the germans' first encounter
with the T-34.
Being used to converted breadboxes as tanks, the concept of sloping your armour to make
it more effective left them all scratching their heads, so they decided to build a T-34
of their own.
No, seriously.
Daimler-Benz' VK 30.02 prototype looks extremely similar to the Russian counterpart.
The tank was rather narrow which limited turret ring diameter and, as a direct consequence,
made it rather difficult to fit bigger guns.
After some redesigns by both Daimler-Benz and MAN, the Panther was born.
Featuring the Tiger I's engine on a much lighter chassis, a high velocity gun with
even more penetration power than the Tiger's 88mm cannon and strong armour, the Panther
is considered to be one of the first examples of the Main Battle Tank idea.
Contrary to what you might think, it wasn't even that expensive either.
It was just a tad bit more expensive than the much older Panzer IV, but still less than
half the price of one Tiger I.
Quite cost effective.
Sadly the first batch of Panthers, renamed model D, were rushed into production and suffered
reliability issues as a direct result.
As the war and the Panther models progressed, the tanks got more reliable, although the
armour suffered in quality due to lack of alloys.
In spite of all of this, the Panther left its mark in history with over 6000 units built,
and continues to foster heated discussions between wehraboos as to whether it was the
best tank of the war or not.
In War Thunder, the Panthers are represented in quite a varied choice of models.
In the german tech tree, you have the Panther D and Ersatz M10 at rank 3 and battle rating
5.7, with the models A, G and F at rank 4 and battle rating 6.0.
I've done a video comparing the stats and explaining the differences of all of the Panther
variants a long time a go, and you can find a link to that in the description and the
info card above.
In short, the Panther A is the best overall model, with the Ersatz M10 and the Russian
captured T-V both being based on this one.
In the background you'll mostly see gameplay of the Panther A and the Ersatz M10, although
the general characteristics and tactics apply to all of the Panther variants.
Small deviations only really occur on the Panther A and Panther F. The Panther A has
the fastest turret traverse and as such is the best for CQB brawling tactics, and the
Panther F has a different turret design and a faster reload than all the other Panthers.
With the general characteristics out of the way, let's see how the Panther performs
in the holy trinity of tank warfare, the Armour-mobility-firepower triangle.
(armour)
The Panther series has a large upper frontal plate with an effective thickness of around
120mm, surpassing even the Tiger I.
Unless facing very high calibre guns or APDS, little can defeat this plate, and due to its
size the probability is high that it is hit instead of anything else.
That said, there is a weakpoint in the hull machine gun mount.
With only 80mm, pretty much anything you face can cut through there, but thankfully it is
a rather small and hard to hit target.
The lower plate is quite weak, only 50mm thick but angled.
Generally speaking most shells can go through it, but tend to get absorbed by the transmission
and do little damage.
High power APHE shells however can cause substantial damage to the crew this way.
The turret is the main weakpoint of the Panthers.
Most have a rounded gun mantlet which can bounce most poorly aimed shells quite easily,
but since the plate itself is only 100mm thick and is made of cast homogenous armour, further
reducing effective thickness, a flat hit results in a guaranteed penetration from anything
you face.
This is especially problematic with APHE shells from M4s, M18s, and T-34s, which can often
one shot the Panther this way.
That said, the Panther is one of the best examples of tanks that benefit greatly from
the addition of bushes, as hiding the outline of the mantlet can make it hard for the enemy
to get a precise flat shot, buying you extra time to retaliate.
The side and rear armour are mostly negligible.
They're strong enough to withstand most AA fire up to 25mm calibre, but 37mm cannons
and up can defeat the armour flat on at close ranges, especially on the flat lower hull
side.
To note is the rather weak top armour.
With only between 15-17mm on the hull and turret roof, most Panthers are actually susceptible
to American .50 cal AP rounds fired from aircraft directly above.
I've been killed in a single strafe from a corsair myself, and given their lack of
any kind of roof mounted machine gun, they lack the ability to defend themselves against
air attacks.
The only exception to this is the Panther F, which boasts 25mm to 40mm of top armour,
and as such is immune to .50 cal munitions.
(Mobility)
Despite being a rather large and heavy machine, the mobility of the Panther series is surprisingly
good.
The power to weight ratio of 15.5 hp/ton is almost identical of that to the battle rating
5.7 T-34-85, as is the identical top speed of 55km/h.
The statcard only tells so much though, so I've done some more in depth mobility comparisons
between a fully upgraded Panther A and a fully upgraded T-34-85:
Acceleration is quite similar.
From zero to 30Km/h, the T-34-85 takes 6.2 seconds whilst the Panther A takes 6.8 seconds,
only just over half a second longer.
Hull traverse is a grey area.
The Panther A is capable of maintaining 3rd gear whilst turning, giving it a blisteringly
fast 360 degree turn time of 10.1 seconds, much faster than the 15.5 seconds of the T-34
which defaulted back to first gear.
Simultaneously, the Panther series is able to neutral turn on the spot, something the
T-34 can't do.
This allows you to easily manipulate the hull in tight spaces, but also takes quite a while
longer.
Compared to the T-34's 16.7 second hull turn from stop, a Panther's Neutral turn
takes a whole 25.5 seconds to complete.
It's definitely worth it getting into third gear before attempting to turn the hull in
a Panther, given you have the space to do so.
The final test is one lap around the Tank Polygon test track.
This track has a good balance of elevation changes and obstacles on offroad pavement,
and can be used to compare the general mobility between two tanks.
The T-34-85 is one of the more mobile tanks at this tier, and was able to complete the
course in 4 minutes and 45 seconds.
Surely the Panther can't compete with that.
To my surprise, it's not too far off.
It is slower, at a lap time of 5 minutes and 7 seconds, but I was expecting it to be a
lot slower.
I did lose a lot of time in the slaloms where my panther was stuck in 4th gear, where it
would have turned a lot faster in 3rd, but even so the Panther can hold a candle to the
T-34-85 in general mobility, whilst having much better armour.
That isn't the whole story though.
The Panther benefits greatly from travelling on paved roads, and thanks to that I've
been able to flank entire teams in city maps and maps with long connecting roads.
They never expected a german tank of all things to get there quite that quickly.
There is one major drawback to the Panther series however, they have a horrendous reverse
speed of only 4km/h.
This can often mean death as you're unable to escape a firefight and get into cover quickly,
once you're around a corner, you're committed.
(Firepower)
Finally, firepower.
The Panzerkampfwagen Fünf Ausführung D, A und G feature the 7,5 zentimeter Kampfwagenkanone
42 L/70 with a base reload of 9.6 seconds.
The notable exception here is the Panther F, which features the KwK 44.
This gun retains the same ballistics, but offers a faster base reload of 8.7 seconds.
The reload of the KwK 42 is identical to that of the Tiger I and T-34-85, which seems weird
given the lower calibre, but makes sense when looking at the performance of this cannon.
This is one of the best guns at this tier, period.
All Panthers come stock with the best and only shell you'll ever need, the Panzergranate
39/42 APHE shell with a muzzle velocity of 935 m/s, an explosive filler equivalent of
29 grams of TNT and a flat maximum penetration of 187mm.
Whilst having only a third of the explosive power of the Tiger 1's base shell, the Panther's
rounds travel much faster and offer much higher penetration, even on angled surfaces.
This gun can even deal with Sherman Jumbos by shooting the top half of the upper frontal
plate at close to medium distances, just like the Russian 85mm guns.
Up to your own battle rating, there isn't really much that can withstand this gun, and
it's only against 6.7 heavies that you really start to struggle.
Even then, the high muzzle velocity and accuracy allows you to aim for weakspots decently easily.
That said, thanks to the good mobility you can play in a way that allows you to flank
the enemy, and apart from a T95 Doom Turtle, nothing can withstand side shots from a Panther.
Now whilst the 29 grams of explosive filler seem rather low, the APHE shell does it's
job perfectly well.
You aren't always going to one shot everything, but any penetration is going to hurt them
badly, and center mass shots tend to take out even the biggest of tanks.
Going for crew and ammo racks is how the Panther's gun gets its kills.
(Lineups) There are two lineups you can make with Panthers,
one for 5.7, one for 6.0.
Contrary to intuition I do not recommend the 5.7 one, but we'll get into that later.
For 5.7 you want to find a decent balance.
On the tech tree you only have a single Panther available, the Panther D.
This one however has an extremely slow turret traverse and really should be played more
like a tank destroyer than a medium tank, any kind of close quarters engagement usually
doesn't go well for you.
If you have the event Ersatz M10, take that alongside or even over the Panther D, as it
is much better overall.
As for supporting vehicles, You can bring one Tiger, although never spawn in it first
as it costs too many spawn points and is much more useful late game when the enemy has lost
their best guns.
A Panzer IV G or H serves as a decent backup, with the Waffenträger being useful in very
long range and open maps with its long 88mm cannon.
I recommend bringing both the Ostwind and the Wirbelwind for SPAA duties, but if you
have to choose take the Ostwind since it can also act as a light tank destroyer.
Speaking of, the Panzer IV/70 packs the same armour and gun as the Panther at tank destroyer
spawn costs, but is much slower and unsuitable for urban maps.
If you have access to premiums, I also recommend bringing a Panzer 2H for its scouting and
fast cap abilities.
As for aircraft, I recommend reserving two slots: one for a dedicated tank hunter, and
one for a fighter bomber.
Tank hunters can range from BF-110 G-2 to Do-335 with 30mm MK 103 HVAP, although I fully
recommend the premium Do 335 B-2 if available due to the surplus of 30mm ammunition it carries.
For the fighter bomber role, Fw-190 Ds are capable of carrying a 500kg bomb and carry
plenty of ammo for anti air duties, especially the premium 190 D-13, with the Ta 152 C-3
trading in bomb carrying abilities for an MK 103 in the nose.
And for the love of God don't bring Stukas, they're too slow and too easy a target for
both enemy fighters and SPAA to shoot you down before you ever get to attack.
Now I said earlier that I don't like the 5.7 lineup, and here's why.
Besides only having one or two panthers available, you're setting yourself up for failure at
5.7.
Generally speaking, getting downtiered in any tank is great news, but not so in the
Panthers.
I've found more success getting myself uptiered to 6.7 than downtiered to 4.7, due to a couple
of factors.
One is the general mobility of tanks, especially the M18.
Whilst the Panther is relatively quick, M18s are the bane of your existence, and you're
going to face them in hordes in downtiers, much less often so in uptiers.
There's also more Jumbos and T-34s to deal with, which might not be a big issue to your
panther but are a huge problem for your team mates in Panzer IVs.
I can't begin to count the amount of games I've had where I was doing perfectly well
in my panther in a downtier, but had the rest of my team completely wiped out, resulting
in loss after loss.
And this is why I strongly recommend forgetting about 5.7, and instead going for a 6.0 lineup
instead.
Most of the lineup stays the same, especially the aircraft and SPAA, but you can now swap
the Panzer IVs and Tiger Is which are just hindering you for a whole plethora of Panthers.
In my personal lineup I've got the Panther A, F and the Ersatz M10, although you can
swap that last one out for a Panther G if you don't have it.
And it just works, now you both have a much stronger lineup and much stronger teams, since
you're going to have King Tigers, Jagdpanthers, Ru 251s and Ferdinands to support.
Now you might think that constantly getting uptiered to 6.7 might be a problem, but the
Panther is one of the few tanks that shines in such a situation.
All of a sudden you go from the very mobile enemy composition of T-34s, M18s and more
that were constantly outflanking you in downtiers to slow heavy tanks that you can easily outflank
and destroy from the side whilst they are engaged with your King Tigers.
Seriously, the amount of flanks I've gotten off, destroying entire offensives who were
too busy slugging it out with my team's heavies is absurd, and once those flanks have
been dealt with and our King Tigers advance to the caps, the match tends to be over very
quickly.
Now you might be tempted to push a little further and get some 6.3 tanks in your lineup
with the Porsche tiger and the Jagdpanther, but I strongly suggest not to do that for
one simple reason: As long as you keep to 6.0, you can't face IS-6s.
Those things will mess your Panthers and your teams up.
(Tactics)
Here's how your average match in a Panther should look.
Given the medium tank spawn cost and the reduction for being uptiered, even if you get one shotted
without getting a cap or a kill you can still spawn in an ostwind and rebuild from there,
so you should be quite aggressive.
I tend to take the Panther A as my first spawn due to its superior turret traverse speed,
although the Panther F might also be a good choice due to its faster reload.
On three cap maps you can either cap the closest zone together with your team to facilitate
spawning into a Do 335 later, or you can take flanking routes and set up ambushes on anyone
trying to go for a capture point.
A perfect example of this is the game you're watching in the background, where I set up
to intercept multiple tanks who weren't expecting any tank to be there on their way
to B, and quickly dispatched most of their initial attacking wave, as well as distracting
any of their teammates behind who just saw multiple friendlies blow up.
This also allows your team to push up and get the cap advantage.
Once the initial wave has been dealt with, stay sneaky.
Make flanking enemy tanks your priority as they are the biggest danger to your team,
make sure to support your team mates by coming to their aid if you see them getting shot,
and set up ambushes to prevent the enemy from capturing the zones.
As I've mentioned, even if you die early on you'll still have an ostwind to fall
back onto from which you can rebuild, but getting a single cap and a kill is generally
enough to spawn an aircraft.
If it's very early in the game and the enemy hasn't gotten any caps off yet to spawn
their own aircraft, a Do 335 is the best choice, as it is incredibly potent at destroying lighter
tanks that are flanking your team.
If the enemy does have aircraft up, a FW-190 D with a 500kg bomb can be used to quickly
take out a heavy tank or critical target, and then intercept enemy planes.
Keep in mind that the Fws are energy fighters, you want to stay fast and unseen.
If you get caught in a dogfight, you're dead, so don't try to outturn anything unless
it's a bomber.
(Summary)
The Panther is honestly one of the most enjoyable vehicles I've played recently, especially
so after I ditched the 5.7 lineup and embraced the MBT playstyle.
A great combination of Armour, mobility and firepower together with smart spawn point
cost management make this a very potent tank in the hands of someone who knows map positioning
and enemy weaknesses.
I fully recommend using it over any kind of Tiger I, you're going to see your stats
improve in the long run
As a closing note, some recommendations on specific roles for each variant.
The Panther D has the slowest turret rotation speed of the bunch, and as such is not a great
choice for close range combat.
Use it like a fixed gun tank destroyer, like a faster Jagdpanzer IV/70, rather than a medium
tank.
The Panther A is the best brawler of the bunch thanks to its turret traverse speed.
It's great for close quarters and long range alike, and really is the most adaptable to
any situation.
The Panther G is somewhere in between the previous two, with a slight change to the
gun mantlet.
The shot trap is removed, but the flat bit of armour at the bottom actually make for
a larger target area that can be reliably penetrated by the enemy.
If you own an Ersatz M10, I recommend skipping this one.
Finally the Panther F is best suited as a sniper.
The turret traverse isn't quite as fast as the A and the turret front, whilst presenting
a narrower target, is flat and easily penetrable at close ranges.
At long ranges however, the availability of a built in Rangefinder and the faster reload
of the gun make it great for quickly dispatching enemy medium tanks.
One final note, I recommend unlocking tracks over turret traverse mods on all panthers.
The tracks upgrade really helps with the overall mobility of the tank, which is especially
important in close quarters.
And that has been the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther mit 7,5 zentimeter kampfwagenkanone 42 oder
44 L/70.
I know I know, it's been over a month again, but I really wanted to get this right and
spent quite a bit of time playing the tanks and lineups to get a proper feel.
This is about as in depth as you're going to get from me.
If you didn't know, I did go to Tank Fest in bovington earlier this month and gathered
some footage, but I'm having some issues with my editing software to process it, so
the video of that might take a bit longer.
That said, I've been invited by Gaijin to go to Gamescom from the 20th to the 23rd of
August, in Cologne, Germany.
I'll likely be hanging out around the Gaijin booth and might even do some official streams
for them, so if you happen to be around the area don't be shy and say hello, I know
quite a few War Thunder Youtubers are going to be there, so it's going to be a blast.
In any case, hopefully you have enjoyed this video, if you did I would greatly appreciate
a like given the time this took.
I rarely ask for those nowadays.
But as always, My name has been MikeGoesBoom, and thank you for watching
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