Help us occupy Facebook with TANKS and break up the monotony of posts that arent about tanks. People who likes this post will be given a nation and has to post a picture of a tank produced by that nation along with the specifications for its main armament, fun fact about the tank and this text. I got Germany from Kalle Christian Hviid Rasmussen and I chose the Panther Tank. Panther is the common name of a medium tank deployed by Nazi Germany in World War II from mid-1943 to the end of the European war in 1945. It was intended as a counter to the Soviet T-34, and as a replacement for the Panzer III and Panzer IV. While never replacing the latter, it served alongside it and the heavier Tiger tanks until the end of the war. The Panthers excellent combination of firepower, mobility, and protection served as a benchmark for other nations late war and post-war tank designs, and it is regarded as one of the best tanks of World War II. The Panther tank arrived in 1943 at a crucial phase in World War II for Germany. Rushed into combat at the Battle of Kursk with un-corrected teething problems, which resulted in breakdowns and other equipment failures, the Panther tank would thereafter only be fighting outnumbered in Germanys steady retreat against the Allies for the remainder of World War II. Its success as a battlefield weapon was thus hampered by Germanys generally declining position in the war, with the loss of airpower protection by the Luftwaffe, the loss of fuel and training space, and the declining quality of tank crews. Nevertheless, the Panther tank commanded respect from the Allies, and its combat capabilities led directly to the introduction of heavier Allied tanks such as the Soviet IS-2 and the American M26 Pershing into the war and the development of the formidable British Centurion Tank, even though it appeared too late to participate in World War II. The main gun was a 7.5 cm Rheinmetall-Borsig KwK 42 (L/70) with semi-automatic shell ejection and a supply of 79 rounds (82 on Ausf. G). The main gun used three different types of ammunition: APCBC-HE (Pzgr. 39/42), HE (Sprgr. 42) and APCR (Pzgr. 40/42), the last of which was usually in short supply. While it was of only average caliber for its time, the Panthers gun was one of the most powerful tank guns of World War II, due to the large propellant charge and the long barrel, which gave it a very high muzzle velocity and excellent armor-piercing qualities. The flat trajectory also made hitting targets much easier, since accuracy was less sensitive to range. The high velocity increased the chance of hitting a moving target. The Panthers 75 mm gun had more penetrating power than the main gun of the Tiger I heavy tank, the 8.8 cm KwK 36 L/56,[56] although the larger 88 mm projectile might inflict more damage if it did penetrate. The tank typically had two MG 34 machine guns of a specific version designed for use in armored combat vehicles featuring an armored barrel sleeve. An MG 34 machine gun was located co-axially with the main gun on the gun mantlet; an identical MG 34 was located on the glacis plate and fired by the radio operator. Initial Ausf. D and early Ausf. A models used a letterbox flap enclosing its underlying thin, vertical arrowslit-like aperture, through which the machine gun was fired.[58] In later Ausf A and all Ausf G models (starting in late November-early December 1943), a ball mount in the glacis plate with a K.Z.F.2 machine gun sight was installed for the hull machine gun.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 17:37:37 +0000
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