great gun sir

Panther is the common name of a medium tank fielded by Nazi Germany in World War II that served from mid-1943 to the end of the European war in 1945. It was intended as a counter to the T-34, and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV; while never replacing the latter, it served alongside it as well as the heavier Tiger tanks until the end of the war. The Panther's excellent combination of firepower, mobility, and protection served as a benchmark for other nations' late war and immediate post-war tank designs, and it is frequently regarded as one of the best tank designs of World War II.^[3]
Until 1944, it was designated as the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther and had the ordnance inventory designation of Sd.Kfz. 171. On 27 February 1944, Hitler ordered that the Roman numeral V be deleted from the designation.
The Panther tank was a compromise of various requirements. While sharing essentially the same engine as the Tiger I tank, it had better frontal armor (including the benefit of a sloping angle, increasing effective armor depth), better gun penetration, was lighter overall and thus faster, and could handle rough terrain better than the Tigers. The tradeoff was weaker side armor; the Panther proved to be deadly in open country and shooting from long range, but vulnerable to close-quarters combat. Also, the 75 mm gun fired a slightly smaller shell than the Tiger's 88 mm gun, providing less high explosive firepower against infantry, though it was still quite effective.
The Panther was also far cheaper to produce than the Tiger tanks, and only slightly more expensive than the Panzer IV, as its design came to fruition at the same time that the Reich Ministry of Armament and War Production was making great efforts to increase war production. Key elements of the Panther design, such as its armor, transmission and final drive, were compromises made specifically to improve production rates and address Germany's war shortages, whereas other elements such as its highly compact engine and its complex suspension system remained with their elegant but complicated engineering. The result was that Panther tank production was far higher than what was possible for the Tiger tanks, but not much higher than what had been accomplished with the Panzer IV. At the same time, the simplified final drive became the single major cause of breakdowns of the Panther tank, and was a problem that was never corrected.
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 break downs and other equipment failures, the Panther tank would thereafter only be fighting outnumbered in Germany's steady retreat against the Allies for the remainder of World War II. Its success as a battlefield weapon was thus hampered by Germany's 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 demanded 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.

Panther
Panther Ausf. D tanks, 1943. The D model can best be recognized by the drum cupola.
Type	Medium tank
Place of origin	Nazi Germany
Service history
In service	1943–1945 (Nazi Germany)
Used by	Nazi Germany (main user)  France (around 50 in use post–war)  Soviet Union (a few captured)  Romania (13 post war)  Bulgaria (a few captured)  Hungary (a few captured)  Great Britain (at least one captured)
Wars	World War II
Production history
Designer	MAN AG
Designed	1942
Produced	1942–1945 (1946- 9 post war for Britsh Army)
Number built	about 6,000[1]
Specifications
Weight	44.8 tonnes (44.1 long tons; 49.4 short tons) [2]
Length	6.87 metres (22 ft 6 in) 8.66 metres (28 ft 5 in) gun forward[2]
Width	3.27 metres (10 ft 9 in)[2] 3.42 metres (11 ft 3 in) with skirts
Height	2.99 metres (9 ft 10 in)
Crew	5 (Driver, radio-operator/hull machine gunner, commander, gunner, loader)
Armor	15–120 mm (0.59–4.7 in)
Main armament	1 × 7.5 cm KwK 42 L/70 79 rounds [2]
Secondary armament	2 × 7.92 mm Maschinengewehr 34 5,100 rounds
Engine	V-12 petrol Maybach HL230 P30[2] 700 PS (690 hp, 515 kW)
Power/weight	15.39 PS/tonne (13.77 hp/ton)
Transmission	ZF AK 7-200. 7 forward 1 reverse[2]
Suspension	double torsion bar, interleaved road wheels
Operational range	250 km (160 mi)
Speed	55 km/h (34 mph) (first models), 46 km/h (29 mph) (later models)