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6JERMANYS PANTHER TANK

COMPARISON OF VK 20 SERIES DESIGNS

YK2Q£1 (0)	YK 20x01 IK)	VK 20.02 (M)
50 mm front	50 mm front	50 mm front
40 mm side	50 mm side	40 mm side
50 km/h	56 km/h	55 km/h
5.130 m	5 200 m	5 580 m
3.020 m	2.950 m	3 000 m
1 640 m*	2.500 m	2.695 m
0 425 m	0 400 m	0 540 m
2 757 m	2 650 m	2 910 m
440 mm	450 mm	474 mm
22 25 t	21 51	Unknown
MB 809	HL 116	HL 90
Leaf sprmgs	Leaf springs	Torsion bars

Armor

Maximum Speed

Length

Width

Height

Ground Clearance Track Contact Length Track Width Combat weight Motor

Suspension

Without turret

Design proposed by Daimler-Benz as their VK 30.01 (D) The shape of the hull and the rear drive closely resembles the Russian T-34 design which Daimler-Benz studied and copied. Daimler-Benz created this turret design for mountmg the 7 5 cm Kw.K.42 gun

Respondmg to requests from the Eastern Front that a new tank needed to be designed to cope with the heavy Russian T 34 and KW 1 tanks. a special Panzerkommlssion was sent to the front to gam first hand knowledge from General-oberst Gudenan's Panzerarmee This special Panzerkom-mission led by Oberst Fichtner (Wa Pruef 6). consisted of tank designers mcludmg Major Ruden (Wa Pruef 6). Oberbaurat Kmepkamp (Wa Pruef 6). Professor Dr Porsche. Direktor Dr. Hacker (Steyr). Direktor Dr Roland (Vereimgte Stahlwerke). Direktor Wunderlich (Daimler-Benz). Direktor Dorn (Krupp-Kanonen). Obermg. Aders (Henschel), Ing. Oswald (M.A.N.), and Obering Zimmer (Rhemmetall).

Upon arnval on 18 November 1941. Generaloberst Guderian greeted the members of the special Panzer-kommission with the following speech: In the campaigns in Poland and France and in the first part of the campaign in Russia, our tanks were superior in quality to the enemies. Only after Beresina did we encounter heavy Russian tanks that were superior to ours. especially in armor protection and armament. During the campaign the number of heavy Russian tanks increased while the number of our tanks dechned. This was due to both permanent losses as total writeoffs, as well as the slow delivery of repair parts along extended sup-ply Imes At first, the number of heavy Russian tanks was lower than ours. After October. the numbers were about the same

The purpose of the new equipment should be to reestab-hsh the previous supenority.

In this campaign. we have encountered terram difficul-ties of unpredicted dimension. In the Summer, dust in unex-pected quantity mflicted damage to the motors. In the Fali, bottomless mud was encountered on the unimproved roads as well as in fields. This situation requires improvement in the ground pressure of our tracked vehicles. Driving in mud created enormous demands on all motonzed equipment. With the wmter came icy conditions on which the tank tracks shpped. The cold embrittles materiał so that it easily breaks. The oncoming snów will bring new difficulties.

At this time 50% of the wheeled vehicles. 75% ₀f _th half-tracks, and 20% of the tanks are still operational. 20% \ the tanks are still repairabie, 30% are total writeoffs, and 25% are not operational due to repair parts shortages.    ⁰

From about 1,000 tanks which started the campaign dIuc 150 new tanks as replacements, today only 150 tanks took part m the attack. All others were unserviceable for combat The armament ofthe heavy Russian tanks (44 to 52 mętne tons) consists of a 76.2 mm gun, one machinegun m front and one machinegun in the rear of the turret, and one machinegun in the hull front. The armor consists of an 80 mm hull (reinforced in the front) and 100 mm turret. The sloped armor causes hits from the 8.8 cm Flak gun to ricochet. Thev are faster than the German Pz.Kpfw.lll and IV. Their disad-vantages are a lack of a commander's cupola (poor obsen/a-tion ability) and radios in only a few tanks. This results in their mabihty to control formations which manifests itself in the russians employmg their tanks in smali packets of only up to 10 tanks.

CHAPTER 1: DESIGN AND DEYŁOPMBYT

Specifications for new equipment:

1.    lmprove the available tank types by installmg a new gun that can penetrate the Russian tanks at a rangę where they can't penetrate ours In no event will mterruptmg pro-duction of the current senes of tanks be allowable We un-derstand that substantial improvement$ m the armor and suspension can't be mitiatedimmediately The troops willaccept this, if the reąuirement for a new gun is fulfilled.

2.    Thicker armor. improved suspension with wider tracks. better armament. and a morę powerful motor are required for the new tank design. Particular attention is to be paid to mam-taining a high horsepower to weight ratio The abihty to dnve cross country and on ummproved trails in all seasons must be madę possible

During their visit to the front, the Panzerkommission vis-ited a tank repair company, heard proposals for improvements in the air filters and heaters, and were informed of experi-ences by the engineenng officers They also were shown a recent battlefield and met with tank repair and recovery crews from the XXIV.Panzer-Korps

In his closing remarks to the Panzerkommission on 21 November, Guderian pomted out that the following priority applied to new tank designs:

1.    heavier armament

2.    higher tactical maneuverability

3.    improved armor protection

Guderian emphasized that at the beginning of the next offensive it will be necessary for every Panzer-Abteilung to possess several guns in their tanks or several anti-tank guns capable of penetrating the heavy russian tanks. The troops would thereby regain a feeling of weapons superiority over the enemy.

Wa Pruef 6 quickly awarded contracts to Daimler-Benz and M.A.N. for development of new tank designs in the 30

ton class Rhemmetall was aiready m the process of devel-oping a turret with the 7 5 cm Kw. K U70 for the VK 45.01 (H) that would be altered for mountmg on the VK 30.02

On 22 January 1942. Meyer and Wiebicke (MAN ) re-ported on a meeting with Oberst Fichtner. Oberstlt von Wilcke. Major Crohn and Oberbaurat Kmepkamp (Wa Pruef 6) on the VK 30.02 The combat weight of 32 5 mętne tons. de-cided upon in the meeting on 9 December 1941. has mereased to about 36 mętne tons through modification of the design during various meetmgs Wa Pruef 6 had created a model based on this new data. A model prepared from the Daimler-Benz proposal was also shown to us Its appearance is very attractive. It has a rear dnve. an open suspension and a pomted hull front as in the russian T 34 tank At a meeting on 23 January 1942. both models are to be displayed in Hitler's headquarters Hitler's decision was to be quickly reporled. Since Daimler-Benz wants to deliver their first experimental vehicle by May 1942. M A. N also promised de!ivery of the first experimental vehicle in May 1942.

The L 600 C steering gear from Henschel used in the Tiger was also to be used as the mitial steering gear in the VK 30.02. In the meantime M.A.N. prepared simplified design proposals for steering gears that have been accepted by Wa Pruef 6. M A N. can design a hull with a pointed front only with these new steering gears. Since comparison of the M.A.N. proposal with the Daimler-Benz proposal didn't oc-cur, the requirement has been dropped for M.A.N to mclude the Daimler diesel motor in their futurę proposal

Hitler was shown a model of each of the designs from M.A.N and Daimler-Benz. Since only one of these designs was to go into senes production. Minister Todt declared that a meeting of the designers was needed to achieve standard-ization of both proposals. The datę for this meeting was set for 2 February 1942.

Direktor Dr. Kissel (on the board of directors at Daimler-Benz). and Direktor Oberlaender (Daimler-Benz Werk 40) met with Reichsmimster Dr. Todt and Oberst Fichtner (Wa Pruef

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