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GERMANYS PANTHER TANK

must break Also. the enemy is awakened and sent his artil-tery and mortar shells agamst this juggernaut Enemy de-stroyer aircraft attack m waves attempting to force a halt Fountams ofearth climb skyward Sheds m which the enemy take cover. go up m smoke and tiames Unstoppable. the spearhead advanced toward Wilkowischken, grinding guns andpositions underneath Otten in man-to-man combat, the Fusihers and Grenadiers engage the tough and stubborn enemy At about 1200 hours. the city is in our hands. The battlefield shows the marks ot heavy combat The enemy has lost large quantities ot both men and materiał Positions were established to defend the city

Toward the southeast. in the rear ot the city. two Pan-thers pulled into their defenswe area Russian tanks were reported Not a halt hour hadpassed when tour russian tanks approached the city from the southeast. They were spotted immediately. but the rangę was still too long. Then they dis-appeared into a depression. Wili they come up agam is the question. There. somewhat left, all tour appeared m a linę at a rangę ot 1300 meters Now their fuli size was seen and the detenders opened tire. Five shots quickly followed each other and three columns ot smoke stand out against the sky. The fourth was lucky to tum nght and disappeared into a patch ot woods Was it only an advanced spearhead? Will still morę follow or were they recon vehicles? The eyes ot the com-manders search the ter ram But nothing stirs.

Twilight slowly enveloped the terram in darkness What will the next day bring? Will the Russians try to counterattack and retake the city or not? The leader decided to change to another position to get a better field ot fire. Durmg the night running motors from moving tanks were heard. Toward morn-ing, a Panther was called back for resupply and the other Panther had to take over the entire defense.

Daybreak has long sińce passed and an attack was no long er expected when out of the depression at fuli speed 14 russian tanks carrying infantry charged toward the defending Panther The loader was outside well away from the Panther finishing his business when shelling from the enemy tanks forced him to take cover This madę the situation morę diffi-cult. The driver took his place and fire was opened at a rangę of 1000 meters Shot after shot was sent toward the attacker The enemy that had charged to within 600 meters turned right and disappeared into a hole. Four enemy tanks remained as smoking wrecks on the track An immediate cali on the radio alerted the defenders positioned further to the north. They managed to destroy six of the 10 remaming enemy tanks. DrMng wildly, the rest escaped. An attack behind our front had be en repulsed and cost the enemy heavy losses.

Agam the defending Panther changed his position. After an hour. the second Panther returned from being resupplied and took up his defensive position. The enemy hadn't given up on their attempt to enter the city. Durmg the afternoon. the enemy with an infantry battalion supported by four SU as-sault guns. under cover of the tali com fields. tried twice to break m from the southeast. But. both attacks were completely repulsed by the two defending Panthers. All four SU assault guns that took part in both of these attacks were shot up.

Two Panthers defending the city from the south and southeast had broke up two tank and two infantry attacks. The enemy sufiered the loss of 11 tanks and w ery heavy losses of men.

10.3 PANTHERS IN1TALY

The tirst batch of Panthers was sent down to Northern Italy m August 1943 with the I Abteilung/SS Panzer-Regiment 1 ₀f the 1 SS-Panzer-Division. These 71 Ausfuehrung D Panthers did not engage Allied troops and were sent back to Germanu in October 1943    ^y

The first unit with Panthers to engage Allied Forces was the I Abteilung/Panzer-Regiment 4 It was sent down to Italy with 76 Panthers (mostly Ausfuehrung A with a few Ausfuehrung D) m early February 1944 to attack the beach-head at Anzio. The Allies repulsed these attacks with the aid of naval gunfire.

Directly before their second major action against the Allied offensive that kicked off on 22 May 1944.1 /Pz Rgt 4 reported 62 operational Panthers on 19 May. The following ex-cerpt from the war diary of the 4.Kompame/Panzer-Regiment 4 reveals how this company fared during their attempt to stop the Allied advance

At 0355 hours on 23 May 1944. the combat elements were alerted by the company commander At 0445, three Panthers (401.414 and 431) left the assembly area. The other four Panthers (421. 422, 423, and 433) were to follow as soon as they finished refueling. This hadn't been completed sińce the gasolme had been delivered in 200 liter drums with only one pump. At 0515. the three advanced Panthers were forced to immediately change position due to heavy artillery fire.

Enemy tanks and infantry started to attack at 1030. A decision was madę to attack the enemy in the flank. The route was subjected to heavy artillery barrages. Finding the way was almost impossible due to powder fumes and artificial smoke. Bypassmg the various barrage zones. five Panthers managed to attack the enemy in the flank without loss due to enemy fire. Panthers 423 and 431 had remained behind due to mechanical problems. The opponent fled the battlefield. pullmg back to the east. Ieaving all his weapons and equip-ment behind. An immediate enemy tank counterattack was repulsed. Panther 433 was knocked out in this last action. The commander was killed and the gunner and loader wounded. A short time later the gunner in Panther 423 was wounded.

All of the enemy tank attacks were beaten back. Alto-gether 28 enemy tanks were destroyed. Ninę were claimed by Panther 433. six by Panther 422. five each by Panthers 415 and 414. and three by Panther 401 All 28 of these enemy tanks bumed immediately. Three additional enemy tanks were knocked out but didn't bum and were not claimed as kills.

However. m contmued action the I.Abteilung/Panzer-Regi-ment 4 quickly wore down. As reported on 26 May 1944. only 13 of the remaining 48 Panthers were operational On 1 June, only 6 Panthers were reported as operational. How the Panthers were lost is partially revealed by the following cypher sent to The War Office on 12 June 1944

¹6 Panthers exammed between the Hitler Linę and Romę. Of these 7 knocked out by AP penetration. Detaii 4 through turret side, 1 hull side, and 2 rear hull. Holes approximately 3 inch and probably due to 75 mm from Sherman. One burnt

CHAPTER 10: OPERATIONAL HISTORY

A column of Panthers with the fAbte.lung/Panzer-Regiment 4 waiting to attack at Anzio Most of the Panthers were Aust A with a few Ausf _D The lead Panther Ausf A has a monocular T 2 F12a gun sight but st.ll has the -Letterbok machmegun port in the gS plate

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