----- Original Message -----
From: "Rikk Rogers" <rkltd@swbell.net>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 2:44 AM
Subject: Re: [MV] Overseas purchases?
>
> Had I the cash to play, I would sure enough like to have a T34, a Sherman
> would be nice, but the T34 was built to beat the stuffing out of a Panther,
> history in the making.
>
Errrrrr, not really. The Panther was built after the shock of meeting the T34
and broadly modelled on it although no one, sensibly, had the bravery to tell Mr
Schickelgruber.
Heinz Guderian reported on the battles at Mzensk which fielded quantities of
T34s and caused heavy losses, a commission appeared on Second Panzer Army's
front on 20 Nov 1941 to study the problem. On 25 Nov 194i The Armaments
Ministry contracted with M.A.N and Daimler-Benz to produce designs for a new
medium tank in the 30 - 35 ton class; these designs were submitted to
Waffenprüfamt 6 in April 1942, the D-B design VK.3002 (DB) was a very close copy
of the T34. The M.A.N. design was along much more typical German lines.
Although an order for 200 DB vehicles was placed this was later rescinded by
WAPRUF 6 as they preferred the more conventional Germanic design. The M.A.N
proposal was accepted in May 1942 with a directive to produce a mild steel model
as soon as possible. The first pilot model was delivered in Sept 1942 going to
Kummersdorf for trials and was almost immediately ordered into full production
as the PzKpfw V Panther, Sd.Kfz 171. The first Panther was delivered in
November 1942 a year after the first onslaught by massed T34s.
You don't need to peek behind the Iron Curtain for T34s, they are so plentiful
in "safe" countries that people use them to make mock-ups, see Saving Ryan's
Privates and BOB.
Richard
Southampton - England
-Still using the skylee addr as .org has never worked-
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