----- Original Message -----
From: "Colin Macgregor Stevens" <cmstevens@telus.net>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 5:51 AM
Subject: Re: [MV] Overseas purchases? - Private Smokey Smith, PIAT, Panther,
Sherman, War memorials, Iltis,
> Long message: PIAT; Sherman; Panther; Iltis; War memorials; CFB Borden
> Museum's vehicles
>
And most interesting.
> The above mentioned Farley Mowat brought a Panther tank back to Canada
> (along with a WHOLE SHIPLOAD of WWII German vehicles, cannons, rockets,
> etc.) and the story is at the end of his book MY FATHER'S SON.
>
We believe, by making a lot of twos and twos together, that this Panther is a
very well photographed one captured by the Canadians in Normandy. If you're
even in a position to do so the hull number would be a very useful bit of info
to complete the picture - somewhere LHS of the drivers shoulder.
I think this is a Panther of the 4th Leibstandarte, part of 1st SS Panzer and
carried the turret number 424.
>An incredible
> book to read! We believe that the Panther at Canadian Forces Base Borden
> (north of Toronto, Ontario) is that Panther V Aus A.
>
We need to remember unusually that Panther marks (Ausf) actually went D, A and
G, it is hard to arrive at precise figures but it would appear that around 50%
of German tank losses from Normandy onwards were owing to mechanical failure or
lack of fuel, in either event the vehicle would often be comprehensively
destroyed by its crew.
The Panther was plagued by mechanical failure, the first battlefield deliveries
didn't make it to the front as all broke and never stop a Panther with the
ignition switch as they almost invariably catch fire, the technique is to stall
the engine against the brakes.
Looking at several weeks of actual unit records for the Normandy period dealing
with one unit of Panthers we can see that from 14 vehicles on strength, at the
best only 9 would be available to fight on any one day.
>
> I for one was VERY impressed with the Panther I saw at Borden and the two I
> saw in Paris many years ago. I understand that these Panther tanks had
> running gear reliability problems, but other than that were very, very good
> tanks.
>
Hmmmm, they _could_ have been, average availability a little over 50% tends to
fly in the face of "good" as an overall rating, certainly when operational they
were good.
Richard
Southampton - England
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