Quoted Text
Many people think that the Panther was the best German Tank, but I beg to differ. For me it has to be the Panzer IV, and especially the Mark IV Special, it was the better of any Sherman or Comet, and equal on terms with a good crew, against the T34-76. All round it was a winner.
What are your views on this.
Scott
The Panzer IV was adequate for the mid war period, but it was well past its use-by date by 1944. The box shaped hull was archaic in layout compared to the sloped armor used by later German designs, and the heavier armor fitted on the later H and J models overstressed the drive train.
Panther would have been a great tank if it had had two more years of research and development before being committed to production. It's development cycle, a scant 20 months, left far too many technical problems, and it was needlessly complex. Late war production models suffered from poor armor steel quality, as the supplies of nickel, manganese, chromium and molybdenum were drying up, and brittle carbon steels were substituted.
As for German training being superior, that was certainly not the case in 1944--there was simply no fuel and no time to properly train tank crews. The new Panther brigades rushed into combat in the Lorraine Campaign in September, 1944, were chewed up in very one-sided engagements by experienced Sherman crews, and these tanks didn't even have the new 76 mm gun.
As for the canard that five Shermans were lost for every Panther, it's just one of those catch phrases that's been repeated ad nauseum until everyone believes it. Steve Zaloga has actually checked the stats, and the ratio is far less. In fact, the deciding factor in tank vs tank engagements is nearly always who fires first (usually the defender), not the apparent advantage in armor thickness or firepower.
