Customer Reviews

Germanys Panther Tank: The Quest for Combat Supremacy (Schiffer Military/Aviation History)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In this work, Thomas Jentz traces the development of Germanys Panther tank using original WWII documents such as drawings and parts numbers. Every mark (Ausf.) and every detail change to the Panther is described. The development and production history takes up about 3/4 of the book, the rest is a short description of the operational characteristics of the Panther, a short combat history and a number of tables and diagrams with tehcnical details. This is THE Panther book. Back it up with Spielbergers more technical work and you have about all there is to know about the Panther.

This is an excellent book by a man who studied every little piece of information available on this vehicle for over 20 years. He climbed inside the thing many times and has been around it more than once. It is writen in a very technical language, so all of you non-mechanics and newbies out there, watch out! If there is one thing sorely lacking, it is a page of terminolgy. It would have helped a lot. Also, a more combat accounts would've been great. But overall, it is THE Panther book.

The ultimate guide to the Panther Tank, is full of detail acounting the progress from drawing board to final version of this extremly well designed battle tank of world war two. Excellent for detail for the modeller keen on fine detailing the Panther Tank in any of its versions. Great read and some fine drawinings of all the Panther Tank models built during the war.
Well worth the money.

Panther Tank the Quest for Combat Supremacy" represents over 20 years of research on the Panther and will remain for some years the definitive single volume study of the development history of the Panther tank.

In additional to this book, Thomas Jentz has recently completed a series of four short but technically compressive books, called "Panzer Tracts," covering all the variants of the Panther tank (Ausf D, A, G, F and Panther II). The "Panzer Tracts" include as-built 1/10 and 1/35th scale drawings and some new technical information not found in "Germany's Panther Tank the Quest for Combat Supremacy." The additional technical details in the "Tracts" were not known in 1995 and so could not be included in Jentz's "Germany's Panther Tank the Quest for Combat Supremacy."

"Germanys Panther Tank: The Quest for Combat Supremacy", by Thomas L. Jentz, is a book that completely describes, illustrates, and provides details about the German World War II Panther tank, initially designated as the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther.

The Panther was developed in direct response to the Russian T-34 and KV-1 tanks encountered in the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, which were clearly superior to any tank fielded by the Germans. As a result of this shock, the Germans formed the "Panther Commission" to design a counter to these tanks. Interestingly enough, the name "Panther" wasn't meant to be a name for the ensuing tank, just for the commission, but it carried over as a nickname once the tank entered production, and was made the official name in 1944.

Mr Jentz's book details the development of the Panther from the Panther Commission and the two prototypes fielded by competing manufacturers, all of the various models (in German, Ausfuhrung, or Ausf.), variants, proposed models and modifications that never made it into full production, and some operational history. The author lists and describes all of the changes - and there were a lot - that were made to each of the models, as well as providing numerous pictures and scale drawings of the tanks and important sub-components.

The operational history provided is of the nature of reports, mainly written by German officers (including Generaloberst Heinz Guderian), detailing the strengths, weaknesses, and flaws of the Panther in battle and its maintenance issues. There are also summaries of how many Panthers were operational versus destroyed or under repair for several units that used the Panther.

This is not a book about the "Panther in Combat", so don't buy this if you're looking for that kind of book. This is for the modeler, historian, serious World War II buff, or "tread-head", and is more of a serious reference book than a fun read. It gives you the complete history of the development, production, and changes to the Panther, and is probably the only book you'll ever need from a technical point of view. I recommend this book to the above audiences.

This is an excellent book for all serious armor fans and historians. The text is extremely detailed, printed on high glossy paper, there are tons of crisp B&W photos, line drawings and each change/development of the Panther tank is outlined. The inside, exterior and photos of the tank in action are shown to good effect. There are also reports back from the tankers who used the Panther in action - what was good, what changes they wanted to make it better and what the US tankers thought of the Panther tank.

A replacement for the Panzer Mark III had been begun as early as 1938, but the real sense of urgency came after the encounters with the Russian T-34 and KV-1s. Tank for tank, the Panther is argueably the best of WW2. But is was complex, not easy to maintain and the Allies produced more tanks in a month than all of Germany's tank production in a year.

Four stars - why not five? For this price, I'd like to see a few pages of color plates showing the camouflage schemes used on the Panther. The majority of line drawings are in English, but some of the German documents were not translated, a disservice to many customers.

I bought this book in 1996, I'd buy it again. It's really a must have for WW2 armor students, those who want a definative account of the Panther tank. A great addition to the collection.

Thomas Jentz and Hillary Doyle have done it again with this publication. A fine, quality publication that will be often used as reference by the serious modeling enthusiast. Outstanding and valuable vintage images of the exterior and interiors of the various versions of this famous combat vehicle. Images are clear and offer great details for the modeler.

Scale line drawing of the versions are supplemented by original engineering drawings that offer additional details.

The narrative offers insight into the design, construction and modifications required by combat experience.

Chapter nine covers the final version, the Ausf. F model, that never saw combat. Several fine images of this prototype model are included.

There is a chapter on planned versions that never made into production, along with production histories of the Ausf D, A and G versions, along with a chapter on operational characteristics, and the book is summarized Chapter 10, Operational History.

This book is a very worthwhile addition to the reference library of anyone interested in military history, or those who engage in the hobby of modeling historical vehicles. Buy it! You will not be sorry. This is a reference that will be used often.

This book provides an excellent technical and developmental history of the Panther. The author has obviously done his research on this vehicle. The book is well worth the price.

I found the panther book well researched but a little basic. Some areas including the more obscure late war options need more detail and the book itself would benefit from the latest research. The book is a good read and as such represents good value but leaves you wanting more. Perhaps the Trojca books or similar would be a better option.