Panzerkampfwagen V Panther, "Panther" (PzKpfw V) is a German tank of the Second World War. Developed by MAN in 1941-1942 as the main tank of the Wehrmacht. According to the German classification, the "Panther" was considered a medium tank. In the Soviet tank classification, "Panther" was considered a heavy tank, it was called T-5 or T-V. In the departmental system of designations of military equipment of Nazi Germany, the "Panther" had the index Sd.Kfz. 171. Starting from February 27, 1944, the Führer ordered to use only the name "Panther" to designate the tank. Structurally, "Panther" contains many compromise solutions. Practically the same engine as the "Tiger", it had better frontal armor, a gun with a higher rate of fire, was lighter in weight, and therefore faster, and moved better over rough terrain than the "Tigers". However, there was weaker onboard armor; The Panther proved to be deadly in open terrain and at long range, but vulnerable in closed-field combat. The Panther was also much cheaper to produce than the Tiger tanks, and only slightly more expensive than the Panzer IV, which paid off in increasing military production of tanks. As a compromise, the execution of such basic parts of the tank as armor, transmission, and drive discs was simplified to increase production rates and solve the problem of shortages in Germany in the war. Other details, such as a highly compact engine and a complex suspension system, remained at a high-tech level. The result was that the production prospects for the Panther were much better than for the Tiger tanks, but the Panzer IV still remained the main "competitor". At the same time, the simplified drive discs became one of the main causes of Panther accidents, and remained a problem that was never fixed. The combat debut of the "Panther" was the battle on the Kursk arc, later tanks of this type were actively used by the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS troops in all European theaters of military operations. According to a number of experts, the Panther is the best German tank of World War II and one of the best in the world. At the same time, the tank had a number of disadvantages, it was complex and expensive to manufacture and operate. The "Panther" base produced "Yagdpantera" self-propelled artillery units (ACS) and a number of specialized vehicles for the engineering and artillery units of the German armed forces.
