CMBB v CMAK

[Nikita]

Panther prototype was developed, but it was intended to be lighter, than actual panther. After Germans inspected Russian tanks (KVs, T-34s, T-28s), they understood, that more heavily armored tanks may come and reviewed initial specifications towards increase of armor and upgunning the prototype to meet current, and, most important, future soviet designs. Of course this immediately resulted in re-drawin of different parts due to increased armor weight and necessity to fit bigger gun. As for threat of T-34 and KV, present in 1941-42, upgrading of armor and guns of existing models was viewed as an acceptable sollution by Guderian among others, until pre-planned substitution of PzIIIs and IVs. And, surely, as it was correctly noted, Hitler personally demanded to speed up development of Panther, since better armored and gunned Soviet tanks were expected to show up by mid 1943.

So, Panther as such was not German reply to T-34s, or tank inspired by T-34s, as sometimes is overstated in literature. Simply pre-war planning, the "pre-T-34" panther idea was updated to meet future threats, whch were forecasted on basis of T-34s and KVs.

4th TBR was formed up with 16 x T-34s out of total 49 tanks of different models. By 16th of October (battle of Mtzensk started on 11th) it had operational 3 x KVs, 7 x T-34s and 23 x light tanks (mainly BTs of different models). In reality Germans were neglecting very basics of war marches: they were moving in march column formation without recce and flanking protection in the enemy territory and, surely, were bitterly punished. In order to hide their incompetence, Langemann and Guderian reported about Russian monsters (enjoy the proportions above:)), which were "unbeatable" and were "flying around" (using usual 10-13km/h off-road speed:)) panzers, which, in their turn, were stuck in the mud. In reality, people, who drove T-34/42 and PzIVF2 told, that the later was easier to drive in mud. They went even further, claiming that PzIV was able to get out of bigger mud, than T-34 (I can buy the argument, that it is subjective, but gearbox of early-mid war T-34 was infamous). Similar problems had Nering with 16th Panzer near Borisov, when he suffered at hands of another competent Soviet tank commander - Kreyzer. However, after initial battles with T-34s during border battles, when T-34s were present in greater numbers and had meeting engagements with German panzer division battlegrups, Germans employed combined arms and tackled the problem without any reports about technological inferiority. BTW, this is proved by letter from post-war PR specialist and liar Guderian: the letter was read and minuted during meeting in Hitler's headquarters in October 21, 1941 (letter was actually dated one month earlier). In this letter, Guderian was evaluating T-34 as "typical example of outdated Russian technology. This tank can not be compared to best of our tanks, produced by loyal sons of the Reich and that have proved their supremacy on numerous occasions". During this meeting, heads of German tank forces were discussing specifications for proto-Panther

However, after defeat of his subordinate - Langemann, he immediately requested commission to come and started to praise Russian tanks, which, as evil undefeatable ghosts, have serioously depleted Langemann's tank units.