PzKpfw V Panther Ausf. D (Early)

The Panther Ausf D was the first production version of the Panther series, and was rushed into combat twelve months after the initial design was first approved. Resultantly the early version was mechanically unreliability and had a disastrous combat debut during the battle of Kursk. Despite this the basic design was good and as reliability improved the it soon proved to be an excellent medium tank.

The Ausf D can be identified by two main features. It had a straight sided “drum” commander’s cupola, with viewports for periscopes low down on the side, and there was no hull machine gun mount. Instead the crew machine gun was fired through a narrow slit in the hull front. The Ausf D was developed as the Ausf A, but its designation was changed before production began in January 1943. Tests on the first few machines revealed a large number of flaws with the new tank. Most seriously the engines caught fire and the final drive chains broke, in a worrying sign of the mechanical unreliability to come. The issue of new tanks stopped in April, and all existing tanks were recalled for major modifications. Only in May was the Panther ready to go back into service, equipping the 51st and 52nd Panzerabteilungen. By the start of Operation Citadel these two detachments had 96 Panthers each but they did not live up to expectations with fifteen braking down before they even reached the front.