The Panther Tank

by Matthew Hughes, Chris Mann

During its 22 months of service beginning in July 1943, Germany's Panther tank proved more than a formidable opponent for the superior numbers of Allied tanks and ground-attack aircraft amassed on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. Illustrated with archival photographs, color paintings, and diagrams, this history of the highly mobile and well-armed Panther spans the period from its conception through its production run of 5,500 by war's end. The book exhaustively explores the people and events behind the development and rushed production of the Panther and its variants, as well as the tank's evolving role and battle record in Germany's last-ditch attempt to salvage victory. Key features of the Panther's design and layout are explained and illustrated, as are the tactics used by tank commanders in key battles.

96 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1999

About the author

Dr Matthew Hughes is Professor of Military History at Brunel University London, in England.

Hughes studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies and at the London School of Economics. He completed his ESRC-funded PhD in 1995 under the supervision of Professors Brian Bond and Brian Holden Reid in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London on the strategy surrounding the British campaign in Palestine in the First World War in Palestine. He has a PGCE in History from Cardiff University. After working as an intern with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Professor Hughes lectured at the universities of Northampton and Salford before coming to Brunel University in 2005. Professor Hughes has been a British Academy funded visiting fellow at the American University in Cairo, the American University in Beirut, and at Tel Aviv University. He spent two years as the Marine Corps University Foundation-funded Maj-Gen Matthew C. Horner Distinguished Chair in Military Theory at the US Marine Corps University, Quantico, 2008-10. His latest monograph on British counter-insurgency in Palestine in the 1930s entitled Britain's Pacification of Palestine: the British Army, the Colonial State, and the Arab Revolt, 1936-1939 (2019) was published with Cambridge University Press. He was the editor of the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research (2004-8). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a former Chair of Council of the Army Records Society (2014-18), and is a judge for the Society for Army Historical Research's annual Templer Medal prize (2003-4, 2007-8, 2018-). He sits on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Military History and Middle Eastern Studies and is a judge for the latter's annual Elie Kedourie prize. He is currently an external examiner for the Higher Diploma awarded by Maynooth University to the Junior Command and Staff Course with the Military College, Irish Defence Forces, and a Visiting Lecturer and examiner at the University of Buckingham.

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost anyone with a casual interest in WWII tank history is liable to be under the impression, fostered by popular movies, that the backbone of Nazi panzer units was the massive Tiger tank. Not so. While the Tiger was arguably the most powerful armored vehicle of the Second World War, the Panther was probably a more well-rounded weapon, nearly as well-armed and armored as its legendary cousin and significantly lighter and more mobile. Produced in far larger numbers than the Tiger, the Panther was the true mainstay of German armor during the second half of the war.

"The Panther Tank," by Drs. Matthew Hughes and Chris Mann, is a solid, well-researched and handsomely illustrated showcase for one of the best armored vehicles of the 20th-century. Complete with scale drawings, cutaways, and full specifications of the Panther--including its several variants, such as the fearsome Jagdpanther tank destroyer--and all its major rivals (the American Sherman, Russian T-34, etc.), this book gives a complete general history of the Panther from the development stage to the last stand at Berlin. However, the word "general" is key. While Hughes and Mann have compiled a wealth of information, most of it is conveyed in very broad strokes. As a strategic guide to the overall place of the Panther in the ground war for Europe, "The Panther Tank" is exceptional. But the lack of tactical specifics is a distinct drawback. More first-hand accounts from German Panther crews, or even from allied tankers who had to confront the Panther, would have made this a much better book.

Still, Hughes and Mann have made a valuable contribution to tank scholarship. As a guide to the Panther's overall role in the German war effort or an introduction to a weapon often eclipsed by the mythical Tiger, "The Panther Tank" is an outstanding value.

[Carlos Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

還行，資料齊全，是粉絲必備讀物，又不貴。