Below German standards from the past? Past German standards = no sloped armor
According to British tests (Woolwhich trials) the Panzer IV 's frontal armor is 10% percent better than the British machineable quality plate and in some cases better than their homogenous hard
-Panzerkampfwagon IV tank by Ryan Perrett
Most German armor is sloped in the front but not completely like the T-34. Also the Panzer IV had
face-hardened plates called Zusatzpanzer which were very high quality where as the T-34 suffered from poor steel quality.
It wasn't "far superior" to allied armor plates. Panther was designed to compete with T-34. And even with all its complexity, it didn't have a balanced armor distribution, having about 110mm in the front turret, and only about 45mm in the sides, which was crazy.
Its actually 50 mm upper side armor and 40 mm lower side armor for the Panther G. The T 34
only had
45mm of low quality sloping armor on the entire hull (front, side, and rear) which made it suspetable to most German AP rounds from 1942-1945. Sloping does not matter if:
1. You have a high velocity gun or high penetration gun.
2. The gun's ammuntion overmatches the armor thickness.
I just have to roll eyes at comments like these. Not only is it hearsay but also untrue. Russian sloped armor was the reason why Germans even created Panther in the first place. It was created to compete with T-34s because other German tanks couldn't.
The Panther G design was not designed to compete against the T-34. It was meant like the Tiger to vastly outclass the T-34 and anything else the Soviets created in secret and was to roll on to the battlefield. The Panther design was on the drawing boards well before the war. All the T-34 did was to actually make the Germans speed up the Panther development.
The T-34 was below German standards in steel quality, optics, and crew setup which according to accounts made the T-34's clumsy when they were being used. When the T-34 was captured and used against its former owners it was "moderized" to German standards by equipping radios, cupolas, new gun optics, side skirts, and thicker armor on some. (the Pz 747(r)3)
In 1941 when the Germans invaded Russia and encontered the T34 and KV tanks they were better than the German tanks because the Germans could not penetrate the T-34's armor with their early war 37mm's, short 50mm's, and short 75mm's except at close range with the 50mm and the 75mm.
By 1942 the Germans improved their tanks by adding longer guns to them. The Panzer III was now on relatively equal terms with the T-34 with its long 50mm L/60 gun and its thicker armor but the KV tanks still posed a problem. Later in 1942 the Germans released the long 75mm Panzer IV G which was designed to take on the heavy KV tanks. The Panzer IV outclassed the T-34 in firepower and armor protection and the T-34 could no longer penetrate the Panzer IV at long range. It would have to get as close as 200 meters to penetrate the Panzer IV's 80mm of frontal armor. This was one of the reasons for the development of the T-34 85.
The Panzer IV F2 was the first model to be fitted with the long 7.5cm gun. The Panzer IV F2 quickly earned a reputation as an effective fighting vehicle thanks to the excellent performance of the 7.5cm KwK40 L/43 gun.
Medium tank : Battle of Kursk]On February 7th of 1944, few remaining Panzer IV tanks from the 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" spearheaded the attempt to breakout from the Cherkassy Pocket against largely superior Soviet force. During the breakout, SS-Untersturmfuehrer Kurt Schumacher commanded two Panzer IVs, which counterattacked a Soviet tank company destroying in the process some 8 T-34 tanks. On the next day, Schumacher alone engaged another Soviet tank company and during both actions destroyed some 21 Soviet AFVs. For his achievement, he was awarded the Knight's Cross
noxbrood said:
T-34/85 could still compete well with Panther. Note that I said compete, not which one was superior. You can't tell with certainty which one anyway and any bias would be complete BS and you know it.
Not from the front it would have been a very bad idea to attack the Panther from the front because the T-34/85's round could not penetrate the front of the Panther except at less than 500 meters (even the IS-2's rounds were known to deflect from a Panther G) and the Panther was about as quick and maneuverable as the T-34/85 so the T-34's mobility and speed advantage would not exist in this engagement. The Panther G also wielded a much more superior gun when compared to the T-34/85: the 75mm KwK43 L/70.
On September 13th of 1943, seven Panthers from 1st Battalion of 2nd SS Panzer Regiment of 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich", commanded by SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Holzer (turret number 101) fought with a group of some 70 Soviet T-34 tanks near Kolomak. During the 20 minutes long engagement Panthers destroyed some 28 T-34 tanks without any losses.
During the battle around Siedlce on 28/29th July of 1944, 2nd Battalion of 5th SS Panzer Regiment of 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking", destroyed some 107 Soviet tanks (including T-34s, Shermans, and Valentines), while losing 6 tanks.
Panzerkampfwagen V Panther was a very successful design and two could be produced in the same time as a single Tiger tank. Panther revolutionized tank designs and influenced post-war western tank designs and is considered to be the first MBT (Main Battle Tank). Overall, Panther proved to be an excellent weapon when commanded and operated by people like Ernst Barkmann. Panther was liked by its crews, best summarized in statement by Lieutenant Berger of "Grossdeutschland" - "We were shot three times - I owed my life to the Panther
There were plenty of Soviet tanks that could go up against a Panther G effectively were the IS-2, SU-152, ISU-152, SU 100, and the ISU-122. The T-34/85's real German counterpart was the Panzer IV H and J which was pretty much on even ground with the 85 although in long range battles the Panzer IV H/J had the edge in firepower, optics, and armor thickness.
Oh yeah and stay on topic-