History

It was an engineering masterpiece that in many ways was years ahead of its adversaries. Thick, well –sloped armor featured interlocking mortise joints, which reinforced its welds. A powerful Maybach engine provided a relatively high horsepower-to-weight ratio, and the interleaved suspension provided good weight distribution along the wide track strands. The long, high-velocity, 75-mm main gun was a potent threat to almost any opponent it encountered on the battlefield.
Quoted from the back cover of the book.

the book

Osprey Publications Ltd has released Panther – Germany’s Quest For Combat as a 288 page hardback book with a paper dust jacket. Included with the text are black and white and color photographs, black and white and color illustrations, informational charts and detailed captions. It has a 2012 copyright and the ISBN is 978-1-84908-841-1. As the title states, the book details the German Panther tank.

THE CONTENTS

Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter One – Background
Chapter Two – Firepower
Chapter Three – Protection
Chapter Four – Mobility
Chapter Five - Variants
Index

THE TEXT

The book is well-written and contains many excellent details about the German Panther and its variants Michael and Gladys Green have gone to great lengths to research the Panther, and provides a very well written and accurate history of it such as its design and development and the changes made to both vehicles as well as total numbers of the vehicles that were produced. Discussed as well are the Panther’s armament, communication equipment, and mobility. The text and accompanying photographs are in a correct chronological order in regards to the time frames of the war. Anyone interested in the German Panther tank will find this book very informative and interesting. I didn’t notice any spelling or grammatical errors as I read through the text. Grammar and spelling might not be an important factor to everyone however it is something that I take notice of and pass on my findings. Please refer to the scans that I have provided so that you can judge the text for yourself.

THE PHOTOGRAPHS

There are a total of 72 black & white photographs and 119 color photographs throughout the book. The photographs range from showing the tanks in static positions for the photographer to action photographs. A good portion of the color photographs are in a walk-around type format which show a wealth of detail. There are interior color photographs of the Panther tank which show several different areas within the tank. All of these photographs would be of a great benefit to the detail minded military armor modeler. Other photograph that would prove to be of benefit to the modeler and armor enthusiast, although I don’t believe was planned as such, is of an overturned Panther which gives the reader a chance to view the details on the bottom of the vehicle. There are three color pictures that I think are excellent in nature and will be of a great help to all readers as they are of the Panther’s engine, transmission and main gun that are removed from the tank and offer unobstructed views of them. Several of the photographs will be of use and interest to the scale modeler and several of them will be of interest to military enthusiasts that are interested in viewing the Panther tank overall. Most of the photographs are well done, however there are some that have an out of focus look to them, and some appear to be too dark. All of that is typical for photographs of this period of time. Several are stills taken from period films, which would account for the lack of sharpness. One thing that I was appreciative of with the photographs is that a good majority of them are not the same old overused images that turn up when these two tanks are shown and discussed. It is always nice to see the lesser known photographs. In addition to photographs of the Panther there are pictures of allied and axis military figures, soft skinned vehicles, anti-tank guns as well as German and Russian small arms such as the German MP-40 submachine gun, P-08 Luger and P-38 pistols and the Russian PPSH-41 submachine gun and the Russian PTRD-41 anti-tank rifle.

In addition to the Panther there are other tanks, both allied and axis, shown and discussed. Some of these are:
German Panzer III
German Panzer IV
French S-35 (Somua)
French Renault B1 bis
British Matilda II
Russian KV-1
Russian T-34
Please refer to the scans that I have provided so that you can judge the photographs for yourself

THE ILLUSTRATIONS

There are 5 color illustrations, 3 black & white illustrations, 2 black & white scale line drawings and one exploded view illustration provided in this volume. All of them are very well done, nicely detailed. All of these illustrations will be of great use and benefit and especially helpful to the detail minded military armor modeler and the armor enthusiast. Please refer to the scans that I have provided so that you can judge the illustrations for yourself.

THE MAPS

There are no maps provided in this volume.

THE CHARTS

There are 2 informational charts throughout the book that are very well done, nicely detailed and provide information on:
Various allied weapons used in tests against the Panther’s armor and the end results.
The Panther’s turning radius in proportion to the gear it was operating in.

THE CAPTIONS

The captions are well written and are very detailed and explain the accompanying photographs well. They provide such detailed information as the type and model of the vehicle shown, damage, track types, various specific items on the tank and modifications made and other such specific information. One thing that I did notice is that some of the captions do not describe the picture that they accompany. I do not know if this is a mistake or if it was just the way the author intended them to be. As with the text I didn’t notice any spelling or grammatical errors as I read through the captions. As I stated before, grammar and spelling might not be an important factor to everyone however it is something that I take notice of and pass on my findings. Please refer to the scans that I have provided so that you can judge the captions for yourself.

CONCLUSION

I am very impressed with the book. It examines the German Panther tank very well. Osprey Publishing continues to release many great titles such as this one and I would have no hesitation to add more of their books to my personal library, nor would I hesitate to recommend this book to others.

This book was provided to me by Osprey Publishing Ltd. Please be sure to mention that you saw the book reviewed here when you make your purchase.

REFERENCES

Tanks of World War II
Duncan Crow
Exeter Books

The Great Tanks
Chris Ellis and Peter Chamberlain
Hamlyn

German Tanks Of World War Two In Action
George Forty
Arms and Armour

An Illustrated History Of Fighting Vehicles
Armin Halle/Carlo Demand
Crescent Books

Panther in action
Bruce Culver
Illustrated by Don Greer
Squadron/Signal Publications

Take a look at the book at the Osprey web site:

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/Panther_9781849088411

Osprey Publishing has Panther – Germany’s Quest For Combat Dominance available as a PDF eBook and as an ePub eBook as well.

Take a look inside of the book at the Amazon website:

http://www.amazon.com/Panther-General-Military-Mike-Green/dp/1849088411/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1351217760&sr=1-3

Kindle edition available at the Amazon website.

http://www.amazon.com/Panther-Germanys-dominance-Military-ebook/dp/B008ADFIU6/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1351217760&sr=1-3