The Jagdpanther was by far the best conversion option for the Pz. Kpfw V Panther medium tank. According to experts, she became one of the best anti-tank self-propelled guns of the Second World War. In many respects, it surpassed all the Allied self-propelled guns. Despite this, the excellent German tank destroyer did not leave a significant mark on the military campaigns of the past war. This is partly due to low production (about 390 units), as well as overcoming all manufacturing defects only towards the end of production on 30-40% of the last machines.
Having in their arsenal an excellent 88-mm long-barreled gun, developed on the basis of a well-proven anti-aircraft gun, German engineers made more than one attempt to install it on a tank chassis. This is how the Ferdinand and Nashorn self-propelled guns were born. The first of them was very heavy and difficult to manufacture, and the second could not boast of a serious reservation. The chassis of the PzKpfw V "Panther" medium tank appeared to be the most suitable option for installing the new gun. The decision to create a new ACS based on it was made on August 3, 1942, while work was underway to create a base tank. Initially, the project was going to be entrusted to the company "Krup", which at that time was already working on the installation of a new 88-mm gun on the chassis of the PzKpfw IV tank, but in mid-October 1942, further development of the ACS was transferred to the company "Daimler-Benz".
On January 5, 1943, at a meeting of the technical commission of the Daimler-Benz concern, a number of requirements for the future ACS were determined. Initially, the tank destroyer was supposed to be unified with the Panther II tank under development, but after the Ministry of Arms made a decision on the temporary freezing of the Panther II project on May 4, 1943, the developers of the self-propelled guns, in order to unify with the Panther medium tank, had to introduce a number of serious changes.
As a result of all this, as well as the transfer of production to MIAG factories, the first sample of this very necessary vehicle for the front, which received the designation Jagdpanther, was shown to Hitler only on October 20, 1943 and immediately received his approval. On the remaining practically unchanged chassis of the Panther tank, a well-protected armored jacket with a perfect ballistic profile was installed. A significant drawback could be the limitation of the aiming angle in the horizontal plane, if the tank destroyer did not have an excellent control system that made it easy to deploy the ACS and ensure high accuracy of aiming the gun at the target. According to its characteristics, the gun, which was installed on the "Jagdpanther", surpassed all tank guns of the allies. A similar gun was installed only on the heavy tank PzKpfw VI "Tiger II". The armor-piercing shells of this gun, at a distance of 1 kilometer, penetrated 193 mm of armor.
The first self-propelled guns began to arrive in the Wehrmacht units in February 1944. Initially, it was believed that these vehicles would be produced in the amount of 150 self-propelled guns per month, but due to the constant bombing of the Allied aviation and the fact that the self-propelled gun was created on the basis of the main and, perhaps, the best Wehrmacht tank, the production of which was given the highest priority, the German factories managed until April 1945 to produce only 392 self-propelled guns "Jagdpanther". We can say that the troops of the anti-Hitler coalition were lucky, since the Jagdpanther was one of the best tank destroyers of the Second World War, extremely effectively fighting the tanks of the allies.
Design features
The Jagdpanther was the most effective German tank destroyer. This tank destroyer successfully combined good armor protection, firepower, and excellent mobility.
The self-propelled body was welded from rolled heterogeneous steel plates, its weight was about 17 tons. The walls of the hull and deckhouse were located at different angles, which contributed to the dissipation of the kinetic energy of the shells. In order to increase the strength, the welded seams were additionally reinforced with grooves and tongue-and-groove piles. The forehead of the hull had a booking of 80 mm and was located at an angle of 55 degrees. The sides of the casemate had a reservation of 50 mm. and were located at an angle of 30 degrees.
For the manufacture of self-propelled guns "Jagdpanther" used the standard body of the tank "Panther". In the front of the hull there was a gearbox, to the left and right of it were the driver and the radio operator. Opposite the place of the latter, an MG-34 machine gun of 7.92 mm caliber was mounted in a ball mount. The driver-mechanic controlled the ACS using levers that turned on or off the final drives. The view from the driver's seat was carried out through a single or double periscope brought out to the frontal part of the hull. The radio station was located on the right side of the car body. The radio operator could observe the terrain only with the optical sight of his course machine gun. Machine gun ammunition was 600 rounds, which were in 8 bags in belts of 75 rounds to the right and left of the radio operator's place.
The central part of the vehicle's body is occupied by the fighting compartment, which houses the breech of the 88-mm StuK 43/3 gun and racks with 88-mm rounds. Here are the workplaces of the rest of the crew: gunner, loader and commander. The fighting compartment is closed on all sides by a fixed wheelhouse, on its roof there are 2 round hatches for the crew. In the rear wall of the wheelhouse there is a rectangular hatch, which serves for loading ammunition, ejecting spent cartridges, dismantling the gun and evacuating the crew.
In the rear of the hull there was an engine compartment, fenced off from the fighting compartment by a fire bulkhead. The engine compartment and the entire rear part of the body 1 in 1 repeated the serial "Panther".
The Jagdpanther self-propelled guns were equipped with a rather powerful Maybach HL230P30 engine. This 12-cylinder V-shaped (60-degree camber) liquid-cooled carburetor engine at 3000 rpm developed a power of 700 hp, allowing the 46 ton self-propelled gun to accelerate to 46 km / h. The engine had four carburetors, which were supplied with fuel by means of Solex petrol pumps. Additionally, the car had a manual emergency fuel pump. The fuel was stored in 6 tanks with a total capacity of 700 liters. The stock of travel on the highway reached 210 km.
The engine worked in conjunction with a manual, semi-automatic gearbox with preselection. The gearbox had 7 forward and reverse speeds. The gearbox was controlled hydraulically using a lever, which was located to the right of the driver's seat.
From its "progenitor" - the medium tank PzKpfw V "Panther" - the Jagdpanther self-propelled guns inherited exceptional smoothness. The undercarriage of the tank has a "staggered" arrangement of road wheels (Kniepkamp design), which ensures a more uniform distribution of pressure on the ground and a good ride. Along with this, such a structure is very difficult to manufacture and especially to repair, and also has a very large mass. To replace only one roller from the inner row, it was necessary to dismantle from 1/3 to half of all external rollers. Each side of the ACS had 8 large diameter road wheels. Double torsion bars were used as elastic suspension elements, the front and rear pair of rollers had hydraulic shock absorbers. The leading rollers are front.
The main armament of the Jagdpanther tank destroyer was the 88 mm StuK 43/3 cannon with a barrel length of 71 caliber (6 300 mm). The total length of the gun was 6595 mm. The vertical guidance angles ranged from -8 to +14 degrees. The horizontal guidance angles were 11 degrees in both directions. The mass of the gun was 2265 kg. The gun was equipped with a hydraulic recoil mechanism. The normal recoil of the gun was 380 mm, maximum 580 mm. In the event that the rollback exceeded 580 mm, it was necessary to take a break in shooting. The gun was equipped with an electric trigger, the release button was located near the gunner's seat. The gun's ammunition was 57 shells. For firing, armor-piercing, sub-caliber and high-explosive fragmentation shells were used. The shots were located along the sides and on the floor of the fighting compartment. In the stowed position, the barrel of the gun was given an elevation of 7 degrees.
The Jagdpanther tank destroyer was originally equipped with SflZF5 sights, and later vehicles were equipped with WZF1 / 4 sights. The SflZF5 sight is a telescopic sight with one lens. It provided the gunner with 3x magnification and had a field of view of 8 degrees. The sight was calibrated to 3,000 meters when firing with PzGr39 / 1 armor-piercing shells and up to 5,300 meters when firing subcaliber PzGr 40/43 shells. The maximum firing range was 15 300 meters. The WZF1 / 4 sight was also telescopic, but it provided 10x magnification and had a 7-degree field of view. The sight was calibrated to 4,000 meters for PzGr39 / 1 projectiles, 2,400 meters for PzGr40 / 43 and 3,400 meters for high-explosive projectiles.
Additional self-propelled armament is the 7, 92-mm MG-34 machine gun with 600 rounds of ammunition. The machine gun is located in the ball mount to the right of the gun. The optical sight of the machine gun provides 1, 8 times magnification. The machine gun has depression / elevation angles of -10 +15 degrees and a sector of fire of 10 degrees (5 each to the left and to the right). Shot casings and empty machine-gun belts are collected in a special bag fixed under the machine gun. In addition to this "Jagdpanther" was additionally armed with a close-combat mortar "Nahverteidungswafte", which could fire fragmentation, smoke, lighting or signal grenades. The grenade launcher had a circular firing sector and had a fixed elevation angle (50 degrees). The firing range of fragmentation grenades was 100 meters.
Features of use
Initially, the Jagdpanther self-propelled guns were supposed to enter service with separate heavy anti-tank battalions, which consisted of three companies of 14 self-propelled guns in each, 3 more tank destroyers belonged to the battalion headquarters. The Wehrmacht leadership ordered the use of self-propelled guns only to counter enemy tank attacks. The self-propelled guns as part of the division were supposed to ensure quick success in decisive directions. The use of tank destroyers in parts was not allowed. The use of Jagdpanther platoons was allowed only in isolated cases, for example, when storming fortified enemy positions. Unless absolutely necessary, they were not allowed to be used as fixed firing points. After solving the combat mission, the ACS was ordered to immediately withdraw to the rear for technical inspection and repair.
These recommendations, especially in the last months of the war, were hardly feasible. Therefore, most often the self-propelled guns were used in port, making up one of the three companies of the anti-tank battalion. The Jagdpanther was most widely used during the Ardennes operation. It was attended by at least 56 vehicles in 6 battalions of tank destroyers, as well as about 12 vehicles in various parts of the SS. On the Eastern Front, vehicles were most widely used during the battles near Lake Balaton and during the defense of Vienna. Then most of the ACS were part of hastily put together SS formations, tank destroyers were used along with tanks, and often simply replaced them in newly created formations. Despite the high losses during the Ardennes operation and low production rates on March 1, 1945, there were 202 Jagdpanther tank destroyers in the Wehrmacht.
Performance characteristics: Jagdpanther
Weight: 45.5 tons.
Dimensions:
Length 9, 86 m, width 3, 42 m, height 2, 72 m.
Crew: 5 people.
Reservation: from 20 to 80 mm.
Armament: 88-mm cannon StuK43 / 3 L / 71, 7, 92-mm MG-34 machine gun
Ammunition: 57 rounds, 600 rounds.
Engine: 12-cylinder liquid-cooled gasoline engine "Maybach" HL HL230P30, 700 hp
Maximum speed: on the highway - 46 km / h, on rough terrain - 25 km / h
Progress in store: on the highway - 210 km., On rough terrain - 140 km.
