Was Jagdpanther A Good Tank?

over the past few months we've looked at many different world war two tanks and some of the most iconic military vehicles deployed during the conflict and we've considered if they were a good tank or not we've looked at the tiger the king tiger the churchill and so many more but today we're looking at the jagdpanth for tank destroyer in this video we'll look at its design history talk you through each of the different elements of the vehicle and then look at its effectiveness in combat personally the jagdpanther is my favorite tank it looks so simple yet completely deadly when you look at it so today join us as we consider whether the jagdpanther is a good tank or not remember to support our channel please make sure to subscribe now the first thing to consider is the fact that a jagdpanther is a tank destroyer or a tank killer it's tasked with taking out different tanks and military vehicles and that's really it it's designed specifically for engagement with enemy tanks so it's mostly a defensive weapon rather than an offensive one its purpose is to deal with threats advancing towards an area not to go carving through an enemy's defense unlike vehicles such as the tiger or the original panther tank to begin with jagdpanther stands for hunting panther and is based upon the chassis of the original panther vehicle after coming across heavier soviet tanks such as a kv-1 it became clear that the pak-36 gun which was the most prominent german anti-tank gun at the beginning of operation barbarossa was very ineffective because of this different pack guns were introduced such as the 75 millimeter pack 40 and the 88 millimeter pack 43 gun it's no surprise that decisions were made to mount these rather effective guns onto military vehicles and preceding the jagdpanther was an [ __ ] or the hornys this vehicle was rather effective at being able to take out tanks at ranges of over three thousand meters but had rather weak armor on board another tank destroyer was the ferdinand or the elephant which also used to pack 43 and was based upon using taiga one chassis that porsche had after the german military decided to award a design contract to henshaw the elephant had a few flaws when it entered service with the battle of kursk although it could effectively take out tanks at a distance when it advanced it became an easy target for soviet infantry that could go closer to the vehicle as it had a lack of close range defense also its extremely heavy weight made it difficult to cross most bridges and the poor soviet infrastructure and terrain of the eastern front made it hard to plot a path to support advances because of this it was clear that the german army was in need of a decent tank destroyer that combined good mobility without reducing armor thickness and a deadly armament the pac-43 gun when it was designed was meant to be towed but became clear that the anti-tank weapon wasn't the easiest to transport and because of this the vermax started looking for platforms to put their gun on august 3 1942 the decision to mount the pack on a panther chassis was reached and dame the benz and krupp would work together to create the jagdpanth far with krupp being responsible for the gun originally it was called the 88 millimeter sturmgashuts or stug and a pre-production model would be presented to hitler on the 20th of october 1943 alongside the tiger ii and the yag tiger it would enter mass production in november that year initially production was rather slow making 10 tanks per month in april 1944 and delays were caused due to the issues with gearboxes and gears also production was slowed due to the allied bombing raids of german cities in industrial heartland and by a lack of workmen needed to work production did eventually speed up and eventually 415 yag panthers were built we've touched on the gun on board the yak panther and the 88 millimeter pack 43 really was a feared weapon it is considered one of the best anti-tank guns of the second world war being accurate at a range of over 3 000 meters it could in theory knock out pretty much all of the allied weapons of the second world war the gun was mounted in a central mantlet which gave it a limited traverse of 12 degrees to each side it would carry 60 rounds of ammunition on board as well as 1200 rounds for the coaxial hall mounted gun and two mp40s on board grenades were also sometimes carried on board to launch projectiles near to the tank without endangering the crew we'll look a bit later at how the gun performed in combat against other tanks but really was fearsome and could rip through shamans and t-34s in terms of armour the germans were constantly improving as the allies did as well this led to bigger guns being needed to penetrate the thicker armor and also knock out each side's tanks to combat the allied advancements german tanks were equipped with thicker and sturdier armor the agpanthus frontal upper armor was 80 millimeters thick and sloped under an angle of 55 degrees its lower frontal armor was 60 millimeters thick at an angle of 60 degrees this sloping effectively led to the armor thickness of around 140 millimeters for the upper plate and 90 millimeters for the lower plate which would guarantee the crew protection against most weapons except extremely heavy guns the armor on the gun mantlet was also very sturdy with a 100 millimeter thick salkoff pighead mantlet installed onto the gun each side of the superstructure also had armor which was thick so the ag panther's armor was extremely good and was much more superior to earlier tank destroyers such as the hornish or the elephant one of the positives of the panther tank initially was its mobility but how would this fare for the jagdpanther well it weighed in at around 46 tons being one of the heavier vehicles deployed by the germans it had the same drivetrain as a pamphlet but was powered by a 12-cylinder maybach hl-230v12 gasoline engine this allowed it to have a range of around 100 miles and it could reach a top speed of 28.6 miles per hour this made it as fast as alloy medium tanks such as a sherman despite weighing a lot more which shows you how good the engine was later the hellcat tank destroyer would be quicker but the jagdpanther was good enough in terms of mobility with regards to the crew on board there would be a five-man crew being made up of a commander the driver gunner loader and radio operator with the radio operator also being machine gunner there were two hatches at the top of the vehicle for the commander in the loader and the hatch at the back would be for the crew and to restock ammo the earlier models featured two periscopes to see ahead and also five pistol holes which could be used to survey the battlefield but was decided later that these were having adverse effects on the strength of the armor but how good was a jagdpanther in combat when we looked at the ag tiger we noticed how it was sometimes let down by an experienced cruise at the closing stages of the conflict but was brutally effective at knocking out enemy tanks the first action of the yak panther was on the 30th july 1944 when they engaged a squad of churchill tanks in france in two minutes three jagdpanthers managed to take out 11 churchills before support would scramble to help the allies reported the capture of two jagdpanthers as they had been abandoned due to the damage of the tracks after this encounter however this incident helped their reputation as a fearsome weapon of war whilst preparing for the ardennes offensive it was planned to deploy jagdpanthers however due to supply problems only 27 of the 56 planned vehicles made it to battalions with only 17 of these actually being able to operate things were slightly different on the eastern front however as many of the vehicles sent there weren't actually destroyed by the soviets but instead at the hands of their crews the main problem that plagued the tank divisions was a lack of spare parts to fix vehicles but also a lack of fuel and severe delays in tank production at the turn of 1945. in january 1945 one squadron managed to wipe out 53 tanks whilst only losing one jagdpanther and four jag panzer fours the majority of the jagdpanthers lost were credited with tanks being blown up by their own crews to prevent them falling into the hands of the enemy in fact the 563rd panzer jaeger ab taelung destroyed 12 jag panthers and 17 yak panzer fours themselves the crews at the latter part of the conflict like the jag tiger who were sent to fight in yak panthers were extremely inexperienced and have received pretty much little or no training rendering the vehicles relatively useless so in conclusion the jagdpanther was a beastly weapon of war and in fact a great tank destroyer its armament on board coupled with the brilliant armor in the hands of the right tank crew would have been capable of knocking out multiple allied tanks easily by using the panther chassis they had the better mobility that the germans craved from a tank destroyer as well as relatively good speeds that they also wanted the engine on board offered good range and power despite the heavy weight of the vehicle the negative once again when it comes to the ag panther like the yag tiger is simply the time in which it was deployed in the second world war the latter stages of the conflict really did lead to poorly trained tank crews taking these expensive weapons onto a battlefield but also issues with manufacturing and getting spare parts onto the battlefield also hindered the yag panther but overall it was an excellent tank destroyer and an extremely feared and brutal weapon of war once again thanks for watching to support our channel please make sure to subscribe once again thank you for watching you

Channel: TheUntoldPast

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Rating: 4.8000002 out of 5

Keywords: jagdpanther, panther tank, good tank, tank, world war 2 tanks, ww2 tank, second world war, ww2, world war 2, nazis, the nazis, wehrmacht, ww2 history, ww2 tanks, jagpanther, jadgpanther, was panther a good tank, history, historic, military history, tanks, tiger tank, tiger 131, tank museum, panther, panther ww2, allies, axis tanks, german army, german ww2 tanks, german tanks, d-day, battle of the bulge, battle of kursk, eastern front ww2, good ww2 tank, king tiger tank, king tiger

Id: Topil1dtsKQ

Length: 9min 36sec (576 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/JohnDeere6930Premium]

It was

[u/gdc123mark]

The Gun was good on the jagdpanther but maneuverability was pretty terrible

[u/jmlee236]

If I remember correctly, the JagdPanther abteilung in Normandy did some damage. Three of them beat up a British Churchill column pretty badly before being overrun due to mechanical issues.

[u/the_chilean]

Soviet Su-85 vs this who wins?