The FReeper Foxhole's TreadHead Tuesday - PanzerKampfwagen V - Panther - Feb. 17th, 2004

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[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

...................................................................................... ...........................................

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PanzerKampfwagen V
Panther

After meeting the Soviet T-34 tank in late 1941 the German army was considerably shaken to find that there was a tank better than its PzKpfw IV. Although work on a successor to the PzKpfw IV had started as early as 1937, which eventually became the Tiger heavy tank, it largely incorporated features from the earlier development prototypes and owed nothing to the T-34 design. After examining captured T-34s during an "on the spot" investigation, the key features of the T-34 design were assessed. The three main characteristics were:

• the sloped armor which gave optimum shot deflection
• the large road wheels which gave a stable and steady ride
• the overhanging gun, a feature previously avoided by the Germans as impracticable

Wooden model of the Daimler-Benz proposal

Having received the commision's report on November 25 1941, the Heereswaffenamt contracted with two armament firms, Daimler-Benz and MAN, to produce designs for a new medium tank in the 30-35 ton class. To be ready for the following spring, the specifications called for a vehicle with 60mm frontal armor and 40mm side armor, a high velocity 75mm gun and the front and sides to be sloped like the T-34.


MAN Panther Ausf. D

In April 1942, the two designs were submitted, with an interesting contrast. Daimler-Benz proposal was an almost unashamed copy of the T-34 in layout, with the addition of a few refinements. It had a hull shape similar to the T-34 with turret mounted well forward; the driver sat within the turret cage. A diesel engine was fitted with transmission to the rear sprockets. Paired steel bogies without rubber tyres were suspended by leaf springs. Other features included jettisonable fuel tanks on the hull rear in T-34 fashion.


Panther Ausf. A

Hitler was impressed with the Daimler-Benz "T-34 type" proposal, although he suggested that the gun be changed from the 75mm L/48 model to the longer L/70 weapon, and prototypes went into production. Leaf springs were cheaper and easier to produce than torsion bars, and the diesel engine would have been an advantage in later years when petrol supply became restricted. However, the Heereswaffenamt preferred the MAN design, since simply copying the T-34 was unpatriotic and there were mechanical features of the T-34 which made copying an impractical proposition for German manufacturers.


Panther Ausf. G

The MAN design displayed original German thinking, sophisticated rather than simple. It had a higher, wider hull than either the Daimler-Benz design or the T-34, with a large turret placed well back to offset as much as possible the overhang of the long 75mm gun. Torsion bar suspension was used with interleaved road wheels, while a Maybach petrol engine was proposed, with drive to the front sprockets. The internal layout followed conventional German practice with stations for the driver and hull gunner/radio-operator in the front compartment.


The crew of a Panther, Eastern Front, April 1944

Militarily, there were two important prerequisites in the comparison of the two models: mass production should start in December 1942, and the weapon should be of superior quality to counter the numerical material superiority of the enemy. Daimler-Benz was not able to produce the turret for the deadline, and needed modifications on the turret as well. The recommendation of the MAN's proposal was presented to Hitler on 13 May 1942, and accepted. At the same time the specifications were restated, increasing the frontal armor thickness to 80mm, a change increasing the weight to 44 tons. By that time much of the design, like wheels and suspension, had been completed and subcontractors at work; throwing additional strain on components designed for the original weight, which lead to problems of unreliability in action.

[Soaring Feather]

Sheeeeeesh!!!! I forgot it's Thread Head Tuesday and I am late!

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning PE.

[SAMWolf]

Morning PE. It's interesting how much earlier work was being done on some of the High Tech stuff we have.

[SAMWolf]

Better late than never. :-)

[Professional Engineer]

Is Blue Thunder far behind?

[Valin]

On This Day in History


1568: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II (also king of Hungary and Bohemia) agrees to pay an annual tribute to the Sultan Selim II for peace
1634: Puritan attorney William Prynne is tried in the court of the Star Chamber for publishing, in 1632, “Histriomastix. The Players Scourge, Or, Actors Tragedie,” which contained the index note “Women-Actors, notorious whores”, an ill-timed entry as ten weeks after its publication, Queen Henrietta Maria performed in the play “The Shepherd's Pastoral” by William Montague (Prynne was punished with life imprisonment, a fine of £5,000, and the cutting off of both his ears)
1691: Thomas Neale is granted a British patent for the American postal service
1772: The first partition of Poland-Russia & Prussia (joined later by Austria)
1776: The first volume is published of Gibbon's “Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire”
1791: Messier catalogs galaxy M83 (spiral galaxy in Hydra)
1795: Thomas Seddal harvests an 8.3-kg potato from his garden in Chester England
1801: The U.S House of Representatives breaks the electoral college tie, choosing Thomas Jefferson to be president over Aaron Burr
1817: Baltimore becomes the first U.S. city to be lit by gas lighting (by the first U.S. gas company, the Gas Light Company of Baltimore)
1854: Britain recognize the independence of Orange Free State (South Africa)
1864: The Confederate vessel, CSS HL Hunley, becomes the first submarine to sink an enemy ship
1865: Columbia South Carolina burns down as the Confederates evacuate and Union forces move in during the Civil War
1867: The first ship passes through the Suez Canal
1870: Mississippi becomes the 9th state to be readmitted to the U.S. after the Civil War
1872: “Harper's Weekly” features a cartoon about the Free Love movement
1876: Sardines are first canned (in Eastport Maine)
1878: The first telephone exchange in San Francisco opens with 18 phones
1897: The National Congress of Parents & Teachers organizes (Washington DC)
1904: Giacomo Puccini's opera “Madama Butterfly” premieres at La Scala (and is poorly received)
1905: Frances Willard becomes the first woman honored in National Statuary Hall
1911: The first hydroplane flight is made to & from a ship (by Glenn Curtiss - San Diego)
1913: The first minimum wage law in the U.S. takes effect (in Oregon)
1913: The New York Armory Art Show displays the first U.S. showing of “Modern Art”, introducing Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp and other artists to the public
1915: Edward Stone, the first U.S. combatant to die in WW I, is mortally wounded
1933: “Newsweek” magazine is first published
1934: The first high school auto driving course is offered (at State College in Pennsylvania)
1936: “The Phantom” cartoon strip, by Lee Falk, debuts
1942: The first red wing blackbird is sighted at Block Island (Rhode Island)
1944: The Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins (U.S. victory on Feb 22nd)
1947: The Voice of America begins broadcasting to the USSR
1949: Chaim Weitzman is elected as the first president of Israel
1957: The Suez Canal reopens
1958: The syndicated comic strip “B.C.” is first published (ZOT!)
1959: The first weather satellite is launched (Vanguard 2 weighing 9.8 kg)
1964: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Westberry v. Sanders that congressional districts must have equal populations
1966: The French satellite Diapason D-1A is launched into Earth orbit
1967: The Beatles release “Penny Lane” & “Strawberry Fields”
1967: Kosmos 140 launches into Earth orbit in a test of the Soyuz program
1968: The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens in Springfield Massachusetts
1970: Jeffrey McDonald murders his wife and daughter
1971: The first municipal veterinary hospital is opened by W.E. Ziegler (Los Angeles)
1972: President Nixon leaves Washington DC for China
1979: China invades Vietnam
1980: Buddy Baker wins the Daytona 500 (177.6 MPH/285.8 kph)
1981: Chrysler Corporation reports the largest corporate losses in U.S. history
1985: First class postage rises from 20¢ to 22¢ for the first ounce
1986: The first Francophone Summit convenes at Versailles
1986: Johnson & Johnson announces it will no longer sell encapsulated pharmaceuticals
1987: Don Mattingly wins the highest salary arbitration of the time ($1,975,000 per year)
1989: Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya form a common market
1989: A six-week study of the Arctic atmosphere shows no ozone “hole”
1990: Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan gives videotaped testimony for a 2nd day about the Iran-Contra affair in the trial of former national security adviser John Poindexter
1991: Iraq Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz travels to Moscow to discuss possible negotiated end to the U.S.-led air war, and impending ground war, to free Kuwait and contain Iraq
1992: Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is sentenced in Milwaukee Wisconsin to life in prison (he is beaten to death in prison in 1994)
1993: A Haitian ferry boat capsizes in a storm, killing more than 1,000 people
1995: Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings
1995: A Federal judge rules a lawsuit is allowable that claims U.S. tobacco makers knew nicotine was addictive & manipulated its levels in cigarettes to keep customers addicted
1996: World chess champion Garry Kasparov beats IBM supercomputer “Deep Blue,” in a six-game match (Philadelphia)
1998: Larry Wayne Harris and Bill Levitt are arrested for possession of anthrax
2002: The new Transportation Security Administration takes over supervision of aviation security from the airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration, marking the beginning of private security personnel becoming Federal employees

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Born On This Day:
1490: Karel van Bourbon, military man/mayor (Lombardije) (514 years ago)
1519: François Guise, (Balafré), French general strategist (485 years ago)
1653: Arcangelo Corelli, Fusignano Italy, violinist/composer (Concerto grossi) (351 years ago)
1723: Tobias Mayer, “method of lunars” for longitude determination (281 years ago)
1774: Raphaelle Peale, U.S., painter (After the Rain-1823) (230 years ago)
1781: René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec, inventor (stethoscope) (223 years ago)
1804: Samuel Read Anderson, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1883 (200 years ago)
1824: William Farrar Baldy Smith, Mjr Gen (Union volunteers), died in 1903 (180 years ago)
1837: Francis Jay Herron, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1902 (167 years ago)
1844: A Montgomery Ward, founded the mail-order business (160 years ago)
1854: Friedrich A Krupp, German arms manufacturer (150 years ago)
1867: William Cadbury, England, chocolate manufacturer (137 years ago)
1874: Thomas J Watson Sr., U.S. representative/founder (IBM) (130 years ago)
1880: Alvaro Obregon, general/president Mexico (124 years ago)
1888: Otto Stern, physicist (Nobel 1943) (116 years ago)
1889: H.L. (Haroldson L) Hunt, Texas oil multi-millionaire (115 years ago)
1902: Marian Anderson, Philadelphia, operatic contralto/banned by D.A.R. (102 years ago)
1908: “Red” (Walter L) Barber, Mississippi, sports announcer (Brooklyn Dodgers, NY Yankees) (96 years ago)
1914: Arthur Kennedy, Worcester Mass, actor (Fantastic Voyage, Peyton Place) (90 years ago)
1918: Charles A Hayes, (Rep-D-IL, 1983- ) (86 years ago)
1924: Margaret Truman, Missouri, U.S. president's daughter/writer/pianist (Murder at the FBI) (80 years ago)
1925: Hal Holbrook, Cleveland, actor (All the President's Men, Mark Twain) (79 years ago)
1929: Chaim Potok, novelist (The Promise) (75 years ago)
1929: Yasser Arafat, PLO-leader/murder (75 years ago)
1933: Bobby Lewis, rocker (Tossin' & Turnin') (71 years ago)
1933: Craig Thomas, (Rep-R-Wyoming) (71 years ago)
1934: Alan Bates, actor (Zorba the Greek, Unmarried Woman) (70 years ago)
1934: Barry Humphries, Australia TV host (Dame Edna Everage) (70 years ago)
1936: Jim Brown, Georgia, NFL fullback (Cleveland Browns)/actor (Dirty Dozen) (68 years ago)
1939: Mary Ann Mobley, Biloxi Ms, Miss America-1959/actor (Diff'rent Strokes) (65 years ago)
1941: Gene Pitney, singer/songwriter (Town Without Pity) (63 years ago)
1942: Huey Newton, Black Panther leader (62 years ago)
1954: Rene Russo, actress (50 years ago)
1962: Lou Diamond Phillips, actor (La Bamba, Stand & Deliver) (42 years ago)
1963: Michael (“Air”) Jordan, Brooklyn NY, best-ever NBA guard/forward (Chicago Bulls/Olympic-gold-92) (41 years ago)
1998 Ernst Juenger German writer, dies at 102

---

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1967 SOOTER DAVID W.---VALLEJO CA.
[03/05/73 RELEASED BY DRV, DECEASED
1968 ASHBY CLAYBORN W. JR.---LOUISVILLE KY.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 COONS CHESTER L.---BISMARK ND.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 DAWSON FRANK A.---FAIRFIELD CA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 DONATO PAUL N.---BOSTON MA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 HAYDEN GLENN M.---LONG BEACH CA.
[REMAINS IDENTIFIED 01 DEC 93]
1968 KRAVITZ JAMES S.---RIVERSIDE CA.
[REMAINS IDENTIFIED 01 DEC 93]
1968 MARTIN JAMES E.---SALT LAKE CITY UT.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 THURMAN CURTIS F.---ST JAMES MO.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 WONN JAMES C.---PITTSBURGH PA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1972 CUTTER JAMES D.---FORT KNOX KY.
[03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 96]
1972 FRASER KENNETH J.---BROOKLYN NY.
[03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1972 HAWLEY EDWIN A. JR.---BIRMINGHAM AL.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED]
1972 IRWIN ROBERT H.---PEEKSKILL NY.
["DEAD, CREWMAN SAID IN HANOI" " REMAINS RETURNED 7/31/89, ID 11/08/89"]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

---

Deaths which occurred on February 17:
0364 Flavius Jovianus Christian emperor of Rome (363-64), dies at about 32
0956 Hugo the Great earl of Paris/duke of Francia, dies at about 55
1600 Giordano Bruno advocate of Copernican theory & plurality of worlds, burned at stake by the Inquisition in Rome
1688 Reverend James Renwick hanged in Scotland for being a Presbyterian
1815 Franz Gotz composer, dies at 59
1878 José Amador de los Ríos Spanish historian/poet, dies at 59
1905 Serge Alexandrovich Governor-General Moscow, murdered
1907 Henry Steel Olcott US co-founder (Theosophist Society-Madras), dies at 74
1908 Geronimo Apache chief, dies at about 79
1959 Tim Mara co-founder of NFL's New York Giants, dies
1962 Joseph Kearns actor (George-Dennis the Menace), dies at 55
1962 Bruno Walter symphony conductor (New York Philharmonic), dies at 85
1977 Quincy Howe newscaster (CBS Weekend News), dies at 76
1980 Jerry Fielding orchestra leader (Bewitched, Hogan's Heroes, Lively Ones), dies at 57
1980 Graham Sutherland painter, dies
1982 Lee [Israel] Strasberg father of method acting/actor (And Justice for All), dies of a heart attack at 80
1982 Theolonious S Monk US, jazz pianist/composer (Blue Monk), dies at 64
1986 Paul Stewart actor (Opening Night, In Cold Blood, Window), dies
1989 Lefty Gomez New York Yankee pitching great, dies at 80
1991 Enrique Bermudez commandant (Contra), dies
1993 Alfredo de Leon leader (Philippines Red Scorpio Gang), killed
1994 Randy Shilts US journalist (And the band played on), dies of AIDs at 41

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Sri Lanka : Maha Shivaratree
US : Pancake Week (Day 3)/Pancake Tuesday
US : Kraut and Frankfurter Week (Day 5)
US : Champion Crab Races Day
Community College Month

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Religious Observances
Ancient Rome : Quirinalia-Feast of Quirinus (a d xiij Kal Mar)
Christian : Feast of St Silvinus
Christian : Commemoration of Flight into Egypt
Roman Catholic : Memorial of 7 Holy Founders of the Servite Order (opt)

---

Religious History
1741 English revivalist George Whitefield advised in a letter: 'Be content with no degree of sanctification. Be always crying out, "Lord, let me know more of myself and of thee."'
1815 In deciding the legal case "Terrett v. Taylor," the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional an act of the Virginia Legislature which denied property rights to Protestant Episcopal churches in the state. The Court ruled that religious corporations, like other corporations, have rights to their property.
1816 Birth of Edward Hopper, American Presbyterian clergyman. He is remembered today as author of the hymn, "Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me."
1889 Billy Sunday, 27, baseball player-turned-preacher, made his first appearance as an evangelist in Chicago. A strong fundamentalist, Sunday preached temperance and opposed scientific evolution. Over 100 million are estimated to have heard Sunday preach before his death in 1935.
1969 Russian-born, Milwaukee-raised Golda Meir (n‚e Mabovitch [Myerson]), 70, was sworn in as Israel's first female prime minister. (She would hold the office for five embattled years.)

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Thought for the day :
"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."

---

Question of the day...
Why does round pizza come in a square box?

---

Murphys Law of the day...(Law of Inside Dope)
There are many dopes inside in politics and government

---

Amazing Fact #653,987.2...
The extended right arm of the Statue of Liberty is 42 feet long.

[SAMWolf]

Not a bad flick.

[snippy_about_it]

from the Panther ausf G

[SAMWolf]

1872: “Harper's Weekly” features a cartoon about the Free Love movement

And the Hippies thought they were onto something new!!

[SAMWolf]

1878: The first telephone exchange in San Francisco opens with 18 phones

First busy signal is heard 10 minutes later.

[Darksheare]

I'm in.

[Johnny Gage]

ROFL! That's dating yourself a bit.

How about this one?

[snippy_about_it]

1913: The first minimum wage law in the U.S. takes effect (in Oregon)

So Sam, Oregon started it?

[Professional Engineer]

1908 Geronimo Apache chief, dies at about 79

I had no idea when I changed my tagline.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Darksheare.

[Professional Engineer]

I never liked Airwolf as much. Blue Thunder looks so much more aggressive and military like.

[Darksheare]

Morning.
Clear and cold, light breeze at 10 MPH from the NW currently at my position.
Visibility greater than one mile.
This may or may not change within the next hour.

[snippy_about_it]

This may or may not change within the next hour.

LOL. I know the feeling.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Darksheare

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C. Rain's back here. :-(