>>Many consider the Panther to be the finest medium tank
>>produced by any country in the entire war.
The French opinion of the Panther versus Sherman debate can be seen in their decision to send the American military aide delivered M36 Tank Destroyers to Vietnam — to counter Soviet IS-2’s in Chinese hands on the border — rather than sending the Panther’s they had in service at the time.
The Panther was a great mobile tank destroyer, but it had crappy operational mobility without a huge amount of support. Something that the Sherman derived, 90mm high velocity gun armed, M36 had in great measure with minimal support...just the ticket for operations in Vietnam.
The Panther was a good tank but it was not without its flaws. Though not as bad as the Tiger I, it still had reliability issues. Despite its very protective frontal armor, it was very vulnerable on its side armor to practically any anti-tank gunnery(even 37mm) since the sides were only 40 to 50mm thick. Also the later production Panthers had frontal armor metal quality problems(cracking from anti-tank rounds) due to a shortage of molybdenum and manganese, both vital ingredients for steel used in the tank.