Panther & Its Variants: (Spielberger German Armor & Military Vehicles, Vol 1)

So what is the difference between Thomas Jentz's Panther book (Germany's Panther Tank: The Quest for Combat Supremacy) and Spielberger's Panther book? A lot, as it turns out, and the two books really are complementary, not competitors. Jentz did get his start after all working for Spielberger as a researcher; in Spielberger's book, Jentz gets a minor credit and mention as an assistant. Jentz in turn in his book flat out states that his book does not cover the mechanical workings of the Panther tank in detail as that information is covered already in Spielberger's book.

And so, to really get to know the Panther tank, one has to have both books.

If you want to know when a certain part was added or changed to the Panther tank, Jentz's book will frequently tell you the EXACT DATE that the change was made, because his book after all is entirely based on a massive quantity of original German documents that he dug up at various archives of the manufacturers and the German Army. Spielberger's original sources are a bit unclear, and there are some discrepancies between the two books, e.g., the number of Panther tanks produced with the HL 210 engine for instance. For any conflicting statement, Jentz is almost certainly more accurate, since he frequently references his source documents.

The great strength of Spielberger's book is in the mechanicals - they range from fantastic cutaway drawings of the Maybach HL 230 engine, the ZF AK 7-200 transmission, and of course, the infamous final drive gears that laid the Panther tank low so frequently. Even more fascinating is Speilberger's discussion of how various compromises came to be made in the design of the Panther tank, and how they affected its performance. The dual torsion bar suspension is dealt with similarly, and there are extensive photos of the interior of the entire fighting compartment of the tank, the turret, and the engine compartment.

In contrast to Jentz's precise layout of everything by date and category, Spielberger's book is laid out in a more conversational and rambling fashion - this gets annoying after a while because it is difficult to go back and find a passage that one has read in his book since there is no clear cut organizational order to it.

Jentz's book also has really useful historical information, such as the PRECISE numbers of Panther tanks deployed at any one time in either the Eastern or Western Front - his numbers, again based on German documents, differ significantly from what is frequently found in the literature, most likely because those were based on faulty Allied intelligence estimates. Even more fascinating are a set of range penetration gun data comparing the Panther tank to Allied tanks, highly useful for settling arguments about which tank could shoot up which other tank.

All in all, Spielberger's book is outstanding for the mechanical parts - where else can you find out why the Panther suffered so many final drive and engine failures? - whereas Jentz's book is the best for almost everything else about the Panther.

The Panther tank was Germany's main battle tank during the last two years of the war (it replaced the Panzer III, and was supplanting the Panzer IV at war's end). Walter Spielberger's book offers an overview of the Panther tank's development, as well as its variants, the Bergepanther recovery vehicle, and the Jagdpanther tank destroyer (an 88mm self-propelled gun). There are also drawings by Hilary Louis Doyle, though they are side views only, and not to a constant scale. Spielberger is the author of a well-respected series of books on German armored vehicles, but this English-language edition is slightly out of date, repeating some fallacies about the aborted Panther II and Panther F projects. Spielberger's colleague, Thomas Jentz, who once worked for him as a researcher, has since written his own Panther book (also published by Schiffer), which corrects many errors thanks to newly-uncovered information found in government and factory archives. Jentz's book also has three-view drawings by Doyle in 1/35th scale. However, Jentz's book covers only the battle tank, not the recovery and self-propelled gun variants. I would recommend the Thomas Jentz book to those interested in building a model of the Panther tank (including the Panther II and Panther F), while Spielberger's volume is more useful to those interested in the automotive engineering of the Panther, or the subsidiary variants.

A well produced and researched reference book on the Panther tank.The author goes to great lengths by well documented research and copious amounts of clear photographs and diagrams.Well done Walter Spielburger.

A well produced and researched reference book on the Panther tank.The author goes to great lengths by well documented research and copious amounts of clear photographs and diagrams.Well done Walter Spielburger.

This is a very detailed of the German Panther tank, its variants, and their development. Well illustrated with many drawings and pictures, and text describing the development and problems thereof. Spielberger is preferred over Jentz for technical detail, although Jentz tends to have more combat unit information. Buy both if you can afford it. The only marring feature is that translation is not provided for German text that is part of certain of the illustrations-- a glossary of terms would be appreciated.