Panther vs Sherman: Battle of the Bulge 1944 (Duel)

Osprey offers excellent books. Their graphics are nonpareil, and information outstanding. This book outlines the pros and cons of two tanks fighting it out in 1944 Europe, the American Sherman and the German Panther.

Missed by some commentaries on tank action in Europe is simply that the Sherman's job involved attacking fixed fortifications manned by infantry. The Sherman hit the infantry line and broke through, then a different allied tank, the Tank Destroyer with a larger gun, came up and defeated the German (or whomever) tank's counter attack. After that, the Shermans took off and ran around behind the lines shooting everyone up and making the breakthrough stick. Thus, the Shermans were not supposed to fight other tanks very often. This was the theory. In practice, things seldom worked according to the theory.

The Panther development stemmed from German dismay at the Russian T-34. General Heinz Guderian set forth the necessary requirements which were not filled. Because of political infighting, the best design lost out. Then Panthers were rushed into production, hampered by design changes on the fly, and other problems encountered because of Nazi mismanagement. Panthers improved as the war went on, but many basic design flaws remained throughout its production.

Osprey covers all the Panther's production problems; however, they fail to mention the tactical differences in the theory of the Sherman's use and its actual use. I view this as a major oversight.

The author, Steven J. Zaloga, does outstanding work in showing how the Sherman's strengths are overlooked, while the Panther's weaknesses are often ignored. It seems the tanks were each blessed and cursed, but the blessings could be an overwhelming advantage at some points, but overcome by the curses at others. For example, high fuel usage by the Panther, coupled with Germany's inability to produce enough fuel, proved a major shortcoming; however,its optical sights were superior to the Shermans, and coupled with the excellent 76mm high velocity gun,they enabled the Panther to destroy Shermans at long range. So, what is more important, high fuel usage (a negative) or long range striking power? As Germany's fuel shortage was acute, that disadvantage gains importance. Also, the Sherman detailed in the book is the 76mm gun version. Superior to the 75mm low velocity gun originally mounted.

In the end, it seems a toss up on some levels. You, the reader, can decide. My conclusion is the Sherman comes off better than expected.

I took another star away for a sophomoric error by an excellent company: the stats for the Sherman are in feet and inches while the measurements for the Panther are in metric units. Now I have to do conversions. Uncool. Please use only one unit of measurement. Mixing the units is simply unacceptable.

AD2

It's the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte, not Liebstandarte. Otherwise, it's an enjoyable small book.

I recently purchased this book expecting a 'straight down the middle'evaluation of the pros and cons of these two famous tanks.What I got was a work full of Mr Zaloga's inherant bias against German technological achievements.He frequently cites examples of sherman successes whilst totally ignoring the more numerous panther examples.It seems to me that it is Mr Zaloga's mission in life to discredit all things German.

I wish I had had this book fifteen years earlier before I constructed my table-top game of the Bulge (12' x 6', several tiers, HO scale trees, tanks, and soldiers on stands). The students would moan and groan (those driving the Shermans ,1/72nd scale tanks)when the German tanks would clobber their thinclads at extreme ranges. In reality, the book confirms that. But one needed to take into account the heavy forested areas that impaired line of sight during this winter onslaught by the Germans.
Overall, this is an extraordinary book that explains the advantages and disadvantages for the two armoured fighting vehicles. This is an outstanding book for the WWII armor enthusiast, as well as for the wargamer. This is another book that I will be passing along to my grandson.

I was surprised to discover how much interesting information was contained in this little book. Before reading this book, I was one of those who just assumed that the Panther could beat anything the Allies could put against it. I was wrong. When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, the Germans did not have good tanks as is assumed. It was a myth. What got the German victories were their tactics. Radios in all of the tanks etc. The French and Russians actually had better tanks with bigger caliber guns but used them poorly.

By the end game, it was the Germans who had better tanks (in theory) but had poorly trained crews and used them incorrectly.

I highly recommend this book for the serious WWII historian.