The pictures in this article are courtesy of John Moores of "Windup Film Works" of Canada and show
the progress of the Littlefield Collection's (California) Panther as at May 2004. All pictures are
copyright and are used on this site with the permission of John Moores and Jacques Littlefield.
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A very clean and neat hull.
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Note the very substantial piece of curved armour to protect the final drive.
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A close up of that unique jointing system used in heavy German AFVs. Note the crudity
of the weld finish.
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Suspension arms, they are sitting at odd angles as the torsion bars have
yet to be installed.
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Note that the arms face forward (leading) rather than trailing as
you would expect. It is all to do with wheel spacing and fitting the torsion
bars into the available spacein the hull.
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LHS running gear view.
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I think this is a suspension arm bump stop mount.
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A blurry shot of the LHS rear and an unidentified tank.
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A good view of the rear hull interior.
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LHS rear bay - radiators, fans, fuel and oil tanks live in here.
A very nice stainless steel fuel tank appears to have been made to fit in
here. I doubt the original was stainless, but can well understand why the
repro is.
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The fact that they have had to make a new engine cover suggests
that this vehicle was either a parts donor or quite incomplete when obtained.
I note the steel was made in Canada, authenticity has to give way to economics
at some point......
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The LHS rear shock absorber (centre) and what I think is the
idler tension adjuster (upper most in pic, large screw thread). The braided
pipe is from the centralised greasing station.
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The object lying to the right of the access hole is a torsion
bar mount (serves to all ow double lenght torsion bars). Note the central
greasing station at LH top of pic - an excellent teutonic idea.
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A better vew of the greasing station, I am curious as to why
they have used modern pattern greas nipples as I am reasonably sure they
should be the WW2 style flat ones?
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RHS rear bay.
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Engine bay again.
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Fighting compartment facing rear and firewall.
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A view of the odd circular transmission mounts. I am glad I
am not the one installing it in there.
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Front RHS shock absorber with it's safety cover and greasing line.
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Looking to the rear over the hull roof.
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Amazing how roomy tanks are without the mechanicals.
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Why the jack? I don't know. I do know that when you pulled the
transmission out of an M3 and M3A1 Stuart that you had to jack the hull
apart. So perhaps the Panther hull also needs the transmission
for rigidity reasons?
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Is the battry cut off switch a modern improvement or did the
Germans have them too? (I know from experience that US armour did, but it
certainly wasn't of the type in this pic.)
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For those who are wondering why the torsion bars have not been installed, here
is the reason. Torsion bars are a very good form of suspension, far superior to volute
or horizontal volute spring systems as used on WW2 US tanks or leaf springs as used on
earlier German vehicles. However, they do use up hull interior space, are heavy and
are expensive. They are also particularly sensitive to damage. Even such vehicles
as the M113 family of APCs, using modern materials have still had to resort to
wrapping the torsion bars with electrical tape in order to protect them. There is
a story of how the British occupation forces in Germany at the end of WW2 rounded
up the former factory workers at a Panther/Jagdpanther factory and got them to
finish construciton of the remaining hulls. A British officer who until that point
had found the German workers to be respectfull and dilligient made the mistake of
walking across the torsion bars installed in a hull. He very quickly learned that he
had just committed the ultimate transgression. Nothing quite compares to being told
off by a German and it was an experience he didn't forget.
Even a scratch or rust pit will cause a torsion bar to fail in use.
My thanks to John Moores for supplying the pics. I would like updates for
this article from anyone who is granted access and permission to photograph
this vehicle as it progresses?
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