If historic breakdowns were modeled, and they put the Panther in, you would spend more time blowing your own tank up then killing anyone else's(just like the German crews had to, to keep the broken down tanks out of enemy hands since they were always on the retreat). Their loss's due to breakdowns were ridiculous. If the do model it they should model the armor weaker then it shown on paper due to the German steel sucking really bad as well.
I wonder what influence on modern design bigkev is talking about, I can't think of a single thing that was really innovative on the panther.
No one copied the crappy suspension.
No one uses a five man lay out anymore.
No one puts the motor in the back and then tranny and difs in the front. (Because a drive shaft through your fighting compartment makes your tank taller, hence the panthers height).
The gun was great but was surpassed by bigger guns on all the big nations tanks.
The Centurion, T44 and M26, had far more bearing on future tank designs. The Panther was an overly complicated waste of resources. It's main saving grace is its looks and great gun.
Plenty of holes in this.... For the day the suspention offered the tank with a much smoother ride reducing crew fatigue not to mention the ability to shot on the move, complicated, yes but the benefits it offered was superior to most allied designs. Late war allied tanks were finally up gunned enough to handle the panthers armor. I haven't read a lot about the quality of the armor in the last days so can't make a comment about that. You have to remember that the tank was designed at a time when all of it's design advances were new and better. Most problems transmission were worked out by the G model and by then drivers knew how to drive the tanks to avoid mechanical problems.
The gun was good enough to handle most if not all tanks it crossed with exception of a couple of heavy soviet tanks but by the time these soviet tanks showed up most tank fighting was done at close quarters. The larger soviet caliber guns were mainly low velocity and 2 part ammo. slow to load and not that impressive. The best soviet gun was their 100mm and it was never manufactured enough to be installed into very tank.
Automatic loaders now do the job of a WW2 loader so there is no need for the 5th man also many other WW2 tank designs have evolved into front engine placement and tranny layout because of it.
Most if not all German design was very complicated but to say that the Panther was a waste is a little over the top. Ernst Barkman and Max Wunsch would not agree with you and they killed many soviet and allied tanks with the panther and survived the war. Ernst Barkman said that if not for the Panther he wouldn't be alive today.
Tanks were blown up in the last days of the war but you would be surprised on how many damaged tanks were recovered
up until then so saying that German tank crews just blew their tanks up when broken down is not true.
