Steel Soviet Union

"Circumstances don't allow it, and time is tight. I'm sorry, Comrade General, we couldn't get the wreckage or actual vehicle of the strange German Panther. But we destroyed a few, and the troops that arrived later should take them. Investigate, maybe contact them and ask about the situation.”

The final answer was undeniably frustrating, but Malashenko did a pretty good job with it.

Some things may not come to mind for a while, but it doesn't matter. As long as you spend a little time thinking about it, you can always think of it, such as Comrade Ma now.

A more powerful Black Panther? Mainly because the armor protection has been strengthened? Can't the 122 cannon penetrate the head?

Based on these known basic elements, Malashenko roughly came to two possible conclusions after some recall and thinking.

The first one is also the one that seems more likely at present: Peskov, the old guy, may have seen it wrong.

The news that King Tiger heavy tanks have been deployed to the Cherkasy war zone has been confirmed from captured documents. However, one detail that is quite easy to miss is what type of King Tiger heavy tanks are currently deployed.

Others may see this issue as a fog, but Malashenko, as a future time traveler, would not be unaware of it.

In the existing historical timeline, the King Tiger heavy tank is divided into two different sub-models: Henschel King Tiger and Porsche King Tiger.

Both types of Tiger King are equipped with a length of 88, and are completely identical in terms of body structure and layout, but there are obvious differences in the turret part.

The front of the Henschel King Tiger's turret is a typical pie face with a small tilt angle. It is welded with a whole piece of rolled homogeneous steel armor. It is also the most widely known King Tiger heavy tank with the largest production volume.

In sharp contrast is the Porsche King Tiger heavy tank. The turret front of this sub-model uses a semi-curved cast turret armor, which is somewhat similar to the T34 turret front armor configuration to a certain extent.

Comparing the two turrets, the Henschel turret is superior in actual combat performance. The entire welded armor with a physical thickness of 180 mm has extraordinary defensive performance. The big pig-nosed gun mantlet directly in front of the turret armor is also very powerful, so it is not easy to penetrate the turret. Even if it is replaced by a 122 heirloom, it can only be done by shooting at close range.

In comparison, the Porsche turret looks rather stretched. The physical thickness of the armor directly in front of the turret is only 100 mm. Although it is indeed protected by a semi-arc shape, it can cause some ricochet effects when the incident angle is incorrect. But sometimes even ricochet is not a good thing for the Porsche King Tiger. perform

The Porsche King Tiger, which adopts a central turret layout, has the car body dome directly under its head. Armor-piercing projectiles that hit the curved armor in the lower half of the turret have a certain chance of being deflected and rebounding downwards.

An armor-piercing projectile that has hit the armor once and caused a ricochet does have a loss of kinetic energy. However, at the end of World War II when high muzzle velocity and large kinetic energy armor-piercing projectiles were basically fully popularized, the remaining penetration depth of an armor-piercing projectile that has rebounded once and caused a loss of kinetic energy is still enough to defeat the King Tiger. The extremely fragile body dome of the heavy tank.

The subsequent result was that the Porsche King Tiger was directly killed by armor-piercing projectiles reflected into the car body by ricochet, or the ammunition exploded on the spot and burst into flames.

No matter what the outcome is, it's not good.

In Malashenko's impression, this Porsche King Tiger, which had inherent design flaws and was very incompetent, was discontinued after only about 100 units were produced.

Among the King Tiger heavy tanks with a small total production volume, the output of the bigger Porsche King Tiger is completely rare. This is why most of the King Tigers seen in old photos of World War II are big-faced Henschel Tigers. For the king's sake.

However, what Malashenko is concerned about is not the relative strength of the Henschel King Tiger and the Porsche King Tiger, but that the appearance of the Porsche King Tiger looks a bit like a Black Panther.

The large face that protrudes in a semi-arc shape and the layout of the car body at a steep angle. If you just look at the front, the Porsche King Tiger and the Black Panther look a lot like each other! After all, they are all made in the same country, so it is normal for the flavors to mix.

Malashenko wondered whether Peskov had mistakenly mistook the already deployed Porsche King Tiger for the "new Black Panther."

If you think about it seriously, this possibility is not impossible. After all, in the Battle of Kursk just half a year ago, there was an incident where the frontline troops added additional armor plates and the size of the No. 4 was a little fatter. I misread it. It became a weird joke in Tiger Style.

If the Porsche King Tiger is mistaken for a Black Panther, Malashenko feels that he really will not be surprised by this. After all, the 122 Heirloom cannot penetrate the upper armor of the King Tiger, but it can penetrate the front of the turret of the Porsche King Tiger. These details that have been demonstrated by later generations are consistent with Peskov's description. As far as it seems, Quite a possibility.

Then there is the second possibility, which Malashenko thinks is "unlikely".

In the existing historical timeline, in 1944, the last year before the Deutsche Building collapsed, the German Army launched a new round of bidding plans aimed at upgrading the existing Panther medium tanks.

The focus of the project was defined as strengthening the armor protection of the Panther medium tank. It was necessary to solve the embarrassing situation where the Panther's side armor was too weak and could be penetrated by any enemy tank at a distance. . In addition, in order to counter the increasing anti-armor firepower of the enemy, the main armor protection belt on the front of the Panther's body also needs to be upgraded and strengthened.

The final winning bid was still the parent company of the Panther tank: MAN. The company designed a new reinforced body that fully met the requirements of the German Army in terms of armor protection. However, because the German Army has not put forward indicators for the Panther's firepower upgrade plan, MAN plans to directly attach the head of the Panther F type to the new car body using the "head replacement technique".

The firepower of the main gun remains unchanged, and the old version of the long 75mm gun continues to be used. Anyway, there is nothing on the battlefield that the Black Panther can't chew from the front. If there is no demand, we can put it aside for the time being and increase production first.

It seemed very feasible and everything was beautiful, but by the time the first prototype vehicle body called "Black Panther 2" was actually built, it was already the year 1945 when the empire was destroyed.

The car body, which even had no time to put its head on, was eventually captured by the US military in the warehouse.

The curious American emperor shipped the headless Panther 2 body back to China for testing, installed a Black Panther G head and performed the "skunk head replacement technique". After several repeated tests, the remaining value was squeezed out, and finally it was thrown to the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Weapons Proving Ground and preserved as one of the exhibits. This is the only evidence in the 21st century that can prove the true existence of Black Panther 2.