This article was originally the very first post on the “Tank and AFV Blog” published back in November of 2012.   This is a slightly edited version.  

————————-

One thing I was thinking about lately is how many times I have read books or internet posts that describe the late war German tanks, particularly the Panther and the Tiger 2 as having a great deal of influence on post-war tank design.  The more I have thought about this, the less I agree with it.  In fact, I would argue that the Panther and Tiger 2 were pretty much developmental dead ends with few aspects of their design being adopted in post war vehicles.   These two vehicles were influential  only in the very general sense that they raised the bar in terms of what a medium or a heavy tank could weigh.  Their existence prompted the allied countries to develop heavier vehicles with the appropriate armor and firepower to match the late war German “cats”, but they did not actually borrow many design features from them.  [Read more…]