Inside the Chieftain's Hatch: Panther. Part 1 

Beautifully restored Panther. The engine compartment looked spotless.

Shame this channel doesn't get more views. Just know your work is appreciated.

I feel so damn lucky to have been able to see this beautiful tank at the Littlefield compound back in '11 not long before they decided to shut down. Unfortunately, this was just when I was beginning to have an interest in WW2 equipment so I didn't know nearly as much as I do today. Still, what an amazing machine!

I am absolutely blown away with the production value and overall quality of these vids. This is like something straight from the history channel 10+ years ago.

Finally a Panther. Love your videos!

I wish you had been the one to make a video of the Tiger 131, thank god you atleast got to do the Panther and hopefully the Tiger II

I've been waiting for this, thanks for the upload The Chieftan

That tank is maintenance crew’s nightmare.

Thanks for the video! I built a Tamiya model kit of the Panther a while ago and didn't know what some of the parts were actually supposed to be, such as the wooden jack block and the cooling tubes alongside the lefthand exhaust pipe. Now I know :)

Excellent episode! Looking forward to the next two parts.

To find out how the track tensioning works on the PzKW VI you should watch the Aus Armor Panther restoration episode which shows all of it 😇

Interesting report - sleek-looking vehicle for the 1940s.

Thank You, really interesting and instructional. I hope Part II will be at least 25 minutes long. Beside German War Files series, Your videos are primary source for German tanks for most people, so please keep on with the good work.

I would agree. Good series and very informative.

Good to see its still at the old Barn, Nick!

wow wow, is all i can say for that restoration. the crew who worked on that restoration did a fantastic job from what i can see from the video. not to mention sir great work in showing aspect of the vehicle. best of luck i can not wait for the next part of the video.

That restoration, is stunning.

so did part 2 catch fire and was abandoned on the way to youtube or something? lol

At last I see "my" favourite tank! Great, now I'm looking forward to the 2nd part on the Panther A!!

And the interleaved roadwheels allow for more torsion bars and a smoother ride. Beautiful restoration.

I remember seeing the tv show where they were restoring this tank never got to see the finished product, it looks fantastic.

They deserve to be preserved.

Excellent series and good armoured fighting vehicle knowledge, keep it up.

Great video Nick, as usual! Thank you! :)

I severely underestimated how big the Panther was.

Fantastic, the very best man for the job. Great work, loved it.

YAAAAAAAAY finally the Panther! *squeeels*

Always enjoyable and very informative.

Now that panther is one awesome looking tank!!😮

Such an iconic tank! Great video :)

Excellent work, thank you Littlefield (staff/crew/team, their associated famlies and all supporters, gophers etc), WG & Mr N.Moran 'Chieftan' ;) I will wait with baited breath for an unfortunately seemingly long time for the remaining related episodes/parts to be uploaded.

I remember reading an article a few years ago about a group of tank restorers who were able to make zimmerite . One of the main ingredients was a lot of petrol.

Thanks Nick

Awesome! Finally, and on your own channel too :) Look at the condition of this beauty, when restoring it they've been through the trouble of even finding the original jack for it! :) Since this is fully restored, I wonder if we get to see it running and driving - that would be sweet! Königstiger next, perhaps? *wink wink* ;)

I saw Nicholas Moran in the girls und panzer movie credits, what did wargaming have to do with the movie?

It's almost in showroom condition! Nice.

Finally, thank you!

.... I am actually suprised this wasn't made sooner. Who decides which tank to appear? You, higher ups, even higher ups, or just whatever is available?

Nice video!

Love that Jack. I want one for my truck👍

Panther A, one step removed from my favorite tank ever. Great review so far, addicted to Panther awesomeness.

I absolutely _love_ this series. Slow pace, in depth information, hard facts and knowledgeable presentation. Although as a tall person myself I do feel a bit for Mr Moran. After each episode I take a little time to bask in the complete absence of overly dramatic DEADLIEST TANK IN THE WORLD!!!! K I L L E R T A N K S!!!!!!!! STEAL BEAST!!!!!!!!!! nonsense, useless and often wrong fact sheets and shaky fast camera cuts. It's a bit of a golden age for tank enthusiasts with this and the great content the Bovington tank museum put's out. I can only pray that an episode of the Chieftain's Hatch will never come out at the same time as one of Mr Fletcher's Tank Chats because my brain would freeze with having to choose which to watch first. Ok, it'll be a short freeze after which Mr. Fletcher goes on first obviously, but it'll almost be a near thing ;-)

A very nice review, like always :)

I have seen a photo, supposed to be in early 1945, of an American formation with a Lee included. There was no explanation why it was still in service however, having seen the room available I suspect it was used for communication since there was a lot of room for radios and certainly it would serve to protect from shrapnel or small arms fire.

I love that engine.

3 parts?!!?! Oh no, soooo long before the next. Good for a start. Garry Owen!

It's a mother beautiful tank

Love to see you do the Tiger 1

Wow, a later model T-34/76 in the background. I'd like to see that...

You look so cheerful when talking about Panther compared to other tanks, especially soviet ones

We need one of these for the stug now. And the tiger 2.

still my favourite tank

Interesting side note on the padlocks, those were still around in the German Armed Forces in the mid 90ies when I was in the army.

rewatching the series and only just noticed a random head appearing @13:12 (top right)

I was watching this and thinking, that looks like the panther from a local museum near me. Then I remembered they inherited much of the little field collection and that IS the panther from that museum!

Chieftain, the Germans didn't replace the turret between the D and A models. What they did was change the commanders cupola. Further most changes between the D and A where in the hull. That was necessary because the D basically was a prototype pushed into production. The first 90 tanks where really extraordinary. Destined for Kursk, a number where sent back to the factory immediately while most where rebuild right after there arrival by the two battalions. Most still broke down during the first days of the offensive. After that disaster a lot of components where redesigned, including that engine governor. A lot of changes ended up somewhere in the A series and with the G the Germans consolidated there research of the Panther II and the final fixes for the A. Then the places you pointed out in the rear are indeed where you tension the track. :) By the way, release part two already dammit. :P

I say dang everytime I see this tank,I had a fair chance to work for the LittleField Collection and on this particular tank restoration around that time, but was in a disabling car crash, so I could not.

I have always thought the Panther epitomized sheer beauty in a vehicle

Love your Honest tankers view of this Tank, Can't wait for the rest of the video...Many Gamers/tank enthusiasts will cry :/ The Panther was a very modern design... but even the Sherman ( should have said the cheaper, more numerous and better servicable) was capable of one shotting this tank . Not sure if the Panther even had HE support for infantry... The most important role for a tank in WW2 despite the views of gamers.

That is one pretty kitty.

I thought those boxes on the back of the tank was used for fuel. I guess I was wrong. and it also makes more sense given I heard a war story of a panther getting hit by a 37mm gun around that area and didn't set the tank on fire right away. It I believe took around 20 to 30 rounds before the panther caught fire. In which time the crew could have brought the turret around and destroyed the AT gun. But for some reason they didn't try.

Just got home from work, saw that a Panther video has been uploaded by the Chieftain... YES

I remember them working on this earlier

That engine is a work of art.

nice, thanks

Working on Heavy Equipment, I have dealt with a lot of tracks being frozen, because of the mud that was in the tracks, freezing hard as diamonds overnight.....

The one side leading other side trailing arm suspension is because of space constraints too. If you look at the torsion bars inside the tank you can see why.

was kind of thinking it was gonna be the saumur bengal but still oh crap, pretty tank, shame it always broke down

From what is said here with 3.5 litres of fuel per km that works out to 5.635 litres per mile (assuming my figures are correct). Since there is approximately 5 litres per gallon it would not take too many miles driving this tank to make your bank account feel bad. I can only imagine that there were quite a few fuel trucks running around behind those Panzer regiments.

1:51 - Wish the 30.01D actually looked like that in game; sloped side armor, side skirts, useable upper hull angle ...

I understand that one of the key components of zimmermitt is sawdust. Which added to the problem of zimmermitt catching on fire 🔥. The source that I heard about said that the reason for the cancelation of zimmermitt was that very problem. And, with the cancelation of factory application of zimmermitt, it saved quite a large amount of time from the total period of time spent at the factory. A couple of days or something similar. Please correct me if I am wrong about this...

Oh hell yeah

You finally did it! Next up, Sherman!

The leading/trailing arm system is not to "ease production". I don't even see how that would help production at all. They could be made interchangeable whichever way they pointed. The system was so they could lay the twin torsion bars next to each other, one in front and one behind, each serving one side of the tank, while still having the wheels parallel to each other. If they all used leading arms, for example, either the wheels on one side would have to all be slightly ahead of the wheels on the other side the same distance as their torsion bar was ahead of its partner, or you'd have to make the arms shorter on one side than the other, which would make it ride poorly. The EASIEST way out of this is to just make one bar serve both sides (a typical torsion bar suspension), but then you have only half of the spring length per side. With any spring, the longer is is the better. You get a more carefully modulated spring rate, and a softer ride for the same weight capacity. This was the simplest way to use a full length bar for each set of roadwheels. Not sure what post war torsion bar tanks did, but the leading/trailing arms shouldn't matter much at those speeds, not within the typical limits of their arcs. I suspect post war tanks just went with single-bar designs, but used more modern spring technology to get a better ride from the shorter spring length.

how are the skirts affixed? are they welded? what made them come off so easily in the field?

The schurtzen was designed prior to the Panther entering service. The Panther II programme was also in development before the Panther entered full production with the entire project being cancelled around the time the Panther itself reached the front line.

Besides the unnecessary and distracting music, good video. Thanks.

still waiting for part 2

I want to see this tank in action!

Oh thank god, someone finally explained why some German armor looks like it was covered in play-dough and scraped with a fork. Anti-magnetic mine covering. I've been wondering what the heck that stuff was for the longest time.

lol that's where my grandfather has this strange padlock for the gardentoilet!

Thanks for this video (and any that follow regarding this and other WWII tanks). Until you pointed out the uses of the hatch on the rear of the turret I had been convinced that it was only used for, and was only large enough, to pass ammo and spent casings through. I based that idea on black and white stills that were generally taken from either ground level or at least a lower height and relatively oblique angle which, at least to my elderly eyes, made the opening look much smaller than it actually was/is. I'm also curious about the apparent lack of air filters on the engine. Are they absent because originals are Impossible to find, reproductions don't exist, or were the filters removed for purposes of visibility in this video? I'm looking forward to Part 2 in very near future.

... *TANKS A LOT*

When do we get to see the second part ?

But... ...How about the track tension, Chieftain? EDIT : Nevermind, I didn't expected an explanation from the back of the tank!

Yeah, I'm an old M1A1 officer too. Lol!!! Tanker bars. How many here know what they are/look like?

wow

Come on man.. it's been like two weeks.. part 2 pls

Sweet, I've recently finished building a Panther Ausf A scale model and gone onto painting it. However, I never quite got why the Panther Ausf D, came before the Ausf A. It confuses the hell out of me lol

What are the rounded "w" shaped plates on the front right side of the hull?

I promise I'm not fangirling over the fact that you're covering one of my favorite tanks of the war, tied only with the Slugger.

And he chose the easiest inner wheel to access for his example! If it was one of the two central inner wheels, you'd need to remove ALL FOUR outer-outboard wheels, three of the outer-inboard wheels, then two of the inner-outboard wheels. And the you could get the one broken inner-inboard wheel off. And these wheels weigh hundreds of pounds each. And someone has to lift a thousand pounds of track off of the wheels so you can get them out. Still easier than fixing a Tiger's transmission.

Whats with the weird texture on the armor on the panther? Ive seen that on the pictures of the tiger 131 as well. Was that something they did to the armor for some reason? or is that something to do with the restoration? Nvermind video answered the question.

I saw a video of a SU-152/ISU-152 being put into running operation, don't know how many of them are left though, that would be another interesting vehicle to see.

So what exactly happened to this vehicle after Littlefield passed away? As I saw the site that auctioned off the vehicles, and the most expensive item was a Pz.IV that sold for 2.5 million. Did this vehicle, along with other rare vehicles get donated to museums or are they in private collections?

where is part 2? I squealed like a schoolgirl when I saw pt 1, been wanting one on a Panther since, like, forever

Fantastic episode guys, that's such an amazing looking restoration job. But for Christ sake, lift with your bloody knee's Nic or you'll slip a disc one day! : P

Please drive it.

"Not beyond the realm of possibility" for tracks to freeze? I should hope not, since it happened often enough. Frozen mud is like iron, and the leverage of the drivetrain on those wheels is not in the wheel's favor. The mud is caught between the wheels, bulged into all the curves of the wheel, around all the bolts. It's not like breaking a frozen-down wheel free of a little ice; in this case the wheel is trying to compress the mud between in and the next wheel like a millwheel grinding corn. And all of the force has to be transmitted through the track pins. And the clutch. And the drivetrain. A tank has a strong enough drivetrain to pull itself up a slope of a certain steepness. but it can't pull its own weigh straight upwards. The drivetrain will break first. That's the main limit to slope-climbing ability in a tank (if you can find a slope with enough traction to not just slip the tracks first, or roll the tank over) A certain amount of force will break something (especially in a Panther). A sudden shock load is even worse, because it can peak very high very quickly. So revving the engine and dumping the clutch isn't great. And since the engine can only provide torque and power while it is spinning, you need to use the clutch to get the track moving until the speeds equalize. With frozen tracks that cannot move, you need to let off the clutch slowly, and hope the force gradually building will break the frozen mud and start the tracks moving, or you'll just stall the engine. If you slip the clutch to avoid stalling it, hoping that the strain will eventually break the mud, not only are you not transmitting the full torque of the engine, but you are steadily burning the clutch out. The clutch will probably burn out before the wheels break free; it doesn't take long. We're talking many thousands of pound-feet needed to break the wheels out. While a tank can deal with a little bit of mud and ice, if the wheels are clogged full and frozen solid, you have a problem . You need to reduce the mass enough to get the resistance below the point where the engine can break the wheels free. This is documented happening often enough, it's obviously not just 'possible', but a serious issue in those conditions.

BTW what is the purpose of that two spikes on the front mud guards?