"Circumstances do not allow it, and time is very 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 we will follow up."
The arriving troops should be investigated, and maybe you can contact them to ask about the situation."
The final answer is undoubtedly depressing, 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 Panther? Mainly because the armor protection has been strengthened? Can the 122 cannon penetrate the front?
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 to be 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.
To others, this issue may seem like 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 of these two King Tigers are equipped with 88mm length, 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 single piece of rolled homogeneous steel armor. It is also the well-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 model uses a semi-curved cast turret armor, which is somewhat similar to the T34's turret front armor configuration to a certain extent.
Comparing the two turrets, the Henschel turret is superior in actual combat performance. The one-piece welded armor with a physical thickness of 180 mm has extraordinary defensive performance. The large pig-nosed gun mantlet directly in front of the turret armor also has
It is very powerful, so it is not easy to penetrate the turret. Even if it is replaced by a 122 heirloom, it will have to be shot at close range.
In comparison, the Porsche turret looks rather stretched. The physical thickness of the armor in front of the turret is only 100 mm. Although it does have semi-arc protection, it can cause some ricochet effects when the incident angle is incorrect.
But sometimes even a ricochet is not a good thing for the Porsche King Tiger.
The Porsche King Tiger, which adopts a central turret layout, has the car body dome armor 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 downward.
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 of an armor-piercing projectile with a loss of kinetic energy after rebounding once was still enough to defeat the King Tiger.
The extremely fragile hull dome of the heavy tank.
The subsequent result was that the Porsche King Tiger was directly killed by the armor-piercing projectiles reflected into the car body by ricochet, or the ammunition exploded on the spot, sending out 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, semi-arc protruding face and the heavily sloping front layout of the car body. If you just look at the front, the Porsche King Tiger and the Black Panther look a lot alike! After all, they are from the same country.
It is normal for the food to have odor.
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 was mistaken for a Black Panther, Malashenko felt that he would not be surprised. After all, the 122 Heirloom could not penetrate the armor on the Tiger King's head, but it could penetrate the front of the Porsche King Tiger's turret.
, these detailed circumstances that have been demonstrated by later generations can be consistent with Peskov's description. At present, it seems quite possible.
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 fell, the German Army launched a new round of bidding plans aimed at upgrading the existing Panther medium tanks.
The focus of the project is defined as strengthening the armor protection of the Panther medium tank. It is necessary to solve the embarrassing situation where the Panther's side armor, which was previously exposed, is too weak, and any enemy tank can be penetrated at a distance.
.In addition, in order to counter the enemy's increasing anti-armor firepower, the Panther's main armor protection belt on the front of the vehicle 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 German Army's requirements for armor protection. However, the German Army did not upgrade the Panther's firepower.
The plan puts forward the indicators, and 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 no thing on the battlefield that the Black Panther can't chew from the front. If there is no demand, it will be put on hold temporarily and the production will be increased 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 the head on, was finally 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 repeated testing several times, it was drained.
After losing its remaining value, it was eventually thrown to the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Weapons Proving Ground and preserved as one of the exhibits. This is the only evidence that can prove the true existence of Black Panther 2 in the 21st century.