Going Cuckoo with an Early Ausf. G

[Chris Hall]

I used to own a Panther - 112, which I believe is now in the US. I traded it for my Quad, limber and 25-pdr, which I'm very pleased with. But the Panther is such a good-looking tank that I kept thinking about it - not with regret, but nostalgia. So, when Armortek announced the new Early G it was a no-brainer - as the memes say "shut up and take my money" !

But then, of course, I needed an obscure history for it, as is my wont (I like to think that coming up with unusual themes has become my trademark !). And a synapse fired deep in my brain, requiring just a bit of Google searching and a few books to bring to the surface. Now the history bit ........

By November 1944 the British 6th Guards Tank Brigade had made it all the way from Normandy to Holland, in an epic breakout known to the Guards as the 'Great Swan'. The Coldstream Guards in particular had long harboured a desire to run a Troop of Panthers - indeed they went scavenging after Falaise, but couldn't find enough bits to make it worthwhile. But, in a barn in Overloon they found one, abandoned but in full working order ! A quick coat of SCC15 and some Allied Stars later, it was added to HQ Company (6th Guards mainly running Churchills). It was called 'Cuckoo' not, as some believe, because it was a 'stranger in the nest', but because HQ Company tanks were named after British Birds and that was simply the next name on the list. While I haven't found any record of tank-on-tank action, Cuckoo was widely admired for its accuracy in taking out strongpoints (that lethal L71), and those wide tracks skated over the winter mud where Churchills and Shermans floundered. Cuckoo remained in service until Fenruary 1945, when a broken fuel pump ended her British Army service near Kleve. As no spares were available she was abandoned there, and presumably scrapped a few months later .

And, to prove this isn't just my imagination working overtime, here's a few pictures:

Cuckoo 1.jpg (52.54 KiB) Viewed 3396 times

Cuckoo 2.jpg (58.5 KiB) Viewed 3396 times

And even a Pathe newsreal: https://www.britishpathe.com/video/tank ... ry/1976_03 (fast forward to about 2:35). Cuckoo seems to have received a coat a winter whitewash by then, but I'm sticking with the early all-green. Incidentally, can anyone tell me why, when tankies want to demonstrate their new toy, they insist on knocking down a tree with it ?

So that's it. I'm mainly posting this up so that no one else nicks my idea ! Roll on the Autumn ! But, as I've got too many other projects on the go (Centurion, M3 Lee, Rolls Royce, and the ongoing fettling of Liesel and the Quad) Steve Norris has kindly agreed to build it for me - he'll do a much better job than I would anyway .

Best wishes,

Chris

[Jae-seung Roe]

Hi Chris,

Good to see a new post at Panther section since the last post of glacis plate milling footage. What a plan of making 2022 Panther G into British 'Cuckoo' panther! Indeed Panther is a great designed tank the best design among ww2 tanks! To me doing some research and decide what type of colour scheme or camaflage is a joy but still haven't found the right one! for me yet

Probably too early to say but can't wait to see all green colour scheme Panther with a distinctive white star!

You may have seen the video about Panther Cuckoo already but again another interesting history about this beauty!

[Stephen White]

Indeed Panther is a great designed tank the best design among ww2 tanks!

That’s an interesting view. The design of Panther undoubtedly drew much from T-34. It is well documented that Centurion owed something to the exploitation of captured Panthers by British tank designers. Yet Panther suffered a number of design shortcomings: a fatal shot trap, a power train poorly matched to the weight and ground pressure. Running gear prone to mud packing. Severe maintenance difficulties associated with the running gear and chronic unreliability. Amongst those shortcomings are some show stoppers. In other words the design lacked that essential quality of a great tank - balance. Lethality - yes, outstanding; survivability - average; mobility both tactical and operational- poor; reliability - very poor. Expensive and complex to produce.

Compare that with Comet. Lethality and survivability comparable with Panther. Mobility - outstanding. Reliability - outstanding once the issue with final drive metallurgy was sorted. Relatively straightforward to produce.

Panther looks like a competent tank. Comet was a more than competent tank. More than a match for Tiger and Panther, as Kampfgruppe Fehrmann discovered.

GreAt choice of subject Chris, as ever. As a Guards tank, I’d expect it to come highly polished with razor sharp creases and making a lot of noise.

[Chris Hall]

Jae-seung -

Thanks for the enthusiasm ! I do like to think a bit tangentially. I do wonder how many daft questions I'll get from the Public, though. One TV personality came up to me once at a show, took one look at 112 (my former Panther), and told me that all German tanks were painted yellow. Did I enjoy shooting him down ? Well, just a bit

Stephen -

I couldn't agree more. Panther had the aesthetics, and Tiger had the reputation. But that didn't make them great all-round tanks - it's almost a case of their minor flaws masking their major flaws ! But the Panther was an attractive design, and it's got under my skin a bit. The opportunity to produce a British one, with a definite history, is too good to pass up.

Plus it makes the perfect Yang to Liesel's Yin. My WW1 British tank captured and used by the Germans, and my WW2 German tank captured and used by the British. And thus the balance of the World is restored

As for the Guards keeping it in Parade Ground order ...... I doubt any tank, of any nation, used over the harsh winter of 1944/45 looked anything other than an RSM's worst nightmare . Well supplied and mechanically sound - yes, as much as possible. Smart - forget it.

Do you have an answer to my tree-felling question, though ?

Best wishes,

Chris

[mark lawson]

Stephen, if we compare the Panther with the A30 Challenger then the Challenger was a complete flop, reliability was far worse than any German tank, it's only good feature was the 17pdr gun. It's own weight increased to due to adding more armour which stretched an already overburdened transmission to one far worse than Panther, it was incapable of landing on beaches due to a lack of provision for deep wading. Challenger had a very high silhouette and threw tracks due to mud building in the road wheels it also threw tracks due to it's small idler wheel which was later sorted out. Challenger was to be used in Normandy but as the tank was so poor this was cancelled and the gun shoehorned into Firefly to give our troops some heavy capability until a better tank could be produced in the form of Comet. Challenger did see limited combat in Europe.

All tanks suffer with problems, tanks in WW2 were very much in their infancy.

Sorry this was just a very quick response.

[Stephen White]

Mark, your quite right about A30 Challenger although I’m a bit puzzled that you raised it since I didn’t mention it. I’m not sure I’d agree with your view that tanks were in their infancy in WW2. If you take tank technology and armoured tactics of today as the benchmark, most of the benchmark tactical concepts were present by 1918. As for technical development of the weapon system, the essential elements of the current main battle tank were present in Comet and certainly in Centurion. So I’d suggest the tank was technically and tactically very mature by 1945.

Chris, can’t see the wood for the trees. The answer to your question? Because there were no cars to flatten. You’ll have spotted that what Pathe captions as Churchills are in fact Crocodiles.

[Brian Ostlind]

“Panther had the aesthetics, and Tiger had the reputation.”

Mmm not too sure about that.

[Jae-seung Roe]

That’s an interesting view. The design of Panther undoubtedly drew much from T-34. It is well documented that Centurion owed something to the exploitation of captured Panthers by British tank designers. Yet Panther suffered a number of design shortcomings: a fatal shot trap, a power train poorly matched to the weight and ground pressure. Running gear prone to mud packing. Severe maintenance difficulties associated with the running gear and chronic unreliability. Amongst those shortcomings are some show stoppers. In other words the design lacked that essential quality of a great tank - balance. Lethality - yes, outstanding; survivability - average; mobility both tactical and operational- poor; reliability - very poor. Expensive and complex to produce.

Compare that with Comet. Lethality and survivability comparable with Panther. Mobility - outstanding. Reliability - outstanding once the issue with final drive metallurgy was sorted. Relatively straightforward to produce.

Panther looks like a competent tank. Comet was a more than competent tank. More than a match for Tiger and Panther, as Kampfgruppe Fehrmann discovered.

GreAt choice of subject Chris, as ever. As a Guards tank, I’d expect it to come highly polished with razor sharp creases and making a lot of noise.

Hi Stephen, Thanks for a clear summary of Panther design and I couldn't agree with you more.

In my opinion, one of the distinctive aspects of Panther design is the side profile, the slopped front part and the position of the turret and mantlet design, which delivers a perfect visual balance. Also the detail of the rear part with storage bins, mufflers and tow hitch shows the practicality and simplicity! What a design they did!

It is so interesting that in a certain perspective, Panther looks too simple that does not deliver any merits but seems a big lump of metal with a slopped surface, but in other angle, the silhouette of the Panther does look jolly good. I don't know how to describe in better way.

The Panther, indeed got an idea from the T-34 and sometimes called 'a successful imitation of T-34' , however, the originality of this beauty definitely lies in the every design aspects of the Panther. Such a lovely and great designed beauty !

Also look forward to seeing more NEW Panther G production news from Armortek!

[Jae-seung Roe]

“Panther had the aesthetics, and Tiger had the reputation.”

Mmm not too sure about that.

Not sure about that view either! not only aesthetics but also well balanced in mobility, firepower and protection!
I think on top of that Panther even has a aesthetic value as well compared to other WW2 tanks!

"The famous Panther tank probably the best tank in WW2"

[Chris Hall]

I seem to have stirred up a Hornet’s nest There are obviously strong opinions on whether the Panther was the best tank of WW2 or not. Suffice to say it was certainly one of the most famous (notorious ?).

With specific reference to Cuckoo, all I can say is that the Coldstream Guards were very impressed with it - until it broke down after only 3 months. Not really a good return on investment for the original builder ……

Best wishes,

Chris

[Chris Hall]

Chris, can’t see the wood for the trees. The answer to your question? Because there were no cars to flatten. You’ll have spotted that what Pathe captions as Churchills are in fact Crocodiles.

And Pathe called a Panther a Tiger

[Jae-seung Roe]

Jae-seung -

Thanks for the enthusiasm ! I do like to think a bit tangentially. I do wonder how many daft questions I'll get from the Public, though. One TV personality came up to me once at a show, took one look at 112 (my former Panther), and told me that all German tanks were painted yellow. Did I enjoy shooting him down ? Well, just a bit

Hi Chris,
Thanks for your kind comment. I was wondering if this youtube clip is you are referring to!


Your 112 looked great with nice colour scheme and what a superb workshop&hobby room you have! Since I have reserved Panther G, I have begun research on Panther colour scheme and since this is the early G model, appropriate camouflage pattern and zimm coating pattern were key topics. So did some findings for books and online material but so far haven't found yet

[Chris Hall]

Ye Gods, but our 15 minutes of fame keeps coming back to bite us

No, Jules was brilliant. He’s ex-Army, so he got it immediately. It was someone else entirely, whom I’ve always disliked. The chance to take him down was too good to pass up ! “Never meet your heroes” they say, but your villains are fair game …..

[John Clarke]

Go for it Chris
Just put a decent motor in it. (Humming)
Something that doesn't burst into flames. Something with reliability, like, ,,,,,yes a like a Meteor.
You'll need a Merrit Brown Z51R gearbox that doesn't shred its teeth on a neutral turn.
Add some side armor that could stop a 14.5mm anti tank rifle round.
You could then call it a Centurion.
Though the loader would still have to be kak handed to load the rounds in the 75mm
And don't forget to ask Rob Bell (the arm chair tank designer) for any pointers on what makes a great tank.

Seriously, you'll have plenty of questions to answer about a Panther in British service livery green at any show.
A Bren or a 30 cal might not be out of place either

Might be easier to put a Cross of Lorriane on it for something different. You might get the odd question

[Chris Hall]

You could then call it a Centurion.

Ahh, I'm lucky - I've got one of those too ! As for a Panther retro-fitted with a Meteor ...... I suggest you (a) copyright the idea, and then (B) sell it to World of Tanks

I'll pass on the Cross of Lorraine, thanks . But, even though I haven't found any direct photographic evidence for it, the shield of the 6th Guards will probably end up on there somewhere .....