The Panther & Its Variants (Spielberger German Armor & Military Vehicles, Vol 1)

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Summary: PANTHER & ITS VARIENTS
Review: A well produced and researched reference book on the Panther tank.The author goes to great lengths by well documented research and copious amounts of clear photographs and diagrams.Well done Walter Spielburger.

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Summary: Technical history of the Panther Tank and its variants
Review: The Panther tank was Germany's main battle tank during the last two years of the war (it replaced the Panzer III, and was supplanting the Panzer IV at war's end). Walter Spielberger's book offers an overview of the Panther tank's development, as well as its variants, the Bergepanther recovery vehicle, and the Jagdpanther tank destroyer (an 88mm self-propelled gun). There are also drawings by Hilary Louis Doyle, though they are side views only, and not to a constant scale. Spielberger is the author of a well-respected series of books on German armored vehicles, but this English-language edition is slightly out of date, repeating some fallacies about the aborted Panther II and Panther F projects. Spielberger's colleague, Thomas Jentz, who once worked for him as a researcher, has since written his own Panther book (also published by Schiffer), which corrects many errors thanks to newly-uncovered information found in government and factory archives. Jentz's book also has three-view drawings by Doyle in 1/35th scale. However, Jentz's book covers only the battle tank, not the recovery and self-propelled gun variants. I would recommend the Thomas Jentz book to those interested in building a model of the Panther tank (including the Panther II and Panther F), while Spielberger's volume is more useful to those interested in the automotive engineering of the Panther, or the subsidiary variants.

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Summary: Remarkably detailed history of Panther and its development
Review: This is a very detailed of the German Panther tank, its variants, and their development. Well illustrated with many drawings and pictures, and text describing the development and problems thereof. Spielberger is preferred over Jentz for technical detail, although Jentz tends to have more combat unit information. Buy both if you can afford it. The only marring feature is that translation is not provided for German text that is part of certain of the illustrations-- a glossary of terms would be appreciated.