Panzerkampfwagen V – Sd.Kfz. 171 – nicknamed Panther or Panzer V in The Tank Museum, Bovington. Photographed at The Tank Museum in Bovington, England 2017.
The information below on the Panther is from the Tank Museum;
“Bovington Panther Tank
The camouflage pattern on this tank is very unusual. The reason is that this tank was produced after the Second World War.
The factory in which it was being produced had been overrun by the Allies. It was completed under supervision of the British by the German workers who had been employed by the Maschinenfabrik Niedersachen Hanover (MNH) factory at the time of its capture. The new British management consisted of Capt. Hadlow and an NCO who deferred his discharge to complete the work. All the completion work was done by MNH skilled workers but it was not done at the Maschinenfabrik Niedersachen Hanover (MNH) factory. Production was moved to the gun factory at Laatzen south of Hanover as the MNH factory had being heavily damaged by late war bombing and did not have a roof. The gun Factory did have a roof. It took a lot of effort to shift the heavy machines, jigs and gun lathes.
Captain W.J. Hadlow REME instructed the completion of 9 Panthers and 12 Jagdpanthers, some like the one abandoned one one Pirbright Firing ranges lacked guns and mountings.
In May 1945 German industry was running out of everything including paint. The camouflage pattern you are looking on this Panther at Bovington Tank Museum is in fact read undercoat with a hasty camouflage pattern added from whatever leftover paint they had in their storeroom.
By just looking at the tank it is difficult to work out which model of Panther it is. Logic would tell you that it is one of the late-model Panther tanks as it was made after the end of the war but this is not completely true. It is a late-model Panther chassis but it has a recycled early model Panther tank turret.”
