re: History in Pictures is a great twitter feed. Here is one just posted.

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There were a series of concepts and variants of both the Panther & Tiger that the Germans were working on that were known as what would have been a "E" series of tanks.

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I'm just vaguely familiar with the E-series, and was relatively unfamiliar with non-production variants of the Panther - the Allies got inside the Germans decisionmaking cycle - and by mid-1943, they couldn't keep up with the Russians any longer - while the Panther may have been the "best tank in the world" - and the father of the main battle tank (itself an incorporation of German experience with their own designs, plus their adoption of features of the impressive T-34) - they were only cranking out about 60 a month, at peak production, while the Russians were building about 1000 T-34s - it became a numbers and logistical exercise - one the Germans couldn't win.

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I'm just vaguely familiar with the E-series, and was relatively unfamiliar with non-production variants of the Panther - the Allies got inside the Germans decisionmaking cycle - and by mid-1943, they couldn't keep up with the Russians any longer - while the Panther may have been the "best tank in the world" - and the father of the main battle tank (itself an incorporation of German experience with their own designs, plus their adoption of features of the impressive T-34) - they were only cranking out about 60 a month, at peak production, while the Russians were building about 1000 T-34s - it became a numbers and logistical exercise - one the Germans couldn't win.

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Exactly. One one one the Panther would arse rape the T-34. And even in a 10 on 1 battle the Panther would usually kill all 10 T-34's. Only problem though is it was usually more of a fight of 20 or 30 to 1.

The German tanks were just so over engineered that even when they finally did go onto a real wartime production footing in 1943 they could never produce near enough of them.

On with tracks. What is the difference between these two? Type(s)?

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Any guesses on the tank I posted on page 99?

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Soviet, Amphibious, PT-76 (I was an MI officer, Darth, in a past life - I actually forgot you'd asked about it.)

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What plane is this?

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What a monstrosity. It's the Boeing X-32. Saw one on display at the Pax Air Museum. Visited that place quite a bit while we were stationed at NAS Pax River.

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Spaceman Spiff

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Your key identification features there are 5 large road wheels on the II, versus 6 smaller ones on the III - the III is early, because she was still snubnosed (probably the 37mm gun).

I think we have someone who can rival Darth in tracks.

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I think we have someone who can rival Darth in tracks.

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I played a lot of Panzer General, back in the day.

Darth says shortbarrelled 50, so, again, I'll defer. Probably right - there were so few 37s - almost had to be Poland or France. And the early ones were retrofitted, later, to the 50, anyway.

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The Mk III was made to engage other tanks while the Mk IV was intended to support infantry and take out field fortifications.

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Somewhat paralleling (although not exactly) the U.S. Tank Destroyer/Armor schism - whereas TDC's mission was to destroy enemy tanks, the Armor branch wanted to spearhead assaults, regardless of target. TDC supported infantry units who were unequipped with tanks.

Of course the Germans also had the whole Jagd series of vehicles that were analogues to U.S. tank destroyers - now, the Jagdpanther and Jagdtiger were some of the most impressive combat vehicles of the war (although not without their limitations.)