The answer to the T-34 was the Panther, one of the best AFV of WWII. Any tank in the hands of a competent commander and crew, will be a deadly killing machine.

I recall a conversation I had back in the early 80's with an elderly gent. He served in the US Army in WWII as an Artillery Lt. He told me that those infernal Tigers and Panthers were for the most part unstoppable on a one to one duel. He said the Shermans had to swarm and gang up a Tiger or Panther otherwise the Sherman would loose. He said the Shermans would light up like a Ronson lighter if hit by either a Tiger or Panther. 

Unfortunately, these kind of stories are getting harder to come by as we keep loosing these old veterans.

Here's a clip of a duel between the mighty Pershing vs. a Panther:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt5bJQOkI1g

dognutt

ok guys thanks for your opinions i guess i couldn't agree more.I live in the 3rd world country im one of the few handful guys fascinated by your tank models.they don't sell them in our country they rather sell ones for cars.whats worse is even are soldiers have little knowledge about tanks as civilian.we struggle to maintain that kind of hobby and passion.im a troll that wants to take step out of the cave

 

Gaborone, Botswana?  You have access to the internet, can't you mail order stuff? There's a few South African modelers on here and they seem to be able to get most models, can you order stuff from there? These days about anything that's available is somewhere on the internet for sale. I don't know much about your situation there but you might give that a try. 

And yes, most King Tigers were shipped to the Eastern Front since the toughest fighting was there against the Soviet/Russians. 

For the record, most if not all tanks, had their thickest armor on the front as this was the most likely area to attack and be attacked on.

The Panther has been considered by most all historians as the best all-around German tank of the war. It had the best balance of armor, firepower, and manueverability. It certainly had it's flaws, as all tanks did. It's 75mm long barreled gun was superior in penetration to even the Tiger I's 88mm.

Initially when the Germans invaded Russia, the T-34 was far superior to the German Panzerwaffe. The little 37mm guns would bounce off it's armor. The only way to deal with them, until the Pak 38 and Pak 40 became more readily available, was to use the venerable 88mm guns. Only in 1943, did the German armor start producing the Tigers and Panthers in numbers.

The Shermans were inferior in firepower and armor, but superior in reliabilty and sheer numbers. Another plus was air superiority which greatly helped.

There's no point in discussing the title of this thread because it's almost meaningless.

What does "good" mean? Good at what?

The more tangible statements about how to defeat a Panther can be discussed, but they're not really on-topic for this forum, I believe?  I wasn't really on-topic myself, in the thread about "Afrika Korps Tigers".

David

 

thats too nice and sweet wish i could display it my self ( king tiger) hey i have a Q did the king tiger ever enter eastern front? and if you suggest a site that i join that discusses ww2 tanks or even new generation tanks thanks

ok guys thanks for your opinions i guess i couldn't agree more.I live in the 3rd world country im one of the few handful guys fascinated by your tank models.they don't sell them in our country they rather sell ones for cars.whats worse is even are soldiers have little knowledge about tanks as civilian.we struggle to maintain that kind of hobby and passion.im a troll that wants to take step out of the cave

You look at any WWII era tank and you'll find fatal flaws, that doesn't mean it's not "good" Look at the M4 Sherman, those things had very little armor and a tendency to catch fire at the slightest provocation, but they still got us all the way across Europe, because they were a hell of a lot easier to build and maintain then any of the German Panzers. GMorrison's T34s are another example, those things were definitely not built to last, the tracks weren't even properly pinned, and the engines fell apart after a couple hundred miles, and yet they got the Red Army to Berlin because the Soviets could build them by the thousands.

T34 was not good. Lookit all them dead commies.

 

Interesting thinking.  Admittedly the Panther is considered the best German tank from WW2.  If the Panther is not "good", then what WW2 tank would you say meets your standard of "good"?

Thanks for the in depth opinion there dognuts....but...what does that have to do with modeling?

BTW - you might want to google the US Army ballistic testing after D-Day that was conducted on a captured Panther in France. Once you read the study (with photos) you may want to re-align your theory with facts and data.

This was a follow up to US and British testing on armor plate before D-day to assess the effectiveness of the 76mm main gun newly mounted on the Sherman.