Panzer Tracts No.9-3 Jagdpanther Pz.Jgr. Panther (8.8cm) (Sd.Kfz.173)

Book Specifics

Authors: Hilary Louis Doyle & Thomas L. Jentz

ISBN: 978-1-915969-16-3

Softcover portrait (8.5" x 11") with 98 pages, 60 high quality half page or full page pictures and 44 pages of CAD drawings.

The book is a revision of the original Panzer Tracts No.9-3 published in 2005.  Per the authors: "we improved the quality of the photographs available and reorganized the layout so that all drawings are in one place".  The revision includes six additional pages and 14 additional photographs. Many photograph captions have also been rewritten.

This publication presents a detailed history of the production and employment of the Jagdpanther.  It is based on primary source documents written by the designers, manufacturers and soldiers of the Jagdpanthers and is decided into several sections:

1. Introduction
2. Development and Production
3. Changes Introduced During Production
4. CAD Drawings
5. Organization & Tactics

1. Introduction

As expected, this one page section provides an introduction to the purpose of the book and discusses the process of creating the book, the logic of producing the CAD drawings and some interesting discoveries found while researching the book.

2. Development and Production

This seven page section covers the Jagdpanther conceptual design work and the numerous changes that were made to the conceptual design before initial production began.  It also includes excerpts from documents defining deficiencies in the design and proposed solutions.  One item I found particularly interesting is the evolution of the official name for the vehicle.  There were 18 different names between January 1942 and February 1945.  Production information outlines monthly goals for each manufacturer and then uses excerpts from official documents to describe why the goals were not being met.  Example text and photograph from section is shown below.

3. Changes Introduced During Production

There are 26 pages covering the major and minor design changes made to the Jagdpanther to improve its mechanical and fighting capabilities.  The changes are presented in roughly chronological order.  Photographs of external changes are presented intermixed with the text.

4. CAD drawings  

There are 43 pages of detailed CAD drawings.  Multiple full side view drawings of the Jagdpanther, as well as front, rear, top and underside views are done in 1/35 scale.  Detail drawings of the suspension, swing arms, mantlet, exhausts and a great deal of other objects are done in 1/10 scale.  This makes it easy to convert to 1/35 scale by simply dividing the drawing sizes by 3.5.  There is also one drawing of the various exhaust systems used that is done in 1/20 scale.

5. Organization & Tactics

The final 14 pages of this edition deal with the units receiving the Jadgpanthers and their deployment.  Several tables show the number of Jagpanthers issued to a unit, how many were operational and how many have been destroyed on a given date.  There are also excerpts from after action reports suggesting improvements in tactical employment.

Conclusion

This book is a wealth of information for scratch building items for your Jagdpanther or locating the correct placement for a detail part that has a vague placement location in the kit's instructions.  The changes section will also provide reference points for what particular changes should be installed on a given production version of the Jagdpanther. There is a caveat to judging what changes to install, different assembly firms enacted the modifications at different times; sometimes as much as several months apart.

Although not referenced in the book the Panzerwrecks website indicates this publication is a good reference for the following model kits:

Highly Recommended as excellent reference material for Beginner to Advanced builders.

Thanks goes out to Panzerwrecks Limited for our review copy of this publication.

Reviewed by Brian Campitella

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