Pz Kpfw V ausf F “PANTHER schmalturm” (prototype)

At the end of 1943 work was started to redesign the Panther‘s turret and avoid the rebound towards the hull of the projectiles that hit the gun mantlet. Although Rheinmetall made the design of a narrower turret, equipped with a new mantlet and with more armour, the design did not convince and Daimler-Benz was asked for another design in 1944. Daimler-Benz presented a turret designated as “Schmalturm” (narrow turret) in which a stabilized periscopic SZF1 gunsight was installed and the thickness of the front turret plate was increased to 120mm. In addition, the Tiger II gun mantlet was incorporated. The new tank, composed by this new turret installed on the Panther ausf G chassis was designated as Panther ausf F (Sd.Kfz-171), and was presented in October 1944. The production was scheduled to begin in April 1945, but the defeat of Germany truncated those plans and only a few hulls and turrets were built.

PANTHER F gallery and more info