Jagdpanther –Research Breakthrough!

In the many years since the completion of our first Jagdpanther project several issues have come to light which we have been posted under our banner “Department of Corrections”. This title lists which oversights were made all those years ago and how they should now be corrected. The very latest topic emerged during recent discussions within our research team regarding restoration plans for our second Jagdpanther. A superb image was posted in our last Inside Track piece about our second Jagdpanther. This photograph was of Jagdpanther Fahrgestell Nummer 303110 within a group of other Jagdpanther sitting in the finishing hall of MNH shortly after the plant fell into Allied hands in April 1945. While our focus dwelt on the registration number that was stencilled on the left rear of the hull Hilary Doyle pointed out a feature we had missed despite the numerous occasions in which the image had been pored over. To the upper right rear of the fighting compartment door stood the late version of the antenna base. The so-called Stahlblech Antennenfuss. Due to extreme shortages of rubber at this period of the war a decision had been made to eliminate rubber wherever possible. All antenna mounts were to be replaced by a clever steel spring base. While these Stahlblech Antennenfuss were documented and drawn in Panzer Tracts No.15-3 back in 2006 and later Panzer Tracts No.15-1 published in 2008 these publications concentrated on the Sd.Kfz.251 and Sd.Kfz.250. This important detail is obviously correct for our second Jagdpanther with Fgst.Nr.303110 but the question arises, could our exiting Jagdpanther Fgst.Nr.303086 also have been fitted with this rubber saving device? The modifications demanded by the Waffenamt at this stage of the war were numerous, but we hadn’t come across any referring specifically to the antenna mounts. The evidence from the MNH factory images is undeniable but were other Jagdpanther of the Fgst.Nr.303086 chronological age fitted with the steel antenna base?. Looking to see if other survivors originally sported the steel antenna base we established that; Jagdpanther Fgst.Nr.303094 at Panzermuseum, Munster, lost its complete antenna bracket while sitting in pinewoods for many year ago, Jagdpanther Fgst.Nr.303112 at Sinsheim clearly had one as it also features in the MNH factory photos, Jagdpanther Fgst.Nr.303101 at the Tank Museum, Bovington, had a Stahlblech Antennenfuss but only the insulating base remains in place - see attached images. What we also found surprising is this antenna base had been fitted at a very early stage within the assembly process at MNH– even prior installation of the engine, gun, tracks and hatches. . Images of Jagdpanther of this late period, March/April 1945, are in short supply. However, several photos do exist of Jagdpanther knocked out in the field, in the final stages of the war, that are fitted with the Stahlblech Antennenfuss. But finding corresponding Fgst.Nr. we presently cannot establish exactly when this important modification was introduced. More about these interesting antenna mounts will be provided in Inside Track in the coming weeks. We will cover the two types of Stahlblech Antennenfuss that we have in the Weald spare parts warehouse and discuss how they compare to the better-known rubber-based examples.

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Hiding in plain sight

Get more information on the Jagdpanther (8.8 cm Pak) - Sd.Kfz.173 Ausf. G2

Get more information on the Jagdpanther (8.8 cm Pak) (Sd.Kfz.173) Ausf. G2 # 2

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