The Last of the Ausf.D Panthers

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Hello everyone,

thanks to European player DrakeZiggo and the wonders of mobile internet, I have an interesting story for you today about possibly the last surviving Panther D in the world.

It was captured by the 1st Polish Armored Brigade (historical Polish were anything but noobs), who then turned it on the Germans and used it during the liberation of Breda (Netherlands) in 1944 and was later given as a gift to the city. The origin of the tank is unknown, it is however speculated it came from the Meppen army testing ground.

The vehicle remained in Breda unattended until 2004, when Kevin Wheatcroft (famous British renovator and owner of a private tank collection) took interest in it and restored it to its original look for the monument (he kept the engine and other components in return). Currently, the tank is located on a pedestal near Wilhelmina park in Breda.

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186 thoughts on “The Last of the Ausf.D Panthers”

        • I’m just checking, you know the difference between “anything but noobs” and “nothing but noobs”, right.
          What SS was saying is that real life polish tank brigades were skilled, unlike their WoT counterparts.

          • well, he said nothing about “their WoT counterparts”, but other from that, you are correct

          • “real life polish tank brigades were skilled, unlike their WoT counterparts.”

            now you have insulted the polish people, lol.

        • “they were anything but noobs” means “they were many things, but they weren’t noobs” ;)
          regards,
          Hustodemon

          • It is any… It is nothing but misunderstanding. For english-speaking people sentence “anything but noobs” is positive, but for somebody who have in native language “double negation” (something like “There isn’t nothing to eat” as correct sentense – if this is bad example; sorry but I don’t have better idea) and for whom “nothing”=”anything” sentence “anything but noobs” can be equal “nothing but noobs” – in negative way. Chance to do mistake is higher when somebody forget that “any” and “no” in English can make difference. I must admit that in beginning I also made this mistake.

            PS. Sorry for bad english, but all internet translators have a problem to translate something from polish to english. Imagine the worst “engrish” text you have ever seen and make it 1000 times worse.

        • Oh noes the poles where not n00bs in WWII. If if where not for the Poles that held back the German counter attack that was heading for the US troops heading for Berlin. The US troops would not have made it there at all. They might have failed in defending their country early on. But they fought just as good as the rest to get Europe back. They had some Ace tankers worth mentioning as the rest had.

    • It was a joke, dude, relax. Unlike some of my countrymen, I have nothing against the Polish and I certainly don’t think they are any worse than other players. If anything, the opposite.

      • may I ask, where was the joke? because only thing I see is this “It was captured by the 1st Polish Armored Brigade (historical Polish were anything but noobs), “, and there is nowhere stated that Polish were or are noobs. Which is true, because they never were noobs as a nation :)

        I was just wondering why Oxmaster felt that you offended his country.
        Regards,
        Hustodemon

        • I have no idea. The “joke” was that while Polish players are considered bad by EU forums community, in real life, Polish soldiers were definitely not “noobs”. I mean, it’s not even that funny. Just that some people get offended way too easily.

          • They aren’t considered bad in game for no reason you know…There’s lot of them and great part of them simply suck. And they have problem dealing with it. About first comment, he should learn to read carefully.

            • Let me correct that for you… “Great part of them simply suck BECAUSE there’s a lot of them, mostly stupid kids”. PURE STATISTICS. More players = more noobs and noobs are easier to notice than those rare good guys.” Greetings from SiemkaLand.

    • Well, people like you are the reason why us, poles, are hated. Where he offended our country, hmm?

      • Some people are either bad at sarcasm or at English, but don’t worry, you’ll find representatives of both categories in every country.

        • poles are too sensitive in matter of nation, country etc in general, funny thing is that most poles laugh of other nations and dont see anything wrong in that(im pole so i know ). and there wasn’t anything offensive in ss joke, stop embarrassing yourselves

          • We remeber bad stuff that happened to us in last few centurys, especially from Germany and Russia. And thats why we are sensitive. But joke is a joke and we need to relax

            • Not being a fucking failure of a state might of have helped. Until quite recently European Realpolitik was very very unforgiving of weakness in geopolitically interesting locations.

          • Poles are too sensitive in matter of nation, country etc in general.

            Well… in fact just minority is oversensitive but those morons are the loudest ones.

            Probably 80% of them attends to gimnazjum (gymnasium — first stage of secondary school) and we call them “gimbaza” (you can translate it to “gimbase” — gymnasium+base, people who have no more than basic information about the world). Remaining 20% olders are those ill educated, who believe in every propaganda and national mythology bullshit. Both groups barely speak English and that’s why they are chatting in Polish.

            But they are still minority and such minorities, kids + morons, you’ll find in every country. On EU server I see morons from any country every day, as well as good players. That’s why I’m not talking about nationality, there are no country of smart people only.

            Majority of Polish players are not stupid siemkas and are really pissed off when see such idiots. But again — you will not look for nationality of good player from your team who speaks English in chat… and this can be player from Poland too.

            For those who are stupid enough to claim that Polish players are bad ones, look at those clans:
            • 1SBP — http://worldoftanks.eu/community/clans/500000006-1SBP/
            • 2SBP — http://worldoftanks.eu/community/clans/500000632-2SBP/
            • 3SBP — http://worldoftanks.eu/community/clans/500002500-3SBP/
            • 4SBP — http://worldoftanks.eu/community/clans/500006418-4SBP/
            • 5SBP — http://worldoftanks.eu/community/clans/500015859-5SBP/

            Most of whiners would not be able to meet the criteria to join those clans but they will keep their whining that all Polish players should be banned.

    • Welp, seems like SerB was right about you guys.

      “- Q (on SerB): “How did the EU community react on the Stalin inscriptions returning?” A: “Majority doesn’t care, the only ones with butthurting are the Polish (it’s their national sport) and – oddly enough – Romanians””

        • Their country ended in the meatgrinder (which they hadn’t started) too many times…
          Last time it was from both Germans (led by Hitler) and Soviet (led by Stalin), and after the WW2, from 1945 till 80′s they were forced to believe that the only one who made harm to them was only Germany, and that Soviet Union done no harm to them, which was not true…

          They have right to be slightly butthurt (but sometimes it is too much, I know… damn the nationalism)…

          • If you sat on what amounted to strategic crossroads between rising rival powers and couldn’t fight wars worth shit after the 17th century it’s kind of a given you’d get walked all over by Everyone & Dog, Inc.

            European Realpolitik was quite consistently Hobbesian like that until very recently.

            • Bah, the Soviets let them off lightly considering that with the exception of the Czechs and Poles the lot had basically voluntarily Aided & Abetted an unprovoked and genocidal invasion of their country that left, what, over *thirty million* Soviet citizens dead.

              That’s *some* wrong bandwagon to jump on.

            • From time to time there comes a shallow, trollish comment about history from Kellomies’ ass

              How were the other eastern states let off lightly ?
              Romania had to pay huge war reparations although it ended the war on the side of the soviets
              30-50.000 prisoners in 1944
              300.000 sent to Siberia after war as enemies of the new communist state
              ~ 50 years of Stalinist communism

              Hungary
              huge war reparations, the same murdering of the elites, not to mention the soviet response to the Hungarian revolution in ’56

              These were the other two main contributors to the German invasion of the USSR. Both states were forced into the alliance with Germany by the weakness of the Allies and the help (in the beginning) of the soviets (Ribbentrop-Molotov pact). In 1940, USSR was the one that launched an unprovoked, genocidal invasion of Romania. Romania had no other choice if it wanted it’s territories recovered. Hungary was completely dependent on Germany for the running of it’s economy and it’s political stability.

              But it’s OK, this is the Internet and you can continue to talk out your ass.

          • poor polish people when hitler was taking over czechoslovakia they where more then happy to bit off piece of it for them self… that’s called karma what happened after that :)

      • SerB is really pissing me off. The fact is, Russia and other russian speaking countrys had too much propaganda… Why is Hitler staff wrong and Stalin staff good? We care because we should not forget what Stalin did. And he was sick motherfucker, like his fellow Hitler.

        • He didn’t want to kill off a hundred of million plus people on grounds of loony racist fantasies. That sort of counts for a lot, doubly so as he was the one left standing when the dust settled.

          • Yeah he only killed because of another silly and stupid fantasy called by them communism. So yeah they are more than equal.

      • I think it’s something like ‘We recommend the public to protect this gift from Poland’?

        • I think ‘We recommend the public to protect this gift from Poles” is a bit more accurate.

          • Tank inscription:
            “Miastu Breda 1 Polska Dywizja Pancerna 29 X 1945″ → “To the city of Breda, 1st Polish Armoured Division, 29 October 1945″

    • lulwat if your talking about Poland he said that the poles were not noobs and I agree

      • But you Polish (and all the rest of the eastern europeans) are fking noobs. You are like a plague in wot, so dont be offended when truth is slapped to your face.

        :D

      • i’d like to have someday some good romanian player and maybe u, ss, and troll all in a platoon killing nicely those freakin antypolish-romanian-czech etc bitches with mocking from stalin n’ hitler (i dont care if the biggest red killer after mao has a sign on tank or not)

  3. Cool! I’m from Breda myself, but I never knew it was such a rare tank. Thank you for the information, next time when I stop by I’ll certainly have a closer look at it!

    • Da’s een mooi ding jong!

      Used to live near Breda, visited it few times. Always thought it was a Panther ausf. G like the one i saw in Houfalize. Still, this one is in much better condition despite being stripped. Great article, Dutch like me will like it.

    • I visited Bergen op Zoom about a week ago and I wanted to ride bicycle in Breda. Its a pity I eventually didn’t. I haven’t seen any Panther yet.

  4. “historical Polish were anything but noobs”. FU Silentstalker. I wish you had to fight for your country and lost your life for it.

      • I’m afraid that most of my country men will sadly misunderstood that. They just translate that not in the context but literally and with mestike in it. Allow me to add litle translate for PL:
        Nie burzcie się że on obraża polaków “anything but noobs” użyte w tym zdaniu znaczy że byli kompletnymi przeciwieństwami noobów

    • Ahem, “anything but” is used to emphasise the opposite, SS tried to mock in-game siemas, not the poles who fight during WWII.

      • Everyone has their opinions on foreigners. But if you do not want answers exasperated, just avoid posting on the subject.

        For my part, I find that Polish players are not the dumbest …

        It’s just an image that “sticks” to the skin of Poles because they are more numerous than others in this game.

        And then let the locker room remarks like: “the Polish tanks they were lancers on horses”.
        On the one hand it is totally false (the 7TP what is it?). And secondly, the Polish tankers were among the best in the world in 1939. A situation recognized. Moreover, the French have given R35 tanks to Polish expeditionary corps in 1940 and the Poles have used these tanks with high efficiency in the battles of Champagne.

        After it is normal that the Poles are opposed to the establishment of inscriptions which glorify Stalin. But if history then it is normal that they are present in the game.

        But just one question: did they intend to add the Finnish Swastika?
        This is not a fascist pattern and this is historic. If this symbol is put into play then yes there would be a real respect for the historical reality. Finns, Poles and Baltic peoples used this symbol. Even the Soviets and the Americans have used the symbol before 1945.

        • Ehm, what does this have to do with Polish strategic intelligence/sophistication in World of Tanks?

          • Just as other nationalities are not necessarily better. That’s it.

            Sorry but in the parts that I play, the Poles are rarely the worst… It is my opinion, the result of two years of playing experience.

            It is easy to make fun of others before considering that the majority of players from each country is stupid. For Poles as for others.

            No strategy with the Poles? Why the French, the Germans, the Czechs, etc. are strategists of birth? Beautiful theory that denotes more outright xenophobia than anything else. But this is not reality…

            • Polish noobs tend to rush into their death, while german (for example) noobs tend to camp until the very end (siema e100 should be renamed to ‘servus e-100′). Both isn’t helping at all, but at least the polish noobs give a good bullet sponge, while the german noobs are useless at every aspect. And that’s coming from a german guy.

            • The lesson of this story: every nation has its values. ;)

              Polish bravery is known. Like the proverbial German thoroughness. ^^

              With stupid players, these values ​​are just brought to their worst end. The Polish players charge useless, and German players practice the wait to find the ideal plan …

              But with good players, these values ​​give a real interest in the game. :)

              As a French player, I must say that this is the same problem with my compatriots (the most stupid) …

              As in 1940: a well-known recklessness and a real lack of organization with conflicting orders and a lack of analysis of the battlefield. LOL

  7. Cheezus crust, “anything but” noobs means anything EXCEPT noobs. SS is NOT saying Poles were noobs! He’s saying they were actually capable fighters.

  8. Silentstalker, I think you chose an unfortunate wording in this article as most poles aren’t very good at english and can’t see the difference between “anything but noobs” and “nothing but noobs”. What they are are good at is massive whining at the first thought that their country might have been disrespected (I know what I’m taking about, I’m polish myself).

  9. I’m starting to understand the whole hate for Polish players (I’m from Poland) since they can’t even understand a simple English construction such as an “anything but smth”…
    But there are also non-polish guys who don’t speak English and rage in their native language so I’m not worried that much

    • Except the fact that most polish players or “siemkas” Are not only bad at the game (this is very common and forgivable ) but they are all IN YO FACE about it. Proudly wearing dual polish flags on their tanks (i rarely see dual romanian flags on tanks) Spewing that “siema, siemano” crap all the time, and then suiciding like morons, and then they blame you for not helping, while you die alone in the flank because some polish guy, again, wearing dual polish flag emblembs on his E-75, is camping in the base.

      Perhaps there are intelligent polish people somewhere, but I havent seen any evidence of this.

      • Perhaps you should use your brain. There surely are intelligent people in 30+ mln country. Consider this. Internet is very common these days and even >10 years old kids have acces to this game, what do you expect from them? But of course in your country everyone has above average intelligence, right?

        • Almolst everyone from my country i have seen playing the game is below average. But I am not a butthurt patriotic cunt to pretend they are. I just dont give a damn.

          And again. I need evidence of inteligent poles to believe in their existance. So far every pole ingame i have seen does not know english and does not know how to play. period.

          If you are polish and you want to play with me to prove me wrong, cool.

      • “Perhaps there are intelligent polish people somewhere, but I havent seen any evidence of this.”

        Because we are not wearing dual flag emblems, and don’t shout “siema” all the time, so we are harder to get noticed.

      • Why I should not wear flag of my country? You should not generalize. I’ve seen bad players from many countries. From Romania too

        • Have I said that you shouldnt ? I just point out my findings that every guy with dual polish flags on his turret I have seen played bad. Sue me.

      • I don’t know that’s why I asked, and because I know L 100 is made up, but this thing looks loooong anyway.

        • I take it you’ve never seen a tank in real life?

          I suggest you try and go see some – You’ll be amazed the difference between pictures, video and the models of WG compared to the RL machines.

          • Well then you’re wrong. I have plenty of tanks around and I regulary sit on a T-34, T-55, IS-2 and ISU-122 while taking a break on bicycle rides. But have I seen a Panther IRL – no, I haven’t.

  15. Let’s cut the crap!

    1. SS is the wors noob-boob player on EU server :) :) :)
    2. I’m the best player on fucking EU server!!!
    3. Poles are bad players because they drink votka/vodka all day long and get little confused :) :) :)

    My 55.555 cents :) :) :)

      • Votka is alcoholic drink made out of potato, and is originally from Poland, but everyone thinks it’s Russian drink, and you probably know it under the name of vodka, which is coming from Polish word for water. In my retarded noob Klingon language, water is voda, so it would be logical to call the fucking drink vodka, but we prefer to call it votka, since it’s not our national drink. I strongly believe that everyone should call it voTka, because it sounds so much more appropriate than voDka :) :) :)

        So the simple answer votka is something everyone likes :) :) :)

        • WoT players should call it WoTka.
          Consumable available only for polish tanks:
          +100% to bravery
          possibility to call cavalry charge
          you can shoot two targets at once (you see 2x more tanks)
          25% increased chance to get engine burn

          • Actually, it would be Russians, since it was their soldiers who distilled alcohol from tank’s main armament recoil absorbers.

      • OMG What a stupidy

        First destilation of alcohol was made by Zosimos from Panapolis about year 400 n.e.
        This ability spread in the Arab world in term of medicine.
        In XII century it was bring from crusades to Italy and this is how “Grappa” appeared.

        Vodka brewed from wheat probably invented in Germany in XIV century. (łac. aqua vitae, water of life)
        And from there went to the Poland.

        votka as You describe is caled in Poland “Bimber” eng. – “hooch”

        In the eighth century, N. E. Arab alchemists received the first-ever hooch

        I agree with You in one thing Russian did not invented Vodka … they just made it their notional sport.

        Is interesting to say that paraffin oil was invented by polish alchemist, seeking to obtain alcohol from rude oil. ;)

  16. Just for youre information, Poles are considered as one of the best players (see statistics, polish clans etc) so gtfo. The game has the same ammount of noobs from every country, so gtfo. There is the same ammount of siema dudes as other sziasztok, salam, guten tag, bonjour, dobri den etc dudes, so gtfo. If you dont know shit about or dont have prooves shut youre ass and dont write anything about “poland is considered as a noob comunity in WOT” becouse its the opposite.

    • Sorry but the SEA server, now Asia, has the greatest amount of noobs. Asians not being known for their tanking prowess. The largest group by nationality on the Asian server who are noobs are from Thailand.

      and their proud of it.

    • Poles are consider the worst players by majority of western players.

      I consider every bad player to be a bad player, and I consider every Pole to be just human like everyone else, but westerners don’t share my opinions. Sorry but that’s true :(

      • You’r*

        And sure, I would love to see your statistics. Because exatly 2 polish (only) clans are good.

        Considering the ammount of polish players, the ratio isnt great.

        Huehuehuehue

    • Of course there are many good Polish players and Polish clans. Noone will deny it. But there are also plenty of Polish noob players.
      But the thing people forget here, is that the origin has nothing to do with skill. In WoT you have good and bad Polish players, good and bad German players, good and bad Spanish players, etc.
      The reason you Polish players are the stereotype of the bad player is a) the size of Polish people playing WoT (more players = more noobs) and b) plenty of unskilled players has “PL” in their nickname and use “siemka” greeting during the game (i.e. average non-Polish player sees those guys as an average Polish player, whereas many good Polish players are unrecognizable because they lack the “PL” in their name and they don’t use Polish in game).

    • :D

      How much more delusional you go?

      Do you claim that its just illusion, that everyone else are laughing at you eastern europeans? Sure, you got few good players, and really, do they get laughed at? Rest of you scrub hold on to that illusion, that some players are good, so you must be worth something too – well guess again. You are just about wort shit in general, and this comes from your own gameplay. Your reputation is NOT undeserved, you just are retards, and we rest can easily separate from the first second of gameplay, who is eastern european, and who is not, as we can see statistics. You brought it all on yourself, so dont be butthurt when you get laughed at.

      Oo the Irony, you are proud of being Polish, Czech and what ever, but rest of the world is laughing :D

  17. Wow. Just wow. That is one pretty amazing looking tank. I sure hope they guard it well; the last thing they need if for some cunt to vandalize it.

    • I’m wondering why the tank isn’t vandalized yet. After all it’s sited in the Netherlands XD

    • Nice to see that the youth of Holland has a modicum of respect for the battle memorials and monuments unlike the shite from my own country who like to steal the bronze plaques for scrap iron or spray paint them with swastikas. (usually the wrong way round)

        • It is only vandalised during world cups[img]http://www.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=http://www.omroepbrabant.nl/Graphics/Image.aspx%3Fobject%3DNews%26type%3Dlarge%26image%3DOranjeloop_op_die_Mannschaft_(foto_Erik_Peeters)_1113601.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.omroepbrabant.nl/%3Fnews/1758971493/Oranjefans%2BBreda%2Bbrengen%2Bzwaar%2Bgeschut%2Bin%2Bstelling.aspx&usg=__zEhChKj9Pb7rgmnzfB6bql-UmSA=&h=405&w=720&sz=42&hl=nl&start=2&sig2=ZcgJUbLNDoTc_OG7hQeSKg&zoom=1&tbnid=YF-6thnND3jNXM:&tbnh=79&tbnw=140&ei=vy4iUq6BJKrt0gW80YG4CQ&itbs=1&sa=X&ved=0CCkQrQMwAQ[/img] and u can’t call canabis drugs, it is used as medicine aswell here ;)

          But the teens around Breda are proud of it, they won’t vandalise it.

          Such a shame almost no-one notices the beauty of the tank but all join the witam/siema rage. Ruins the topic.

    • I think it’s kind of a shame that the restorer made off with the engine and other parts. “So I hear you have the only remaining Panther D in the world! Mind if I part it out?”

      • Well I beleive he’s using the parts to restore another Panther and convert it – not to mention it had been untouched untill 2004 so I doubt anything good was left of it if it was left in the tank.

  19. LoL, judging by this shitstorm, you should make an errata with Polish translation in this blog post ;) , Frank. Or even consider making Polish version of FTR, :))) …

      • I’m not implying mistake.

        BTW, it would be fun to make FTR in more languages – even more than official WG, on this one site. Would you care to assemble a team, Frank?

  20. Historical “poles” where often germans, today`s poles are polish and therefor noobs/retarded..

      • Funnily enough, many Jews killed in German camps were in fact Germans, per citizenship.

        • It might of be relevant the Nazis quite seriously thought Jews were a “race” instead of a cultural/religious minority. That they consistently failed to discover solid empirical evidence to support that assumption, even by their own rather loose standards, but quite a bit to the contrary, and that this repeatedly gave them genuine difficulties in figuring out who exactly they actually should be exterminating (the Einsatzgruppen at Caucasus actually temporarily suspended operations and sent for “recial experts” from back home to help figure it out), didn’t seem to bother them all that much.

          But then Enlightenment rationality wasn’t exactly a central point of the ideolofy anyway. Don’t get me started on the raving lunacy that was the World Ice Theory…

  21. After reading this comments I clearly see that WoT community is probably most retarded in all games communities. I have never seen so many xenophobic idiots as on WoT forums and blogs. It was good decision to focus on other games. Everywhere I meet nice, helpful people and any nationality is not a problem. I am in multinational guilds (mainly people from western countries) in 2 other MMO games and there is everything fine. But in WoT? I feel here like being on Nazi training camp. Another reason why I would love to see PvE version of WoT.

    • Let me ask one question: are those other two MMO based on WWII? Do they have a significant German and Eastern European userbase?

      • They have nothing to do with WWII, in case of nations it is mixed. Germans have other servers and some Eastern European nations too. (Russians in both, Poles and Czechs in one of them).

        I agree that WWII theme is here part of problem, but people with even limited intelligence should be easily above that.

        • You have altogether too optimistic expectations of the intellectual capabilities of the average pubbie.

    • I prefer paid games over WoT too, WoT xbox has less retards due to subscription costs but my opinion is that hearing kids squeaking over their kinect mic is just as annoying as the kids spamming the chats.

      • The two other MMO I play are F2P also (I play only F2p games, cause I hate when have to pay for playing, but I have no problems with buying some premium staff and play for free many years after that :) ). But communities are totally different, friendly and helpful. Forums are not full of wanna-be-Hitlers and so on. It seems here WWII and FPS-like type of game attracts much less nice people.

    • Its short for SilentStalker on this blog.
      Or historically, its Shutzshtaffel (im spelling it wrong probably) The ‘elite’ german nazi-indoctrinated soldiers. Fact is they werent that “elite”, they just got the best equipment over more competent army groups, like the Grossdeutchland.

      • Again the oldest myth…
        Check dates of delivery of Panthers to Wehrmacht Panzer Divisions and to the “Frundsberg” SS Division.

  23. In the context of this blog, it’s a shorthand for SilentStalker, author’s nickname.
    In the context of WWII history, it’s Schutzstaffel, which means Protective Squadron, or what you’d simply call an elite unit of sorts.

    • A “palace guard” more like. Originally a VIP protection detail basically. The Waffen-SS, whose actual fighting credentials were at least as mixed as the regular military’s, was a later addition established in no small part because the Party frankly didn’t trust the military. (Allgemeine-SS is still another story, Wiki the lot if interested.)

  24. Ha, I found the joke inside that article!

    “captured by the 1st Polish Armored Brigade” actually means “stolen from a German testing ground in the dark of the night” :D

        • Dat fat nigga stole it? (I’ve actually seen a player going by NiggaStoleMyTank – and just to nail the joke, he was driving an SPG at the time.)

    • Are you suggesting that Polish 1st Armored Division sneaked through German lines just to snach a tank from their testing grounds, and then got back?

      The level of their camo skill had to be insane.

  25. Not to offend anyone but in the thirties lots of states behaved aggressively when given an opportunity. It was like bigger fish pickung on the smaller….

    Poland was not only an innocent victim – she also behaved aggressively against her neighbours.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_Poland#1938

    “As Czechoslovakia was being absorbed into the German Reich, Zaolzie, the Czech half of Cieszyn, was annexed by Poland in 1938 following the Munich Agreement and the First Vienna Award. At noon on September 30, Poland gave an ultimatum to the Czechoslovak government. It demanded the immediate evacuation of Czech troops and police from Zaolzie and gave Prague until noon the following day. At 11:45 a.m. on October 1 the Czech foreign ministry called the Polish ambassador in Prague and told him that Poland could have what it wanted. Poland was accused of being an accomplice of Nazi Germany – a charge that Warsaw was hard put to deny.”

    Plenty of butt hurt to go around for those so inclined!

    • Are you talking about the same region that Czechoslovakian troops attacked and ripped from Poland in 1919?
      Beside the fact, that seeing Czechoslovakia collapse and German unopposed march, annexing Zaolzie it was quite logical think to do.

      And Zaolzie didn’t stop all those brave Czechs that wanted to fight against Germans in escaping to Poland. Like Josef František for example.

      Please don’t alter and simplify it to “Poland invaded Czechoslovakia with Germany” crap.

  26. What are you all on about? How many of you suffered/are still suffering from World War 2? If your grandparents would complain about it, I would somehow understand it, even though it is over for more than 70 yrs now.
    But somehow I doubt that many ppl who really suffered from WW2 would complain about it on a forum about a bloody tank game. Also it completely eludes me how you could be proud of your nationality. It’s nothing YOU achieved, you were just born that way. I’m glad that I was born german and not – let’s say south sudanese, but that was mere luck and nothing I could have influenced in any way.
    Just think about that next time you post some butthurt nationalistic crap on a bloody internet forum about a bloody online computer game that you spend too much time on, instead of achieving something you could be proud of.

    • Well, let’s just start at for example.. how Poland, after the war, where other “victorious” countries were rebuilding, was neck deep in the communism shit for another 50 or so years, which was a direct outcome of the war and of the “bow-down” politics of the west towards Stalin. But as you seem to be completely ignorant towards history, I won’t waste my time explaining things to you. Ignorants like you are the reason why tragic history repeats itself, paraphrasing a quote.

      • Churchill actually asked the Imperial General Staff -or whatever it now is called- to do a feasibility study over a plan to try kicking the crap out of the Soviets once the Germans were dealt with, aptly enough named “Operation unthinkable”. He had a genuine soft spot for Poland as it happens.
        The soldiers duly did as asked and the conclusion can basically be summed up as “how about no?”

        Nobody was going to fucking double the duration of the war over the fate of some Central European shitholes, doubly so as unlike the previous occupier the Soviets had no interest in wiping out the inhabitants (and boo hoo for the ones that had bet on the losing horse). On the contrary Everyone & Dog just wanted the whole shitty thing to finally end so they could go back to normal life and start rebuilding the smoking wreck that was Europe in ’45.

        • Nice double standards, Kellomies.
          So, according to you, we have “Central European shitholes” not worth giving a damn about, and The Europe, which had to rebuild after the war (including the French, of which 50% happily cooperated with the “losing horse”, boo hoo them too?).
          And that’s exactly what happened – few cared about other people (it’s not about soft spots), the rest cared about “what they had”, not to lose it – e.g. political stuff.
          I don’t know if you have noticed, but you just categorized the “Central European shitholes” as subhumans, whose fate isn’t a concern, while the bright Western Europe, where real people live, is what really matters.

          • Stop talking out of your hurting butt and do the fucking math. In ’45 Europe was shot to pieces and several countries were effectively short of an entire generation of young men; the Brits were literally running out of manpower and were up to their eyebrows in debt to the US (nonwithstanding the tacit agreement that this would be quietly written off); and the Americans were getting heartily sick of the war plus mainly concerned with wrapping things up with Japan and getting back to normal order of business. (The French actually had their manpower reserves relatively intact but their economy and industry were wrecked.)

            Pray tell WHO EXACTLY was going to renege on the agreed-upon demarcation lines and engage the Soviets in *another* fight to the death? Nevermind now over something as ultimately inconsequential as the political future of East-Central Europe?
            We’re not talking about some goddamn fairytale here, but cold Realpolitik in the aftermath of a war that had just killed tens of millions of people. The decision-makers in London and Washington and Paris weren’t going to get *another* few million killed over fucking bleeding-heart PRINCIPLES. Which would have been grotesquely self-defeating anyway.

            …and do I even need to point out that the “Axis minor” co-belligerents weren’t exactly in the position to demand much *anything* on moral and ethical grounds, given what they had just Aided & Abetted?

            • I just summed up what you wrote, no hurt butt, but you seem to have one. And like I said, you have pretty much the same voice that, for example Poland, heard then (which wasn’t “Axis minor” by any means) – “we need your help because Nazis will bomb our cities to shit! Fight for Britain! Okay, Britain is safe, now go back to your shithole and we’ll let commies take care of your welfare”.
              It’s not about waging another war against soviets, it’s about “we secured ourselves, we don’t need to care about our allies anymore” position that the Allies showed, for example, in Jalta Conference, where they gave Stalin whatever he wanted – which in itself shows how rotten the politics were.

            • I note you’ve yet to explain by what magic exactly short of prolonging the war in Europe for God knows how much longer, with the associated ballooning butcher’s bill, would the Democracies have been able to do shit about the rather simple fact on the ground the USSR was taking a lot of land and, unsurprisingly, doing its level best to ensure the future rulers thereof would be their creatures. (The last turned out to be a mixed success at best.)

              To put it in very blunt Realpolitik terms, the lives of their own citizens were, indeed, a rather higher priority concern for the people in London and Washington than the political future of Central Europe. Democracies can be funny that way, and good luck getting the prospect of a throwdown with the Soviets in ’45 sold to the general publics and rest of the governements.

              As for Yalta, bah. Roosevelt was kind of *dying* at the time so he can be excused of lapses of judgement, and Churchill couldn’t so shit on his own. And neither could in any case have offered a tenable and realistic argument against the strategic realities on the ground anyway. Plus it should be noted Stalin cheerfully agreed to allow for free elections in eg. Poland – naturally enough he was lying through his teeth, but the fuck was anyone going to do about it?

            • It’s not magic, it was the outcome of previous decisions and attitude. Of course Churchill, of all people, couldn’t be happy about the cooperation with Stalin, but the end game, the final situation – for example in Jalta – was decided not just after the war, but decided by the decision during it – now that Hitler turned on Stalin (which he planned form the beginning), let’s give Stalin everything he needs to beat Nazis. So the situation, where Stalin took what he wanted, didn’t create itself. Same goes for how and why has the WWII started – Hitler didn’t jump out of a magic hat with 10,000 tanks and an army, it was “maybe if we pretend there’s no problem, the problem will go away” by the to-be Allies.
              Don’t tell me “what could have they done by the time war was over?”, think what should be done before that so the outcome wasn’t as grim for everyone, winners or losers. And no, nobody can be excused when millions died and were betrayed because of purely political decisions, driven by “will I win the next election” and similar reasons.

  27. Can’t understand why WG have not given us a Panther in WoT with the historical turret when elite. That Schmalturm thing is horrible and was never even used, wtf do both the in-game Panther and Panther II use it!?

    • Considering the Panther 2 *itself* wasn’t used either (it got more or less canned as unnecessary) your argument is standing on some pretty shaky legs indeed.

        • No. It is not historical Panther, but proto which is different from Pz Kpfw V.

          And for Anonymous on August 31, 2013 at 3:48 pm said:

          You can easily change turret in your Panther ingame using folder for mods. I have even VK3601 remodelled into historical Panther.

  28. A little praise to Poland and nothing but BS and Butt Hurt reigns.
    .
    There are very few panthers left in the first place and in the second maybe 2-3 might be in running condition in the next 2-3 years. Be happy there are any at all.

  29. i dont want an ugly tank in middle of a town … but thats how the polish say “we won the war, dont forget” when they come back from thiefes tour from germany, lol

  31. And Now for Something Completely Different … :D

    Is theres was any sign of zimmerit on this tank or not ?

    • Hadn’t they stopped using the stuff a fair while ago by the time the Poles picked this thing up?

      • Only on new tanks , on old was still present .
        After Zitadelle , all Panther D tanks , still in service , got zimmerit . So , if really no zimmerit on that tank , this means that Panther is one of the earliest Ausf D .

        • Eh … I forgot to ask . That painting is a really original camo pattern ? Any photos from past for proof ? Because that looks like completely made up by some drugged hippie XD

  32. SIlentStalker,

    Would you recommend me Lešany ? Since I am now living i Brno, I could go and visit some of the Vojenske muzeum :)
    Omlouvam se, ne možem ti psat po Česky, nevim mluvit dobre ;)

    Darko

  33. When i was a child we often played near the tank in the Wilheminapark , great memories it was fun and we realy believed that there was stil someone in the tank that could drive away any moment .
    sometime ago i was taking a closer look at the tank and especially at the weldings of this tank and it is piece of craftsmanship.

  35. Pingback: Ultimul Panther Ausf. D | WoTRomania