A captured panther tank in Paris, august 1944. The emblem seems to be the one of the 2nd armored division (général Leclerc).
Yep, and only for show!
The slight anti-French bias among these pages is understandable. Yes the French didn’t play a major part in WW2, yes they, today still, can be a bit arrogant from time to time, yes they’re no good at English (which leaves them at a numerical disadvantage on sites such as this) and no, as a people, they don’t currently hold a great passion or fascination for warfare (which possibly is connected to having had it tear right through the middle of their country a bit too often in recent history) -a bit more than the Anglo-Saxon countries anyway (and I hold an Aussie passport too so can speak for some of this culture as well). BUT None of this means they were (re: previous comment) “just for show” The French lost 567 600 people in WW2 -admittedly, only 217 600 were military deaths -(please forgive them if didn’t beat their 1.4 million WW1 record) - and I seriously doubt all of these were just guys tripping over their rifles. And yes the Free French were a minority but they did their bit -my own great uncle (1st free French Division) died at the gates of Rome on June 5th 1944, liberating someone else’s city too. Finally, I’d just like to say that I love this site, not the least for the fun inter-cultural jousting that goes on -something I can well understand, having spent my life straddling two very old (and to me beloved) rivals in the field. Cheers!
I believe the Panther was one of if not the best tank fielded by the western allies (they used captured examples).
The French Army fielded several units of Panthers after the war until spares shortages curtailed their use along with the introduction of the transitional AML44 and numbers of M47.