66 panther div 1943

Im trying to find information about this group.Any suggestions on how to start? THANKS

Start by providing more information. There was no such thing as a Panther division, and I really don't think there was a 66th Panzer Division. You many be working from a garbled reference, but if you provide context and background we may be able to figure it out.

If you're looking for information on Panthers in 1943, they were only used on the Eastern front, starting in the July Kursk offensive. They proved to have serious problems there (although only a few were lost due to spontaneous combustion), and were not put back into action until much later. No Panthers were sent agiainst the Western allies until at least February 1944 (I know they arrived in Italy in that month, but not when they went into combat).

I think Ken refers to the United States Army's 66th Infantry Division, nicknamed the 'Black Panther Division.' It consisted of the 262, 263, and 264 infantry regiments, the 721, 870, 871, and 872 field artillery battalions, 66 recon troop, 266 engineer battalion, and 366 medical battalion.

It arrived overseas in December 1944 and is credited with participation in the Northern France campaign; days of combat, 91. It was used mostly to blockade and invest the German garrisons of Lorient and St. Nazaire.

Info from _Army Almanac_ (GPO, 1950).

Ed Frank

I would think that 'only a few' would have been more than sufficent!

Actually, although the Panthers did suffer from 'spontaneous combustion' it was not of the 'usual' type.

Some of the fluid lines, fuel I assume, were not well designed and failed due to the ordinary stresses of moving the panzer about. The lines failed and some hot engine part ignited the fluid.

Another of the many examples of the Germans not having time or skilled manpower to do a through job of development under wartime conditions. Probably the guy that would have done that test was off manning a flak battery. Maybe stratigic air did have some effect.

Henry Hillbrath

Faulty fuel pumps too, IIRC. Had to do with the housings cracking, and leaking fuel into the engine compartment. The Jentz book has a blurb about this.

The Maybach engine wasn't well ventilated which made it run rather hot and because the fuel connectors where non-insulated this caused many fires in the early Panthers.

The Panther was the first German tank to be equipped with an automatic fire extinguishing system. However, because the early Panthers often had engine compartment temps at orabove the tiggering temps(160 degrees) the system was often set off even when there was no fire. There were also problems with the sensors themselves which were never completely cured.

Other things done were limiting the maxium engine rpm, running the engine richer thereby using the fuel to help cool the engine. Also, more vents were added to help vent the exhaust of unburned fuel which could ignite if the engine back-fired of if the driver suddenly accelarated too fast.