From July 1943 to the Nazis' final defeat in May 1945 the Panther main battle tank and its variants were the mainstay of Germany's armoured forces. This superbly engineered fighting vehicle offered a lethal combination of firepower, mobility and protection. As this classic Images of War series title reveals, the Panther saw non-stop fighting on the Eastern, Western and Italian fronts. Using rare and often unpublished contemporary photographs with full captions and authoritative text, it provides a comprehensive coverage of elite Panther battalions in action. The book traces the development of the Panther, for example into tank hunter (Panzerjager), and also covers the other supporting vehicles that formed part of the Panther battalions' establishment. These included armoured recovery, Bergepanther, halftracks, Sd.kfz.2 Kettenrad, gun tractors and communications vehicles.