No list of the finest tanks of World War II can be complete without the Panther, arguably the one battle tank of the conflict that best combined firepower, armor protection and mobility. It's design was prompted by the shock of early encounters with the T-34, a tank that even General Guderian conceded was finer than anything in the German arsenal at the time. The Panther borrowed from the T-34 the highly sloped glacis plate and turret; this allowed it to be lighter for a nearly equivalent level of protection as the Tiger I (except on the sides). Armament was based around the excellent high-velocity 75-mm KwK 42 that despite having a lower caliber than the vaunted 88-mm of the Tiger I, had greater penetrating power and enabled it to easily take out almost all Allied tanks up to the end of the war (a slow turret traverse was a weakness, however). Mechanically, the Panther improved upon the Tiger I's suspension with eight interleaved road wheels sprung on torsion bars, on wide tracks. Unfortunately, the tank was highly complex and in its initial version, was prone to breakdowns and equipment failures; a consequence of being rushed into production in order to be available for the Battle of Kursk. Most were eventually corrected and it proved to be only marginally more complicated to produce than the Pz IV (and far easier and cheaper than the Tigers). This made it into the most widely produced German tank of 1944-45, serving with distinction in Normandy where it made up around 40% of German tank strength, much to the dismay of US and British tank crews that had nothing comparable against it (US tank doctrine called for five Shermans to take out a Panther). On the Eastern Front it also fared well, notwithstanding the fiasco at Kursk, being capable of outdueling the T-34/85 and matching the heavier and higher-caliber IS-2. After the war, small numbers of surviving Panthers found themselves in the service of various European countries, notably France which equipped an entire regiment until 1950.

Plans for a tank that could match the T-34 were drawn up after Barbarossa and some early proposals even involved copying the Soviet tank. Plans for the PzKpfw V Panther (SdKfz 171) were submitted it April 1942 by both MAN and Daimler-Benz and trial models in September with production of the Ausf D beginning by the end of the year. Teething troubles led to numerous improvements in the subsequent Ausf A, which included a new cupola, strengthened running gear, and improved optical equipment. Production then switched to the definitive Ausf G with a redesigned hull with increased side armor, a rotating periscope, a revised turret mantlet to eliminate the shot trap present in previous versions, and other minor modifications that improved reliability. A small number were fitted with sheet-metal superstructure and fake side-aprons to disguise them as US M10's during the 1944 Ardennes Offensive. The only other variants were the Pz Bef Wg command tank, Bergepanther (SdKfz 179) armored recovery vehicle and the highly successful Jagdpanther (SdKfz 173) tank destroyer that is described separately.