Deleted member 1487
If the new tank is wasted in another Kursk assaulting heavily fortified positions but if the "new kid" is ready, reliable and available in numbers a few months before the Panther it might make a difference. IIRC Zitadelle was postponed from an original launch in May to July, because Hitler wanted to wait for the new Panthers (of which many broke down before reaching the front), but the later start bought enough time for the Soviets to massively reinforce the front around Kursk. It might be possible to have a German victory.
With less Soviet troops present a defeat will of course not be as hard felt as if in OTL Kursk/Zitadelle, but would still be a huge shock that probably would overshadow the succes at Stalingrad.
Anything could still happen but the biggest danger to an allied victory probably would be the Wallies doing something stupid like invading NW Europe before actually being ready.
For the Germans the biggest danger is the GroFaZ effect (Hitler thinking he is the best commander ever) - what is won in one battle is lost in the next.
For the Soviets it will be a huge disappointment. In OTL they were surprised to see the Wehrmacht strike back at Kharkov after Stalingrad, but Kursk regained their self confidence. In OTL it was not at least Zhukov who advocated the strategic defensive at Kursk and in OTL it worked (and brought him fame). In this ATL it doesn't and I suppose Zhukov is finished - that alone might be significant.
Kursk was quite reinforced already in May, but it got more so over the following 6-8 weeks. I'm going to assume this "Panzer V" gets into production in December 1942 and is reasonably reliable. So come May 1943 it has 5 months of production under its belt and that much training on the new type. Not sure that a few hundred or even 800 of the new Panzers would make that much of a difference, even if the attack is launched in May 1943. The big benefit would probably come later once production has picked up and it would probably be more of a surprise once introduced if there is no Tiger fiasco at Leningrad in late 1942.
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