(Finally- moving weekend is all done. New apartments are great, but let me tell you how much stuff my wonderful woman has! Not too much time to post today either...)

But back to the subject at hand... Kai, the amount of info you have turned up on the Ferdinands/Elephants is incredible- keep it coming!
A better picture of Panther actions would be interesting... Erich came up with some good day-by-day numbers and info for the Tigers in DasReich. I'll see if any of my sources have similar info on the panthers (I thought someone posted said info already on this thread- excuse me if I missed it!). We know that many were knocked out on the first day, but there's a few days where I haven't seen much info on Panther actions.

more on the LG40/43... I found more technical info on these weapons in "Men Against Tanks (John Weeks), talking about the firing system and proiduction info. I'll post more detail later today under a "Weapons" thread... But I did find an explanation for their being in action at Kursk- no more airborne ops. The LG weapons, as Erich mentioned, were designed for the Falshirmjager- lightweight, easily assembled, etc. Problem was, by 1943, Hitler had essentially killed any future large scale airborne ops after the casualties taken at Crete. Therefore, the weapons were parcelled out to other random units.

Hopefully, now that moving is doen and work is calming down, I'll have more posting time this week...

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Seriously, all today is missing is free cotton candy and the annual Bay State Hooker Parade to make it any better.