Replies

In September 1942 the first pilot model of the MAN design was completed and tested in the MAN factory grounds at Nuremberg. The second pilot model was transported to the Heereswaffenamt test ground at Kummersdorf for official army trails. The first Panther models which came of the MAN line from November 1942 were designated as PzKpfw V Panther Ausf A. These were "pre-production" vehicles having 60mm thick front armor as originally called for, and with the commander's cupola cut into the turret side wall. From January 1943, however, Panthers appeared with all the design improvements suggested from trials with the pilot model. The Ausf. B with a different gearbox was never realised, and no record of an Ausf. C has been found. The first full production type was the Ausf. D, which characteristics were the 'dustbin' cupola, the vision port and machine-gun port on the glacis, and smoke discharges on the turret sides.

Repairing motor damage of a Panther Ausf A

Late in 1943 the Ausf. A went into production, and had improvements as an armored cupola with periscopes and anti-bazooka side plates. This lettering is an anomaly never explained, and might have reulted from an administrative or phonetic error, since the logical designation was Ausf. E. The Panther Ausf A was the main type encountered by the Allies in the Normandy fighting. It was planned to build at a rate of 250 vehicles a month, but at the end of 1942 this target was increased to 600 a month. To reach such a target a larger Panther production group was necessary, and Daimler-Benz were to build Panthers as well. Even aircraft production was cut back to free manufacturing facilities and to conserve fuel for use in tanks. However, the monthly target was never reached, with a monthly average of 154 tanks in 1943 and 330 in 1944. By February 1945 4814 Panthers had been built.

The gun mantelet of the Panther Ausf. A without deflector lip.

The Panther had the driving and transmission compartment forward, the fighting compartment and turret in the centre, and the engine compartment at the rear. The driver sat on the left-hand side forward with a vision port in front of him in the glacis plate. This was fitted with a laminated glass screen and had an armored hinged flap on the outside which was closed under combat conditions. Forward vision was then given by two fixed episcopes in the roof. The wireless operator, who was also the hull machine-gunner, sat on the right side forward. In the early Ausf. D models, he was provided with a vertical opening flap in the glacis plate through which he fired a MG34 machine-gun in action. In the Ausf. A and G this arrangement was replaced by an integral ball-mount. The radio equipment was fitted to the radio-operator's right and was located in the sponson which overhung the tracks.

The gun mantelet of the Panther Ausf. G with deflector lip

In the turret the gunner sat on the left hand side of the gun and was provided with an articulated binocular sight (later changed to a monocular sight). He fired the gun electrically by a trigger fitted on the elevating handwheel. The co-axial machine-gun, fitted in the gun mantlet, was fired by the gunner from a foot switch. Traverse was by hydraulic power or hand. The loader occupied the right side of the turret, who had a large round access/escape hatch at the rear face of the turret (which was also used for loading ammunition). The vehicle commander was at the left rear of the turret, necessary by the length of the breech which divided the turret into two. A prominent cupola was provided with six vision slits in the Ausf. D. In the Panther Ausf. A and G an improved cupola was fitted which had seven periscopes. This had a hatch which opened horizontally. A ring wasfitted above the cupola to mount a MG34 for air defence.

A Panther is given an engine change by a half-track mobile gantry

The Panther had on each side double torsion bar suspension for the four inner and outer road wheels, an idler wheel with an adjusting shaft for track tension, two shock absorbers and a drive sprocket. The first, third, fifth and seventh wheels from the front were double while the intervening axles carried spaced wheels overlapping the others on the inside and the outside. The interleaved running gear gave the Panther equal ground pressure and the road wheels moved little while traversing rugged terrain. Disadvantages were the difficult replacement after damage (eg by a mine) and the accumulation of clogged mud, clay and ice. In addition, a single damaged wheel often needed the removal of several road wheels.

A damaged Panther needed a train of three 18 ton half-tracks

The 80mm glacis plate was sloped at 33o to the horizontal, an angle specifically selected to deflect shells striking the glacis upwards clear of the mantlet. The three-man turret was armed with a 75mm KwK 42 L/70 gun and was capable of dealing with a T-34 or KV at any practical fighting range. It was developed by Rheinmetall who had been asked to design a high velocity version of the 75mm weapon which could penetrate 140mm armor at 1000 meters. It had a baffle at the muzzle end of the barrel which acted as a muzzle brake, absorbing 70% of the recoil when firing. The single baffle was later replaced by a double baffle muzzle brake. The high velocity meant a flat trajectory, which meant less likelihood of missing the target due to miscalculation of range. During road marches the gun was held in place with a barrel lock, which folded down onto the forward hull when not in use. Whereas the pzKpfw II, III, IV and Tiger tanks carried the crew's baggage in a compartment on the rear of the turrets, the stowage boxes on the panther were mounted on the right and left of the outer rear hull wall.

Panther Ausf A of "Grossdeutschland"

The final production model of the Panther in its original form was the Ausf. G. By this time the designation PzKpfw V had been dropped following a personal directive from Hitler on 27 February 1944, and the vehicle was simply known as the Panther Ausf. G. It had altered superstructure sides (mainly to simplify production), the hull sides were increased in thickness from 40mm to 50mm and altered in angle of slope. The gun mantelet's lower part was made thicker and vertical so as to prevent shells from deflecting and entering through the hull roof. The driver's vision port was replaced by a rotating vertical periscope since the fixed episcopes restricted vision, and the vision port was dispended.

Panzerkampfwagen V Panther Ausf A from 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking", Eastern Front

The Ausf. G was thus easily recognised from the front since it had an unpierced glacis plate. Some very late production vehicles had all-steel resiliently sprung wheels of the type subsequently fitted to the late production Tiger and Tiger II. In very late production vehicles the cylindrical stowage box for the gun pull-through and cleaning gear was removed from the left side and mounted across the hull at the rear of the engine compartment.

Panzerkampfwagen V Panther Ausf D in Rome, 1943.

Panthers were first used in action during operation "Zitadelle" in the Kursk region on July 5, 1943. Panther Abteilung 51 and 52 (with a total of 192 factory fresh and untested Panthers Ausf. D) were subordinated to Army Group South, but by the evening of the first day of operations only 40 Panthers were still combat ready. The haste with which the design had been evolved, and the speed with which it had been put into production, had led to many "teething" troubles. In particular the complicated track and suspension gave trouble, with frequent breakage's, while the engine presented cooling problems. In the early months of service more Panthers were put out of service by mechanical faults than by Soviet anti-tank guns. The troops were however enthusiastic about the new gun, the majority of enemy tanks were taken out at a distance of 1500 to 2000 meters.

The Panther became one of the finest medium tanks of WW2, with a growing increase in the number of operational Panthers and a drop in the number of Panthers lost. Overheating was overcome by fitting a second cooling pump and modifying the cooling distribution. Later Panthers proved very much more reliable than the vehicles involved in the Kursk debacle. Many of Germany's top panzer aces achieved their finest victories with this vehicle. Soldiers like SS-Oberscharfuhrer Ernst Barkmann, who in an exposed spot with his sole Panther knocked out nine American M4 Shermans before withdrawing, were quick to prove the outstanding qualities of this tank.

Panzer-Bergewagen Bergepanther - (Sd. Kfz. 179)

According to statistics of the American army, destroying a Panther cost five Shermans or about nine T-34's. It was undoubtedly Germany's best tank design, giving the almost ideal balance between armor, speed, weight and firepower.

Panzerjäger Jagdpanther

An important derivative of the Panther was the Jagdpanther, a self-propelled anti-tank gun or tank-destroyer. Other conversions were the Befehlspanzer Panther, which was fitted with extra radio equipment and associated aerials, and the Bergepanther, a recovery vehicle specially for work with tanks in the 45-ton class.

Mid production Panzerjäger Jagdpanther

A clandestine use of the Panther took place during the last desperate German offensive in the West, in the Ardennes. At least ten Panthers were effectively disguised and marked to resemble US Army M-10 tank destroyers. The cupola was removed, together with external stowage boxes on the hull. The turret and nose were disguised with thin sheet metal to resemble the shape of the M-10, including the distinctive rear overhang of the vehicle's turret counterweight. Despite being finished in very convincing US markings, the effect of the phoney M-10s was nullified by the general confusion already present at the beginning of the 'Battle of the Bulge'.

PzKpfw V Panther Ausf G as Ersatz M10.

The ever-increasing air superiority of the western Allies made daytime travel almost impossible for tank unit, and great emphasis was placed on the development of an infra-red device to be used by the Panzertruppe for traveling and firing at night. Guderian demanded that an IR gun sight created for the 75mm Pak had to be developed for the Panther as well. The disadvantage of having the commander's head exposed outside the vehicle when using the equipment was negligible considering that the device was only to be used at night. The headlamp gave the commander the ability to see ahead of the vehicle roughly 100 meters.

Panther Ausf. G with infra-red gun sight ........Panther IR equipment

The inadequate range of the Panther's IR viewing system led to the development of an IR observation vehicle (Sd.Kfz.251/20 "Uhu") with a 60cm searchlight, and during tactical operations one observation vehicle would be assigned to a Panther unit comprising five tanks. The visibility range of the infra-red viewer mounted on the Panther was increased to 700 meters through the capability of the Uhu's searchlight. During the Ardennes offensive several Shermans were knocked out in the middle of the night by Panthers using IR night-scopes. After locating US tanks with the IR scope, the Germans fired flares at the Shermans to light the target completely, and knocked them out.

In February 1943 MAN and Henschel were asked to produce improved designs for the Panther and Tiger respectively, to ensure maximum interchangeability of parts. Henschel produced the Tiger II which went into production at the end of 1943. The improved Panther, the Panther II or Panther Ausf. F, was to have a hull similar to the existing Panther but with the same form of interleaved all-steel resilient wheels as the Tiger II. The armor on the hull top was to be doubled to 25mm. The major change was a new designed turret, known as the Panzerturm Schmal (small turret). The object was to reduce weight, simplify production, reduce frontal area and enable a larger gun to be fitted. It was to have a built-in stereoscopic rangefinder and a gyrostabiliser for both the sight and the gun.

Panther F (Panther II)

The new small turret proved a most successful design, with 30% more armor with the same weight, and could accommodate the L/70 gun, a lengthened L/100 version or the 88mm Tiger II gun. The wide mantlet was replaced by a small Saukopf (pig's head) mantlet of conical shapes. The rapid deteriorating conditions of the war with facilities curtailed and the need for continued supply of types already proven in service meant that the Panther II never went into production. Had the war dragged on, the Panther and Panther II would have become the backbone of the German panzer divisions.

Late model Jagdpanther.
Captured by the US Army in early 1945, Southern Germany.

Additional Sources:

http://www.3-d-models.com
www.achtungpanzer.com

On This Day in History

1568: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II (also king of Hungary and Bohemia) agrees to pay an annual tribute to the Sultan Selim II for peace
1634: Puritan attorney William Prynne is tried in the court of the Star Chamber for publishing, in 1632, “Histriomastix. The Players Scourge, Or, Actors Tragedie,” which contained the index note “Women-Actors, notorious whores”, an ill-timed entry as ten weeks after its publication, Queen Henrietta Maria performed in the play “The Shepherd's Pastoral” by William Montague (Prynne was punished with life imprisonment, a fine of £5,000, and the cutting off of both his ears)
1691: Thomas Neale is granted a British patent for the American postal service
1772: The first partition of Poland-Russia & Prussia (joined later by Austria)
1776: The first volume is published of Gibbon's “Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire”
1791: Messier catalogs galaxy M83 (spiral galaxy in Hydra)
1795: Thomas Seddal harvests an 8.3-kg potato from his garden in Chester England
1801: The U.S House of Representatives breaks the electoral college tie, choosing Thomas Jefferson to be president over Aaron Burr
1817: Baltimore becomes the first U.S. city to be lit by gas lighting (by the first U.S. gas company, the Gas Light Company of Baltimore)
1854: Britain recognize the independence of Orange Free State (South Africa)
1864: The Confederate vessel, CSS HL Hunley, becomes the first submarine to sink an enemy ship
1865: Columbia South Carolina burns down as the Confederates evacuate and Union forces move in during the Civil War
1867: The first ship passes through the Suez Canal
1870: Mississippi becomes the 9th state to be readmitted to the U.S. after the Civil War
1872: “Harper's Weekly” features a cartoon about the Free Love movement
1876: Sardines are first canned (in Eastport Maine)
1878: The first telephone exchange in San Francisco opens with 18 phones
1897: The National Congress of Parents & Teachers organizes (Washington DC)
1904: Giacomo Puccini's opera “Madama Butterfly” premieres at La Scala (and is poorly received)
1905: Frances Willard becomes the first woman honored in National Statuary Hall
1911: The first hydroplane flight is made to & from a ship (by Glenn Curtiss - San Diego)
1913: The first minimum wage law in the U.S. takes effect (in Oregon)
1913: The New York Armory Art Show displays the first U.S. showing of “Modern Art”, introducing Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp and other artists to the public
1915: Edward Stone, the first U.S. combatant to die in WW I, is mortally wounded
1933: “Newsweek” magazine is first published
1934: The first high school auto driving course is offered (at State College in Pennsylvania)
1936: “The Phantom” cartoon strip, by Lee Falk, debuts
1942: The first red wing blackbird is sighted at Block Island (Rhode Island)
1944: The Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins (U.S. victory on Feb 22nd)
1947: The Voice of America begins broadcasting to the USSR
1949: Chaim Weitzman is elected as the first president of Israel
1957: The Suez Canal reopens
1958: The syndicated comic strip “B.C.” is first published (ZOT!)
1959: The first weather satellite is launched (Vanguard 2 weighing 9.8 kg)
1964: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Westberry v. Sanders that congressional districts must have equal populations
1966: The French satellite Diapason D-1A is launched into Earth orbit
1967: The Beatles release “Penny Lane” & “Strawberry Fields”
1967: Kosmos 140 launches into Earth orbit in a test of the Soyuz program
1968: The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens in Springfield Massachusetts
1970: Jeffrey McDonald murders his wife and daughter
1971: The first municipal veterinary hospital is opened by W.E. Ziegler (Los Angeles)
1972: President Nixon leaves Washington DC for China
1979: China invades Vietnam
1980: Buddy Baker wins the Daytona 500 (177.6 MPH/285.8 kph)
1981: Chrysler Corporation reports the largest corporate losses in U.S. history
1985: First class postage rises from 20¢ to 22¢ for the first ounce
1986: The first Francophone Summit convenes at Versailles
1986: Johnson & Johnson announces it will no longer sell encapsulated pharmaceuticals
1987: Don Mattingly wins the highest salary arbitration of the time ($1,975,000 per year)
1989: Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya form a common market
1989: A six-week study of the Arctic atmosphere shows no ozone “hole”
1990: Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan gives videotaped testimony for a 2nd day about the Iran-Contra affair in the trial of former national security adviser John Poindexter
1991: Iraq Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz travels to Moscow to discuss possible negotiated end to the U.S.-led air war, and impending ground war, to free Kuwait and contain Iraq
1992: Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is sentenced in Milwaukee Wisconsin to life in prison (he is beaten to death in prison in 1994)
1993: A Haitian ferry boat capsizes in a storm, killing more than 1,000 people
1995: Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings
1995: A Federal judge rules a lawsuit is allowable that claims U.S. tobacco makers knew nicotine was addictive & manipulated its levels in cigarettes to keep customers addicted
1996: World chess champion Garry Kasparov beats IBM supercomputer “Deep Blue,” in a six-game match (Philadelphia)
1998: Larry Wayne Harris and Bill Levitt are arrested for possession of anthrax
2002: The new Transportation Security Administration takes over supervision of aviation security from the airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration, marking the beginning of private security personnel becoming Federal employees

Born On This Day:
1490: Karel van Bourbon, military man/mayor (Lombardije) (514 years ago)
1519: François Guise, (Balafré), French general strategist (485 years ago)
1653: Arcangelo Corelli, Fusignano Italy, violinist/composer (Concerto grossi) (351 years ago)
1723: Tobias Mayer, “method of lunars” for longitude determination (281 years ago)
1774: Raphaelle Peale, U.S., painter (After the Rain-1823) (230 years ago)
1781: René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec, inventor (stethoscope) (223 years ago)
1804: Samuel Read Anderson, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1883 (200 years ago)
1824: William Farrar Baldy Smith, Mjr Gen (Union volunteers), died in 1903 (180 years ago)
1837: Francis Jay Herron, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1902 (167 years ago)
1844: A Montgomery Ward, founded the mail-order business (160 years ago)
1854: Friedrich A Krupp, German arms manufacturer (150 years ago)
1867: William Cadbury, England, chocolate manufacturer (137 years ago)
1874: Thomas J Watson Sr., U.S. representative/founder (IBM) (130 years ago)
1880: Alvaro Obregon, general/president Mexico (124 years ago)
1888: Otto Stern, physicist (Nobel 1943) (116 years ago)
1889: H.L. (Haroldson L) Hunt, Texas oil multi-millionaire (115 years ago)
1902: Marian Anderson, Philadelphia, operatic contralto/banned by D.A.R. (102 years ago)
1908: “Red” (Walter L) Barber, Mississippi, sports announcer (Brooklyn Dodgers, NY Yankees) (96 years ago)
1914: Arthur Kennedy, Worcester Mass, actor (Fantastic Voyage, Peyton Place) (90 years ago)
1918: Charles A Hayes, (Rep-D-IL, 1983- ) (86 years ago)
1924: Margaret Truman, Missouri, U.S. president's daughter/writer/pianist (Murder at the FBI) (80 years ago)
1925: Hal Holbrook, Cleveland, actor (All the President's Men, Mark Twain) (79 years ago)
1929: Chaim Potok, novelist (The Promise) (75 years ago)
1929: Yasser Arafat, PLO-leader/murder (75 years ago)
1933: Bobby Lewis, rocker (Tossin' & Turnin') (71 years ago)
1933: Craig Thomas, (Rep-R-Wyoming) (71 years ago)
1934: Alan Bates, actor (Zorba the Greek, Unmarried Woman) (70 years ago)
1934: Barry Humphries, Australia TV host (Dame Edna Everage) (70 years ago)
1936: Jim Brown, Georgia, NFL fullback (Cleveland Browns)/actor (Dirty Dozen) (68 years ago)
1939: Mary Ann Mobley, Biloxi Ms, Miss America-1959/actor (Diff'rent Strokes) (65 years ago)
1941: Gene Pitney, singer/songwriter (Town Without Pity) (63 years ago)
1942: Huey Newton, Black Panther leader (62 years ago)
1954: Rene Russo, actress (50 years ago)
1962: Lou Diamond Phillips, actor (La Bamba, Stand & Deliver) (42 years ago)
1963: Michael (“Air”) Jordan, Brooklyn NY, best-ever NBA guard/forward (Chicago Bulls/Olympic-gold-92) (41 years ago)
1998 Ernst Juenger German writer, dies at 102

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1967 SOOTER DAVID W.---VALLEJO CA.
[03/05/73 RELEASED BY DRV, DECEASED
1968 ASHBY CLAYBORN W. JR.---LOUISVILLE KY.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 COONS CHESTER L.---BISMARK ND.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 DAWSON FRANK A.---FAIRFIELD CA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 DONATO PAUL N.---BOSTON MA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 HAYDEN GLENN M.---LONG BEACH CA.
[REMAINS IDENTIFIED 01 DEC 93]
1968 KRAVITZ JAMES S.---RIVERSIDE CA.
[REMAINS IDENTIFIED 01 DEC 93]
1968 MARTIN JAMES E.---SALT LAKE CITY UT.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 THURMAN CURTIS F.---ST JAMES MO.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 WONN JAMES C.---PITTSBURGH PA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1972 CUTTER JAMES D.---FORT KNOX KY.
[03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 96]
1972 FRASER KENNETH J.---BROOKLYN NY.
[03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1972 HAWLEY EDWIN A. JR.---BIRMINGHAM AL.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED]
1972 IRWIN ROBERT H.---PEEKSKILL NY.
["DEAD, CREWMAN SAID IN HANOI" " REMAINS RETURNED 7/31/89, ID 11/08/89"]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

Deaths which occurred on February 17:
0364 Flavius Jovianus Christian emperor of Rome (363-64), dies at about 32
0956 Hugo the Great earl of Paris/duke of Francia, dies at about 55
1600 Giordano Bruno advocate of Copernican theory & plurality of worlds, burned at stake by the Inquisition in Rome
1688 Reverend James Renwick hanged in Scotland for being a Presbyterian
1815 Franz Gotz composer, dies at 59
1878 José Amador de los Ríos Spanish historian/poet, dies at 59
1905 Serge Alexandrovich Governor-General Moscow, murdered
1907 Henry Steel Olcott US co-founder (Theosophist Society-Madras), dies at 74
1908 Geronimo Apache chief, dies at about 79
1959 Tim Mara co-founder of NFL's New York Giants, dies
1962 Joseph Kearns actor (George-Dennis the Menace), dies at 55
1962 Bruno Walter symphony conductor (New York Philharmonic), dies at 85
1977 Quincy Howe newscaster (CBS Weekend News), dies at 76
1980 Jerry Fielding orchestra leader (Bewitched, Hogan's Heroes, Lively Ones), dies at 57
1980 Graham Sutherland painter, dies
1982 Lee [Israel] Strasberg father of method acting/actor (And Justice for All), dies of a heart attack at 80
1982 Theolonious S Monk US, jazz pianist/composer (Blue Monk), dies at 64
1986 Paul Stewart actor (Opening Night, In Cold Blood, Window), dies
1989 Lefty Gomez New York Yankee pitching great, dies at 80
1991 Enrique Bermudez commandant (Contra), dies
1993 Alfredo de Leon leader (Philippines Red Scorpio Gang), killed
1994 Randy Shilts US journalist (And the band played on), dies of AIDs at 41

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Sri Lanka : Maha Shivaratree
US : Pancake Week (Day 3)/Pancake Tuesday
US : Kraut and Frankfurter Week (Day 5)
US : Champion Crab Races Day
Community College Month

Religious Observances
Ancient Rome : Quirinalia-Feast of Quirinus (a d xiij Kal Mar)
Christian : Feast of St Silvinus
Christian : Commemoration of Flight into Egypt
Roman Catholic : Memorial of 7 Holy Founders of the Servite Order (opt)

Religious History
1741 English revivalist George Whitefield advised in a letter: 'Be content with no degree of sanctification. Be always crying out, "Lord, let me know more of myself and of thee."'
1815 In deciding the legal case "Terrett v. Taylor," the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional an act of the Virginia Legislature which denied property rights to Protestant Episcopal churches in the state. The Court ruled that religious corporations, like other corporations, have rights to their property.
1816 Birth of Edward Hopper, American Presbyterian clergyman. He is remembered today as author of the hymn, "Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me."
1889 Billy Sunday, 27, baseball player-turned-preacher, made his first appearance as an evangelist in Chicago. A strong fundamentalist, Sunday preached temperance and opposed scientific evolution. Over 100 million are estimated to have heard Sunday preach before his death in 1935.
1969 Russian-born, Milwaukee-raised Golda Meir (n‚e Mabovitch [Myerson]), 70, was sworn in as Israel's first female prime minister. (She would hold the office for five embattled years.)

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."

Question of the day...
Why does round pizza come in a square box?

Murphys Law of the day...(Law of Inside Dope)
There are many dopes inside in politics and government

Amazing Fact #653,987.2...
The extended right arm of the Statue of Liberty is 42 feet long.