The Panther used hydraulics to move the turret.
There was a hand crank to make fine adjustments for aiming, but you wouldn’t be using that unless the hydraulic motor had been removed.
I don’t claim to be an expert on WWII German Armor.
I was at the Patton Museum as part of my training for the US Army Armor Officer Advanced Course.
The speaker was a guy who had been in the fight at Baum/St Vith. This is a famous battle for American Tankers.
He was a Bank Vice-President from the local area.
As part of our training, students crawled into the Sherman and the Panther.
There was a race to get the main gun from each tank lined up on the other tank.
The student in the Sherman won.
Hydraulics make a specific sound when they are powered up and used.
The only thing you could hear from the Panther was the grunting of the student as he worked the manual controls on that Panther.
Now, you are telling me that my instructors and this old guy lied to us.
Maybe they did.
Maybe they were wrong.
I am not going to go look up the production specifications of every Nazi tank.
I’m telling you what I was taught and what I saw first hand.
The point the instructor was making was the importance of quickly bringing your main gun to bear on an enemy tank.
If you want to argue with me about what I was taught and what I saw, forget it.