Subsequently. Manteuffel gave me his fuIler reflections on this subject. "Fire-power, armour protection, speed and crosscountry performance are the essentials, and the best type of tank is that which combines these conflicting requirements with most success. In my opinion the German Panzer V, the, 'Panther'. was the most satisfactory of all. and would have been close to the ideal had it been possible to design with a lower silhouette. A main lesson I learned from all my experince was that much more importance should be placed on the speed of the tank on the battlefield than was generally believed before the war, and even during the war... It is a matter of life or death for the tank to avoid the deadly effect of enemy fire by being able to move quickly from one fireposition to another. Manoeuvrability develops into a 'weapon' and often ranks equal to fire-power and armour-protection."
It will be noted that Manteulfel's views agreed with Thoma's as to the prime importance of all-round speed across country--what one might call "loco-mobility". The same conclusion was expressed to me by Bayerlein, one of the ablest of the younger panzer generals, who had an exceptionally wide range of experience. He was 1A (operations chief) to Guderian in the invasions of France and Russia, chief of staff to Rommel in the later part of the African campaign, later commanded the picked Panzer Lehr Division in Normandy and the Ardennes counter-offensive, and finally a corps in the Rhineland battles. Bayerlein said: "for future tank design I consider mobility, i.e. speed and manoeuvrability, the most important factor. Next comes the power of the gun (long range and calibre); and then, armour. 'Greatest mobility' will be decisive in a future war. Movement, action and surprise cannot be too fast."