Originally Posted by
wsteve55
We had better tanks? certainly not! During the D-day invasion,a German "King Tiger" destroyed a whole column (37) of pathetic Churchill, and Sherman tanks,and would have continued, butl he ran out of ammunition!German tanks were generally invincible, but Russian t54's were easy to make, maintain,and use, and in the end, just like the sub's, they just couldn't keep up production,and lost in a war of attrition! As for Russia itself, no-one was ever going to win there!
In 1940 the French had better tanks than anyone. The British introduced the Matilda 2 which the Germans could not knock out, but too late. The Germans were more effective because they controlled their tanks by radio having better control on the battlefield.
In 1940....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hannut
"The German PzKpfw III and IV were the only German tanks capable of matching the SOMUA S35 in battle. The SOMUA S35 is generally considered to by the most formidable tank during the campaign in the west. Despite being outnumbered by odds of two to one, the German forces still managed to defeat the qualitative and numerical superiority of the French. The Germans saving grace was their superior tactical deployment. Using radio and mobility they constantly outmanoeuvred the French, who used rigid, static positioning as in the First World War."
In 1944 (different time period in WW2 to 1940) The Wittman Tigers on D-Day, well many days after, destroyed mainly light skinned vehicles and he was killed by a Firefly tank if I recall correctly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_I It was Wittman's platoon that destroyed the vehicles.
Interesting.....from Wiki. British Firefly...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Firefly
"While the number of Panthers and Tigers only accounted for some 30% of the nearly 2,500 German tanks deployed in Normandy (the rest being composed of Panzer IVs, Sturmgesch?tz IIIs and other tanks the standard Shermans were able to effectively handle), Montgomery's strategy of drawing the bulk of the German armour units around the vital town of Caen so the American units could break out to the west meant that British and Commonwealth units had to face over 70% of all German armour deployed during the Battle of Normandy, as well as almost all the elite, well-equipped SS units which contained the fearsome Tigers and Panthers. Thus, despite the relatively low number of Panthers and Tigers deployed, they would almost all be facing British and Commonwealth troops. As a result, the Sherman Firefly was perhaps the most valued tank by British and Commonwealth commanders, as it was the only tank in the British Army able to effectively defeat the Panthers and Tigers at the standard combat ranges in Normandy."
"Within 1,000 m of the town, 9 Shermans of the 1st Hussars opened fire into the advancing Panthers flanks. Lt. Henry's gunner, Trooper A. Chapman, waited until the Panthers "lined up like ducks in a row" and quickly knocked out five German Panthers with just 6 rounds. The attack was repulsed with the loss of 7 of the 12 attacking Panthers, the majority credited to Lt. Henry's single Firefly."
Fireflys against Tigers:
"Under strict orders from the troop commander, they held their fire until the German tanks were well within range before opening fire. Ekins, the gunner of Sergeant Gordon's Sherman Firefly (called Velikye Luki - A Squadrons tanks were named after towns in the Soviet Union) had yet to fire his gun in action. With the Tiger tanks in range, the order was given to fire, what followed was an almost twelve minute battle that saw Ekins destroying all three Tigers that No. 3 Troop could see (there were actually 7 Tiger tanks in the area heading north along with some other tanks and self propelled guns). A short time later, the main German counterattack was made in the direction of C Squadron. A Squadron (less Sgt Gordon who had been wounded and had already bailed out of the Firefly) moved over to support them and in the resulting combat, Ekins destroyed a Panzer IV before his tank was hit and the crew were forced to bail out. One of the Tigers Ekins is credited with knocking out was that of Michael Wittmann, though there is still some controversy over whether Ekins really killed Wittman as Fireflies of the Sherbrooke Fuisilier Regiment were also firing at the Tigers from a closer range of 500m."
Only 1,400 Tigers were ever made, compared to 50,000 Shermans. It took 5 Shermans to knock out a Tiger, but they had the numbers. The British Sherman Firefly (the British put a 17 pdr gun on a Sherman) could knock out a a Tiger and did. The British Comet introduced in 1944 could and did. The rocket firing Typhoon planes knocked out Tigers. Tigers and Panthers were too few to worry about. The Allies had so many tanks and plane to knock out Tigers et al.
From wiki:
During August 1944, a number of Tiger II tanks were captured by the Soviets near Sandomierz and were soon moved to their testing grounds at Kubinka. The Soviet team gave the opinion that the tests revealed the tanks to be severely defective ? the transmission and suspension broke down very frequently and the engine was prone to overheating and consequential failure. Additionally, the Soviets opinion was of deficiencies in the armor after firing many anti-tank rounds at the same target. Not only did they report that the metal of shoddy quality
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The Soviet T34 not T54. This was a well designed and effective tank which the Germans could not match. About the T-34: "We had nothing comparable" - Friedrich von Mellenthin (1956). Guderian sent a team to Russia to assess the T-34 in Nov 1941, as it was murdering them. The Germans were ordered to copy it. In March of 1942, Daimler-Benz was the first to produce their version of VK3002's design based on previously rejected VK3001 (direct copy of T-34/76) design from January of 1942. Two versions of VK 3001 with different suspensions were designed by Daimler-Benz - one with spring suspension and other with torsion bar suspension. Daimler-Benz VK3002 design was largely based on T-34/76 and was more like a modified German version of it. MAN finished their design of VK3002 in early Spring of 1942.
http://www.achtungpanzer.com/panzerk...71.htm#panther
The Germans made the unreliable heavy Panther which was based on the T-34's attributes.
The Churchill was slow but difficult to knock out. The Sherman was a medium infantry support tank. The US never made a heavy tank as their doctrine was to take out tanks with self propelled anti-tank guns. The British has a similar doctrine in the early war but charged to full tank on tank engagements. The best tank of WW2 was the British Centurion, which was deployed but never saw action.
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