The Best Tank of WW2

by Jack Lee

It’s been a topic of interest among WWII buffs for a long time, who made the best all around tank? When I say best, I mean a tank that was reliable, agile, packed a punch and could take a hit and keep on going. (German light tank – Panzer 1 shown at left)

The King Tiger (Germany) is often touted as the best tank of World War II because it was so intimidating. But, it had some serious drawbacks and it was late to the battle. It came in at a whopping 70 tons, which translates to a whole lot of armor, but it only had a 700hp Maybach V12 and that made it slow and underpowered. The main drive gear was it’s weakest link. The gear was cut like a conventional sprocket… and not the strong hex cut heavy gears usually have. This meant if one tooth twists off, there goes your propulsion. It then became a mechanics nightmare, almost impossible to repair in the field. Presumably this weak drive was a result of a need to get the new super tank into the field, however this major flaw resulted in very poor reliability.

The King Tiger’s 88 mm, kwk88mmL71 cannon (an anti-aircraft gun) was the best on the battlefield. The frontal armor was up to 180 mm thick which was again the best of all tanks. This gave it survivability, but at the cost of speed and maneuverability. Mechanical breakdown’s probably cost Germany as many King Tigers as were lost in battle.

Many would argue that for it’s day, the German Panzer was number 1. It was very well made and had many modern innovations. It’s service length was good, but it came up short in firepower. The Panzer II had one 20 mm automatic cannon and very light armor. Panzer I’s came in at only 5 tons and didn’t event have a cannon, just two machine guns and a crew of two. Later Panzers, III’s IV’s, and V’s were increasingly larger, heavier and packed more punch.

The first Panzer tank was conceived in secrecy in 1932 because the treaty of Versailles (WWI) forbid Germany from making tanks. However, operating under the guise of prototypes for testing, the Panzer I and II saw action during the Spanish Civil War.

The Panzer I, II and III’s led Germany’s highly successful blitzkrieg attacks in Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium and France, and the Soviet Union. In the process of one upsmanship, we arrive at the Panzer V which first saw action in 1943 at the Battle of Kursk. It was an answer to the Russian T-34 and it was the best Panzer produced during the war. It was fast, 28 mph, and it could punch holes in any of the allies tanks, but it did not have the repairablility of more simple tanks with equal firepower and armor. If they Panzer V had come out in 1939 the war might have had a totally different outcome, but you could say that about any number of improved weapons.

Side bar:

(French Gen. Maurice Gamelin – he led France into rapid defeat). When Germany attacked France they bypassed the heavily fortified Maginot Line and came through the Ardennes Forrest in a surprise attack that split two French armies and the BEF. Inept French leadership, lack of communications and a serious lack of critical tank radios sealed the fate of France, despite the fact the French had the better armored tank, with a larger cannon. They also outnumbered the Germans, but they couldn’t outfight them. The French soldiers were good, but they were often left wondering what to do because their leadership had such poor lines of communications.

The Germans daring tank assault through France kept the allied armies off balance, divided and on the run to the point of exhaustion. The tactic dangerously extended German supply lines and made them vulnerable to flanking counter attacks, which rarely came and when it did, it was too little, too late. The old French generals did not understand strategic planning for modern warfare fought with tanks, including Commanding Gen. Maurice Gamelin (see photo at left), who was 67 at the outbreak of war. Gamelin was considered to be the worst General of WWII.

As an example of Gamelin’s disastrous incompetence, he order that the French generals stay well behind the lines in a secure castle that did not even have radio communications. It was fine for creature comforts but it was isolated. Couriers often had to be dispatched and by then it was too late. (No doubt, Napoleon was rolling over in his grave.)

The French had one the largest armies in the world and one of the best tanks too! They developed the Char 2-C, a heavy main battle tank (MBT). This huge tank had a crew of 12 and weighed in at a staggering 66 tons! In 1939 it’s 75 mm howitzer gun was the most powerful in any tank in the field. Performance however was poor, about 12 mph. So the behemoth was a big fat target with a very thin skin… frontal armor was only about 45 mm thick.

Moving the Char 2-C across the French countryside was cumbersome, to say the least. But, when properly deployed the Char 2-C was a good match against any German Panzer. It was never properly deployed.

Russia’s IS-2 MBT weighed in at 43 tons, and it also came late into the war – 1943. It fielded the most powerful cannon (122 mm D-25T), but required two part ammunition and that slowed down the loading process, not helpful during the midst of a battle. Horsepower to weight was better than the King Tiger, but it was not enough to be decisive.

The Russians claimed the armor was superior because it was 150 mm thick and sloped 60 degrees on the front of the hull, but it was also cast and therefore of poor quality making it vulnerable to AP rounds. The turret was 100 mm thick, but it suffered from AP hits too. Later versions of the IS-2 had better gearing and a 700 hp engine (100 hp gain), but the top speed remained at about 23 mph (fast enough for the day).

Japan’s tanks didn’t warrant much coverage. They were basically light tanks designed (see right – Japanese tank design of the 1930’s)

to support the infantry. The Japanese MBT of 1939 was the Type 97 and designated the Type 97-Kai Shinhoto Chi-Ha. It had a 47 mm cannon and light armor. It was no match for American Sherman’s. The British tanks were outclassed by the Germans and for the sake of brevity I have to omit them, but they really were not contenders anyway. The best British tank of WWII was a up armored American Sherman.

The M4 Sherman made up the bulk of US tanks in WWII. It went into production Feb. 1942. The tank pushed its 32 tons with a weird 9 cylinder radial engine that produced about 400 hp. This made the tank fairly agile and it needed to be with only 2 inches of armor. It was vulnerable to every German tank made for WWII. This medium weight tank was designed around a flawed war doctrine of the time which favored infantry support tactics carried over from WWI.

Only sheer numbers could defeat German Tiger’s. Because it was run on gasoline and not diesel like most tanks, one hit in the fuel tank could turn the crew compartment into an inferno in a split second with no chance of escape. The British referred to the Sherman as Ronsons after the lighter. The short 75 mm main gun was too weak to be a threat to most German tanks. Later, the Sherman received an upgraded cannon with more punch. That helped a lot, but it came too late for thousands of tank crews who died because their AP rounds often bounced off German tanks.

The Sherman ranked high for being an easy and cheap to produce tank, but low in survivability and gunnery. Top speed was 24 mph in a dash, which was pretty quick in the day.

The American soldiers were told the Sherman was going to be the best tank on the battlefield, but they soon learned this was just an ad campaign for our moral. The troops that died in them were lied too and our leaders and manufacturers knew they were at high risk, but they were expendable. It was a case of making enough of them quickly to make a big difference, even if it meant sacrificing the tank crews. The The Germans fondly said of the American’s tank, they could hold off or destroy 10 Sherman’s with their Tiger 1, but there was always an 11th.

CONT-

Now we come to the Russian T-34 (shown left) with the first mass produced torsion bar suspension, borrowed from an America inventor by the name of J. Walter Christie. Christie’s first prototype tank constructed in 1933 topped 50 mph, an amazing speed for the day made possible thanks to his revolutionary suspension. The design was offered to the American army first, unfortunately they didn’t want anything to do with it, but the Russians were not so near sighted.

The T-34 suspension made it glide quickly across rough terrain. It was well armored, fast and had ample firepower; enough to punch holes in everything but a King Tiger head on. The T-34, like the Sherman, was an innovative design that was simple and easy to produce in large numbers. Production began in July 1940 and 1,225 tanks were made before the German invasion came on the 22nd of June 1941.

A total of over 84,000 T-34’s would be built in a number of variants by 27 countries, with production finally ceasing in 1958. During WWII, German Field Marshall Kleist declared it was “the best in the world.”

The T-34 featured 3 inches of sloped armor, giving it an effective thickness of about 3.5 inches. The main gun was a high speed 85 mm. It had a 500 hp diesel and weighed in at 26.5 tons. So the HP to weight was superior to most other tanks in its class. It was the T-34 that finally turned the tide of battle on the Eastern front and pushed the Nazi’s all the way back to Berlin.

In terms of the best balance between firepower, mobility, protection and ruggedness the T-34 easily comes in at number 1. However, it was not without it’s flaws. There were many incidents of defective armor plating due to poor quality control which is to be expected in wartime manufacturing.

The crew compartment was anything but ergonomically efficient, and this took its toll on crews and their battlefield effectiveness. Only about 1 in every 4 had a radio and this also hampered its effectiveness. However, as a testament to its rugged reliability and overall versatility, the T-34 had an incredibly long service life lasting right up until the 1990’s in Bosnia.