cool post
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It seems like every time I see any old footage of WWII combat, there will be a Sherman in it somewhere.
We should get a FR clan together for World of Tanks...a free online game for ww2 tank nuts. Right now, im new but kicking ass in a T18 with a Derp gun ;)
I believe the first PzKfWgn MkVIs (Tiger 1) was encountered in the last months of the Tunisian Campaign Jan-May 1943, http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/tigers-in-tunisia/
and again in Sicily. http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=187180 Thus we knew about them and captured a couple in Tunisia. How fast the study of them got back to the Armor Board, I don’t know, but it would have been fairly quickly.
Schwere Panzer-Abteilung 504 - sPzAbt. 504
The 504th was the second Tiger unit to be sent to Tunisia. It was issued 25 PzKpfw III plus two Panzerbefehlswagen Tiger Ausf.E in January, and 18 Tigers, comprising the battalion staff, workshop company, and 1st tank company arrived in Tunisia on 12 March 1943. The 2nd company remained in Sicily. The tank company had four platoons, each with two Tiger I tanks and two Pzkpw III support tanks. All of the sPzAbt. 504 Tigers were destroyed or captured. The surviving elements surrendered on 12 May 1943.
On 13 April 1943, the OKH ordered that six Tigers were to be stationed on Sicily and that until transferred to Tunisia, the 2.Kompanie/ schwere Panzer-Abteilung 504 was to be attached to PzAbt. 215 with a reinforced platoon of six Tigers being immediately shipped to Sicily. Altogether 17 Tigers gathered on Sicily: the original nine from 2. Kompanie of the 504th, two Tigers that had been used as replacements for the 501st in February, and the six Tigers issued in April 1943 for the 215th.
Attached to Panzer Division Herrmann Göring, the 17 Tigers under the 2. Kompanie of the 504th attacked the American landing zone on 11 July 1943, but were neutralized by naval gunfire. Within the first three days ten out of the 17 Tigers were destroyed to prevent capture and a further six Tigers were destroyed later for the same reason. The last Tiger was shipped back across the straits of Messina to Italy.
I was in Sagan Poland, and there were old barracks there from the Soviet occupation. They had tanks displayed in the front of what I believe was the main building. There was a Sherman there. It was next to a statue of one of the Polish generals who fought in WW II. So the first thought that came to mind was, he must have landed in Normandy or fought in Italy as a Tank Commander. WRONG! It seems we sent “thousands” of Shermans to Russia under lend lease. I later found a picture of a captured Sherman in Russia by the Italian troops. The tank I saw had a cupola that looked like a German Panther. I later learned, they were modified and they added an upgraded gun to it. There was a Russian Tank Division that used all Shermans.
That's as may be, but the US certainly had to be aware of the T-34 (sloped armor, diesel engine, higher muzzle velocity, slightly faster and with double the range of the Sherman) by late '41 or early '42. Should have given us some vague idea that the Germans were going to do their damndest to build something better.
Armor Ping
“Man, I just ride ‘em. I don’t know what makes ‘em go.” - Oddball from KELLY’S HEROES.
The Panther had a long barreled 75 that was better than ours plus it had sloped armor(copied from the T34)which made it harder for our gun to penetrate. The Tiger, of course, had the much vaunted 88MM which could shoot through anything. The British took our M4 and put a 76MM into it and called it the firefly, they loved the M4 and even had kind things to say about the M3 since their tanks were woefully under gunned.
The M4 was a marvel of mechanical reliability, where as the German tanks were over engineered and prone to break downs(the newer tanks, the Panther and the Tiger, not the older MarkIII and MarkIV). Sorry if I repeated anything you said, most likely I did but I started typing before I noticed how detailed your article was. The M4 was a fine tank, it was prone to being shot to he** when up against Panthers and Tigers and had a hard time, in particular, knocking out Tigers. Rumor was it took 4 M4s to take down one Tiger. Since I wasn't there at the time I can't say for sure but when I was in the army,1959 to 1962, I had the opportunity to talk to many troopers who were there, I was in a Tank unit and there were still a lot of old timers who had fought the M4 during the war, they all said the 88MM of the Tiger and the long barreled 75MM of the Panther would take them out at a very long range, whereas the 75 of the M4 bounced off of the German tanks. The newer 76MM solved some of those problems as well as the new M26(IRC)with a 90MM gun, which came along late in the war.
I’m a little confused after reading the article. The headline refers to a 75mm gun. But the article writes about a 76mm gun. Are they the same, were there two separate guns, one 75mm and one 76mm?
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