Posted on 11/21/2017 6:46:17 AM PST by C19fan
At five o’clock in the morning on May 16, 1940 a company of the 8th Panzer Regiment lay in an ambush position along a rubble-strewn street of the French town of Stonne. The day before, the unfortunate village had changed hands several times as French troops attempted to stem the tide of German armor headed toward the English channel, threatening to trap Allied forces in Belgium.
(Excerpt) Read more at warisboring.com ...
Later, as we mastered the technology to make a turret capable of mounting a larger gun, the Army made the unfortunate decision to stick with the 75mm as the main gun for the M-4 Sherman. Initially, the 75 was adequate against the older German tanks we encountered in North Africa, but as the Panther entered wider service, it became obvious that our Shermans were out-gunned by the 88mm on German Panther and Tiger tanks.
The reason we chose the 75mm? The Army artillery branch pushed for it because it was effective as an infantry support weapon and we had a large stockpile of 75mm HE shells. Also worth remembering that the Army’s entire R&D budget for tank development in 1940 was less than $90,000.
A lot of American tank crews paid with their lives for our parsimony in the pre-war years.
FR Treadhead ping, and it just happens to be Tuesday! Link to ancient Char B thread, pics gone but text survives...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/1300918/posts?page=1
Panther was not armed with an 88mm gun. The Panther was armed with the 75mm KwK 42 L70 gun.
Your first image is not of a Mark IV, it is of a Tiger.
When Hitler met with the leader of Finland, Mannerheim...in an “open mike and video”, Hitler admitted to Mannerheim in a private conversation how shocked he was that the USSR had so many tanks.
Interesting video if you hadn’t seen this. It was discovered a few years ago (but hidden away for decades)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oET1WaG5sFk
That is a MK IV, not a Tiger
Not often noticed but Rommel was best known as an infantry commander. His book “Infantry Attacks” (German: Infanterie Greift An) is a classic of infantry tactics.
Nope, I’m wrong and you’re right. That is a Panzer Mark IV.
You are correct, and I was wrong.
Panther had a 75, not an 88.
You are correct, that is a later-model Pzkw IV in the first pic.
However, that is *not* a Jagdpanther in your second picture, it is a Jagdpanzer IV.
BTW, if you’ve never read the details of how Audie Murphy won the Congressional Medal of Honor, you should do so. Fundamentally, he held off a platoon of Jagdpanthers with a .50 BMG from the back of a burning M10. The “heavy tanks” in this account were Jagdpanthers:
http://www.audiemurphy.com/documents/doc010/PFCAbramski_27Feb45.pdf
I walked that ground in September of 2016.
The German tanks are always put on a pedestal. But they built 1347 Tigers and around 6000 Panthers.
The allies built around 115,000 Shermans and T-34s.
Throw in 34,000 Il-2s and 15,000 P-47s, and the Germans were utterly outclassed.
The Panther had a high-velocity long-barreled 75mm gun, not an 88. One of the reasons for the development of the Jagdpanther was to put an 88 in the Panther chassis. The turret simply couldn’t accommodate the larger 88.
Hard to believe, but the successor to the Lee, the M4 Sherman, was considered a badass tank in North Africa.
The Germans, already responding to losses in Russia, upgunned their MkIV, and developed their heavy tanks, taking over tank superiority in Europe, where the allies continued to use the Sherman. However, in some ways they inherited the faults of the French Char B1: fuel thirst, mobility issues, unreliability.
And then, nothing is static in warfare. The allies where coming out with their Pershings, Centurions, and JSIII.
Nobody said nuttin about locking horns with tigers.
The Panther and Jagdpanzer 75mm KwK 42 gun was very good for the time. It was further developed by the French and used in their AMX-13 light tank for quite a few years after WWII.
Always with the negative waves.
The fuel system leaks!
It’s a piece of junk.
If only putting a piece of pipe to make the krauts think it’s a 90 instead.
Don’t forget paint shells and loud music.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.