Nazi Germany’s Panzer Corps Faked It ‘Til It Made It

War is Boring ^ | December 27, 2015 | David Axe

[C19fan]

The British in the 1920s experimented with combined all arms mechanized units. The Soviets under Marshall Tukhachevsky advocated for deep strikes with large mechanised units. The article does not mention but the Germans experimented with doctrine in the Soviet Union.

[central_va]

Scariest looking tank ever.

[ClearCase_guy]

“Military-industrial shadows”?

Kind of like Iran’s nuclear weapons?

[miliantnutcase]

As scary and awesome as the Tiger was they should have put those resources into Panzer IV development. They could pump them out at much higher rates.

[2banana]

The French, British and Russians all had better tanks than the Germans in 1939- 1941.

The allies also had a vastly superior number of tanks.

So the “ban” did work. The allies just forgot about superior tactics, training and leadership.

[central_va]

The Panzer Mk iv had a crappy transmission that MTBF was measured in hours. The their credit Pz repair troops could swap a tranny in about an hour.

[MNJohnnie]

Actually those vastly superior early war tanks theAallies had did not have radios, the German tanks did.

[wally_bert]

Nobody said nothing about locking horns with tigers!

[central_va]

The Panzer Mk iv had a crappy transmission that MTBF was measured in hours. The their credit Pz repair troops could swap a tranny in about an hour.

My bad the MK V had the lousy transmission. The Mk iv was a good platform, just under powered..

[xp38]

Exactly but they seemed to have a fetish over size

[PLMerite]

“Scariest looking tank ever. “

I remember hearing/reading something that said there were never more than about 70 battle-ready Tigers at one time. (Maybe this was on the Russian Front only)

But just the rumor that a tiger was operating nearby would scare the crap out of allied tankers.

[central_va]

A tanker had two choices if they saw a Tiger. Unless they out numbered the Tiger more the 6 to 1; Runaway!

[blueunicorn6]

And we had JEEPEXs and GOLFCARTEXs.

We had the National Training Center and a top-notch Opposing Force.

And we went through those “Battle-hardened desert rats” of the Iraqi Army like they weren’t even there.

Now, they train Tankers at the Infantry School.

Hooooaaaaahhhhh!

[Riley]

The Mk iv was a good platform, just under powered..

I read an interview with a Sturmgeschutz crewman, he liked the late models III better than the IV. It was almost the same thing, but the IV was slower, and that mattered.

I'm tracking a guy in England that found the stripped, rusted, shot-out hulk of a Stg. III in the UK, and is completely reconditioning it. The transformation is stunning.

[Squantos]

Seems anything german manufactured had a gazillion parts versus non-german like manufactured goods.... sort of a we built the fisher space pen and russians used a carpenters pencil in space thang .

[central_va]

Stug III was the poor man’s panzer. Extremely effective though.

[central_va]

Seems anything german manufactured had a gazillion parts

Kind of like their language and word structure.

[anymouse]

[raybbr]

Interestingly, I find the German language very precise although verbose. Words mean exactly what they translate to. German is fun!

[SauronOfMordor]

Having a radio was a BIG advantage. It meant that tanks could coordinate over a wide area, and also call in air and artillery support.