Posted on 04/07/2018 9:25:29 AM PDT by Simon Green
One wonders what true production costs might have been sans slave labor?
Our tanks sucked, one on one no match. 6 on one there was chance.
Good point. One part of building models was pretending to operate them once complete. Can't say I ever wanted to pretend being inside of a Japanese tank.
Our tanks did indeed suck. They were cheap and reliable, but otherwise mediocre. I still maintain that German tanks were and are overrated.
The glory days of German armor were early in the war, with mostly PzIIs and PzIIIs, and a few short barreled Pz IV Cs and Ds. The principle small arm was a bolt action rifle designed in the 19th century, and their logisitics chain relied on draft animals. German successes were predicated on superior doctrine, training and morale.
The superweapon V2s, Tigers, Panthers, Me 262s and so on presided over a relentless retreat and sunset of Third Reich aspirations. Even where these weapons were promising, they were as you mentioned prone to breakdown and also various shortages. Germany was not particularly well served by their MIC. The short range of the Me 109 cost them the Battle of Britain. The poor cold weather performance of their armor and motor pool arguably cost them Barbarossa.
As a hypothetical consider a Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe equipped with Garand rifles, the T34 series armor, and P47 and P51 fighters, but otherwise keep the training, morale levels and doctrine. If I was doing a fantasy football WWII, that is what I would shoot for.
By the way I have long admired your tagline, and concur.
Ugh. One of the worst war movies ever made. OK, maybe the worst.
I've never been able to erase memories of those M-48 Tigers rampaging through the Ardennes Desert.
:-))
No thank you. An artillery and jabo fighter-bomber magnet, especially at bridges it couldn't cross, and I'd really hate to think about the nightmare of keeping it fueled up and resupplied with ammo.
In 1966-67 I got to meet a couple of the surviving German WWII panzer aces, and asked them for the best advice they could offer on how to deal with the 17-1 odds we faced from an immediate Soviet armor attack, with the odds getting worse as their reserve and conscript forces followed on.
Practice your night driving, I was told. Always engage from ambush, and make your plans for what you do when your fuel runs out....
I read a book about the battle on the Lomba.
Written by a SA Armored Car Cdr.
Interesting.
They were firing 90mm.
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