It would be interesting to try to create a sort of geographical and chronological map over the debutes of the different tanks of WWII. We´ve all heard about the Panthers debut at Kursk or the Sherman at El Alamein. When and where did the different tanks, or tank destroyers and self propelled guns for that matter, see action for the first time ? And how did they perform ? Don´t hesitate to bring in subtypes as well.
The Churchill, at Dieppe and at El Alamein. On the first occasion ude to lack of support and mobility on gravel, it was a failure. On the second occasion, however, its nine 'first batch' specimens performed excellently and showed great potential as infantry tanks. Ironically, a Churchill captured by the Germans was discarded as inferior to German armour, worthless in every way, and likely not to be seen in British service again!
I read somewhere that the Germans tested the Churchills captured at Dieppe heavily then wrote a nice long report that concluded it was a piece of junk. The British got hold of the German report and used it help them improve the Churchill for the next version. Its always usefull to get critical feedback.
A number of T34s were câptured by the germans and they even made a small company out of them to be used in special attacks like those shermans in the bulge
I believe the T34 was first used in october 1941. Does anyone have any details on this combat debut, except for the obvious fact that the Germans were shocked to no end?
The Wespe and Hummel too had their debutes at Unternehmen Zitadelle (except for minor action some days prior to the operation).
Wow, I thought they were in action before the Tiger. At least the Wespe was used in the desert, I thought... Wrong again! Desertwolf: when the enemy has had a chance to capture a tank, it obviously has had its debut!
Guys please, wheres ur sense of humour???? but then again different regions have different definitions of humour!
I think Desertwolf's point was that the T-34 was making it's debut as a German tank. As in a joke... :roll: I thought so too - mostly because I have made a model kit of a Wespe in desert colours, on a base with a palm tree on!
I think the combat debut of the T-34 was sometime around 22 June 1941. The T-34 just missed being used on a test basis in the Winter War. There were already close to 1,000 T-34's with the Soviet forces by the time Barbarossa started. It looks like the 18th Panzer Division was the first to run into the T-34 near the end of June on the Minsk-Moscow highway. Guderian later took some photos of knocke dout T-34s in early July.
