"Greatest Tank Battles"

Ohne Gewehr argued that the Sherman was inferior to the Tiger.

I don't think that this is correct (see the discussion on the Sherman tank in the Sacred Cows and Dead Horses thread where the opposite was argued), not that I argue that the Sherman was superior to the Tiger .


I also don't think that it is relevant,as


technical qualifications of a tank are only ONE of the elements who influence the outcome of a tank fight .


and as such tank fight occurred only seldom, especially between a Tiger and a Sherman (the same can be said about Panther vs Sherman) :it is possible (or maybe probable that most Shermans never saw a German tank and most German tanks never saw a Sherman )

And, not all encounters between hostile tanks resulted in a duell .

 

Um, if it wasn't superior or inferior then what was it?

That they existed in some sort of a limbo between superior and inferior - according to you - isn't relevant? Meanwhile, what non-technical qualifications does a tank have? It is a technological weapon after all.

How do you know they "occurred only seldom"? They certainly occurred at Villers Bocage, at GOODWOOD, at La Desert, at Rauray, at the Peel Marshes, at Arracourt, at Briey, at La Glieze, at Manhay...

Meanwhile, the simple fact that 4,000-odd Allied tanks were lost to gunfire would tend to indicate a large number were victims of German tanks/assault guns given the relative effectiveness of those types versus towed guns. Whether or not specific encounters between Tiger and Sherman were seldom or often is simply moot. Especially when OhneGewehr specifically stated he was talking about a duel.

 

Those figures on tank casualty percentages don't seem to make alot of sense to me. How could they possibly know if a hole in a tank was made by a Pak 40 anti tank gun or a panzer 4, or a Pak 42 or a panther. It also seems counter to US studies that showed that self propelled guns (at least the US ones) were 5 times more effective at knocking out tanks than non self propelled guns. Especially considering a lot of the time tankers wouldn't have a clue what was shooting at them because the guns (or tank or spg) were hidden.

 

Try taking a look at Operation Babarossa and the battles between the Germans and the Russians.

 

The OR studies I've seen don't indicate whether the AT round came from a tank or TD or an AT gun. They do indicate that planes weren't the source of most of the kills though.