Top 10 tanks of the war

In some ways, the Sherman's virtues went against it. If it had been a little less effective at reliability and ease of production, it might have been replaced quicker. The numbers made the advantage. Even with only a 38% effective kill against a heavy tank, if you can get 5-1 or better numbers, you are going to have only one outcome in most cases. This is why the T-34 did so well.

 

From "Death Traps"by B. Cooper.

"The M4's engine was supposed to be pulled after a 100 hours of operation."

If you have the luxury of a great maintenance group like the Ami's had, that's great.

"The Ford Motor co.,under the direction of the ordinance dept.,took the Brit Rolls Royce Merlin engine and cut it down to 8 cylinders" This was the new M4A1.
A Brit engine, just like the Mustang's.
The Brits put the 17pder in the Sherman to give it some heavy fire-power.

The Sherman was a good tank for the Pacific theater but I thought the ETO was the priority. It was a poor choice.

 

I have a video from the Military channel called "Suicide Missions". It's all about the Shermans in Europe.
Belton Cooper does some talking in it (excellent book BTW) about Hedge-choppers and how he was ordered to equip 50 tanks with them by the next day (after a demonstration by the guy who thought of it).
His entire unit worked all night and completed 7. No two alike. Such are orders.
Anyway...the Pershing was started in 1942, put on hold in 43 (cause the Brass & REAs decided the Sherman could finish the war), so efforts went to improving the Sherman (bigger gun, wet ammo storage, HVSS, etc).
The Brass & REAs then changed their minds after the "Battle of the Bulge", and the Pershing was completed (with underpowered Sherman engine), and saw limited service.
Cooper speaks of recovering a few knocked out ones in his book.
If...they would have kept after the project from the start...from D-Day onward, U.S. Armored Divisions would have had 1/3 Pershings, 1/3 Shermans, and 1/3 M-5s.
Perhaps Panthers & Tigers wouldn't have run "Rough-Shod" over Alied tanks, and more young men would be alive today.
Such is the danger of REAs who have the Brass's ear.

 

Fascinating, calm, reasonable & contemporary (1946) defence of the Sherman from the 'Military review'. Found by a member of a.n. other forum:
Tank V Tank.pdf
Cheers,
adam.

(too large for the upload limit here so I've just pasted the link.)

 

Have you heard that the History or the Military or the Discovery channel will be airing the refurbishing of a Panther tank this ?Tuesday? night? I do not remember the name of the program (Modern Marvels perhaps), but I believe the same show has already done one on an Israeli version of the Sherman.

 

Yes I remember a fellow member from across the pond mentioning it here on the boards a few weeks back. I hoped it would air over here sometime. To my delight I saw a preview for it on the Military channel last night. I will definitely tune in for this one.

 

Do you guys know what time in NY that will be? I don't want to miss it at all.

 

It's on the Military Channel, I see commercials for it all the time. Called Tank Overhaul. Check the TV guide or cable menu.

 

This tuesday night at 8 it airs

 

I to saw on their website that they are rebuilding both a Panther and a Comet. The guy (doing it) said the Panthers running gears are an accident waiting to happen...too much stress on straight gears for that much weight. He compaired them to those of a Sherman (gears at an angle)(more Teeth)( I didn't fully understand), but he did say that those of the Sherman were "markedly" superior.

 

I found an intersting site that claims the Marine amphibious vehicles in use today are death traps and goes on about their faults. The Humvees were death traps from IEDs, so they overloaded the suspension with body armor to protect the occupants. Now it is reported that Iranian supplied improved IEDs are penetrating even the new armor.

The fact of combat is that if it runs and shoots, it goes into combat unless there is something better.

 

The US did'nt stick with P40 Tomahawks,even though it runs and shoots.

The Military Channel is showing "Tank Overhaul" at 8:00pm EST in the states....Tonight.

 

On gears: Gears with straight teeth are easier to make than ones that use a herringbone pattern. Manufacturing gears is a very specialized trade requiring very skilled machinists. To manufacture ones requiring involute toothing series one has to also have a set of specialized gear cutters. The tooth face also has to have a special slope / face milled onto it. Typical involute pressure angles are 14 1/2 or 20 degree faces.
Needless to say this also requires the best milling machinery with very tight tolerances in the machine. Any significant amount of backlash or whip in the machine will make the gears less than tight. With the Germans getting new machinery or even maintaining existing machinery became ever more difficult just as much else in their industry did. Hence, the problem with gearing and transmissions they had.

 

The Curtiss continued to manufacture the P-40 in various models well into 1944. The aircraft soldiered on right up to VJ Day in some theaters where it was used mainly as a fighter bomber.

 

Military Channel is airing Tank Overhaul tonight. A US Hellcat. 8:00pm est.

 

Hellcat one has a golden moment involving a rather elated veteran, I recommend it.
:tiger:

And here's one we saw at this years Bovington tankfest.

 

I liked the show. Footage from The Bulge,it looked cold in an open top tank.

On an Off topic note, where do I find smilies now?

 

1) Tiger 1

 

Forget that last post....

1) Tiger 1
2) Panther Ausf E
3) T-34
4) Hellcat
5) Crocodile
6) M4 Sherman
7) JS II
8) Wolverine
9) T-35
10) Panzer III

 

Here's my ten choices and they are in no order.

Tiger VI
Panther G
T-34/85
IS II
Churchill
JS II
Matilda
Comet
Pershing
M4 Sherman