The best tank killer of WWII

Also alot is made of Hitler being asleep when the German High Command wanted to use the reserve Panzers against the Normandy beach head but if they would have been released their attacking would bring them within range of the Allies naval guns. Salerno & Anzio showed how redoubtable their heavy guns were against Panzers.

 

Didn't they contribute a fair amount of 5" fire as well?

Well they were light compared to our "Cruiser, large"s.

 

Didn't they contribute a fair amount of 5" fire as well?

Don't know, they certainly could have. My guess would be that the prime deliverers of 5" were the DDs. They could get in closer, and their 5"38s shot about 3000yds further than the 5"25 cruiser secondary guns.

 

Tried to find out just how many rounds of what caliber were fired. Wasn't successful but did find thiss:

from USS Mayo DD422

 

I wonder how many shermans are on the bottom of the NA sea because of U-boats, would they be tank killers?

 

Interesting question but I would tend to exclude vehicles in cargo as being counted. There may actually be more in the arctic than in the North Atlantic by the way. There are also a good few German tanks at the bottom of the Med I believe. Certainly one of the best ways to get rid of tanks especially as far as the opposing infantry is concerned.

 

By that logic, if our U-boat commander sank a shipload of airplanes, he'd be an ace!

 

If you're talking about machines, my top candidates would be the Hawker Typhoon, the Stuka, the Jagdpanther, and the Stug III.

 

In terms of a kill ration, the Panzerjäger Tiger (the Ferdinand/Elefant) would take the title. I understand it was better than 10:1.

 

well i would say a Jagdpanther... But no, i wont! it was a diminutive Hetzer, with 75mm AT gun and small scale. You could pack it everywhere, without noticing it. Also, a great performance of it says to me that it is! Jagdpanther! EHH! There was more abandoning couse of breakdowns, just like with Tiger 2. Rare to see in combat, they were a killing strike, but down break was more lethal for it hehe.
so HETZER!

 

Ah, another ill-informed amateur like John Moiser (The Blitzkrieg Myth). You might want to peruse this site:

Welcome to PzFahrer's guide to the Jagdpanzer 38

The actual commanders of Hetzers generally disliked to dispised the vehicle. There were serious human engineering and design issues with it such as:

The main gun has the worst horizontal traverse of any German panzerjäger meaning it has extreme difficulty engaging crossing targets.

The vehicle has a general lack of vision devices. The driver has a very poor field of view and requires a ground man to help guide the vehicle in tight maneuvering. This also gives the driver poor depth perception and it is possible for him to not know the vehicle is in motion at low speeds.
The commander has just one periscope looking forward and his forward field of view close to the vehicle is terrible because he is set so far back. The gunner has just his gunsight to view with while the loader is essentially blind.

The commander is cut off from the rest of the crew by the gun. He has to use the intercom to order the crew's actions. This results in poor crew ergonomics in working together.

The loader has to reach over or under the gun to the far wall (right side) of the vehicle for ammunition. He then has to load the gun over the ejection shield as he is placed on the wrong side of the vehicle. This also makes it more difficult for him to operate the gun breech as it too is designed to be operated from the right not left side.
The loader also has to operate the top mounted machinegun. This has two large handles that project into the fighting compartment. They represent a hazard to the loader (he could easily strike his head on them moving around). As the machinegun has just a 50 round magazine it requires frequent reloading. This means the loader has to move the gun such that he can open his hatch (another problem the handles in the wrong ... ie most... positions can block the only hatch the loader, gunner and, driver have to exit the vehicle. This is a MAJOR problem if the vehicle is like burning or exploding....) then he has to expose himself up to about the waist and work in the limited room behind the shield to reload the gun. Many crews discarded the shield in the interests of self preservation.

This is just some of the problems of the Hetzer. It was a decent improvisation but hardly a stellar vehicle. For most crews it was close to a death trap.

 

As it was Jagdpanther. Breakdowns just aren't affordable...

 

Wasn't the M-18 Hellcat also HELLA fast? Like 55 or 60 MPH (88 to 97 KPH)?

 

Yes, the M-18 was fast for sure, it was the fastest tracked vehicle of the war if memory serves. And it is listed at slightly over 55 mph, depending on the surface of course. The combination of aircraft radial engine, automatic transmission, and torsion bar suspension made this "blistering pace" possible. It was a superb "hit and run" unit, but the open topped turret wasn't a very "pleasant feature" for the crew.

 

Thanks for posting that link Terry, I've been there, lost the url and often wonder where did it go.

 

Hey brndrt1,
Can you imagine being in one of those open topped tank destroyers during winter in the Ardennes? Maybe that is why the Russians made all their tank destroyers and SPGs closed? At least I can't think of any open-on-top Russian tanks or SPGs.

 

The SU 76 among others

 

A lot of M-10/M-18/M-36 crews fashioned a set of hinged plates of steel to cover the tops of the turrets and protect them in hot fire zones.

 

The Jagdpanther IMO was the best of the war. Breakdowns weren't as frequent as some seem to suggest, and if one broke down often it had to due with lack of lubricants or spare parts, or in some cases a proper educated driver. But really the general lack of fuel was the biggest problem facing this vehicle.

As for the M18 Hellcat, it was way too softskinned, mobile AAA and AT rifles were effective against it, and the Germans had loads of these. The open top was also extremely hazardous in urban or heavily vegetated areas where a sneaky enemy could take out the entire turret crew with a single handgrenade through the open turret roof.

On the plus side the M18 was fast and it had rotatable turret, and its main armament was quite capable against the most common German armoured threat, the Pz.Kpfw.IV.

 

Not really, There were 2,500 M-18 Hellcats made, costing $57,000 in 1944, compared to 9,400 StuG's, costing 82,000 RM (~$25,000?)

Also the open top is just poor design, crew way too vulnerable to artillery etc.

That would be my vote too...