ORIGINAL: pcomm1

Worst WWII German combat tanks: Elephant and King Tiger.

Short discussion; go here to learn why in military fight terms, the Sherman wasn't as bad as you guys think it was: http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...k-history3.htm

Considering the extreme tank casualties the Soviets took at the hands of German tank forces, by comparison, I am really amazed at how well the USA Sherman did in the ETO, on paper, the German tanks should have killed every Sherman sent to the ETO, 5 times over. They didn't.

Though certainly it would have been way better to send 48,000 Pershings to the ETO on D-Day, but really now, when in all of history has the US Army ever done anything correctly the first time out? And as good as the German tank forces were in a defensive role in WWII, they probably would have knocked out 20 or 30 percent of the Pershings in France and we would be having a what if discussion about how bad the ETO Pershing was. LOL.

Whether the Sherman was a piece of tank design crap or not is probably not that important when the total picture is viewed. Fighting in the WWII ETO (narrow European roads and bridges); the Sherman tank; fielded in great numbers; tactically operated skillfully; by a free; citizen army: that simple to fix and fight Sherman tank turned out to be just good enough and ran long enough to redefine the word blitzkrieg as it raced across France and Germany and contributed to laying waste to the highly skilled, professional German Army and their political leadership.


Winning needs no further explanation.