Best WWII Tank,What your Opinion?

In my Opinion The German Panther Tank was the Best in WWII, WHat your opinion Ats?

Guess noone wants to post

probably the T34/85 or the Pz VI Tiger

T 34 was most succesful and was one of the first to use sloping armour - a feature copied by the Germans. Arguably it was not the best but it's simplicity, massive numbers and armour made it the most succesful and most important tank of WWII.

3 words.

Battle of Kursk.

Granted the Russians had numerical advantage, but the German tanks were very unreliable as well.

zhukov.mitsi.com...

IMO its the Panzer KampfWagen Mark V, better known as the "panther".

It incorporates many elements of the T-34 and is Germany's answer to the t-34 and has a good combination of speed, armor and gun.

check it out at : encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com...

T-34/85

You couldn't hit this thing with a stick.

Cheap to build, ran on deisel (so doesn't turn into matchhead from fuel) really good displacement, fast turret, good armor design, relatively easy to maintain. Reliable.

While German tanks were pretty neato they just weren't made in enough numbers and often sent into battle with glitches. If they'd been smart enough to develop those before the war started they'd have been better off.

I liked the King Tiger tank the best



With a weight of 70 tons and a 88 mm gun the thing was monster. Thank God they didnt produce alot of them during the War. The King Tiger tank was one of the most feared weapons of world war 2

Able to destroy enemy tanks at extreme ranges and impervious to those same tanks made the King Tiger more than a match for any allied tank. Indeed for the allied forces, the sight of a King Tiger on the battlefield was terrifying and did great physical and morale damage to the enemy. This fame and almost mystical fascination helped it earn its reputation as the most feared weapon of world war 2

[edit on 14-9-2004 by ShadowXIX]

I'm sorry, Shadow, but your German Tiger produced by capitalist monkeys is somewhat of a kitten compared to power of Ioseph Stalin - 1 produced with the perfection and honest labor only achieved by comrades of socialist workers' paradise:

Did the "Ioseph Stalin" tank ever face off with a king Tiger? German engineers were some of the best in the world during WW2 theres a reason why everyone copied them after the war.

Those "capitalist monkeys " Invented the Rocket engine, the first production jet fighter,the flying wing the first true assault rifle, ect...

Also I might be wrong but I got the weight of that Russian tank at 46 tons if thats true the King Tiger at 70 tons is far from a kitten compared to it.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
Did the "Ioseph Stalin" tank ever face off with a king Tiger? German engineers were some of the best in the world during WW2 theres a reason why everyone copied them after the war.

Those "capitalist monkeys " Invented the Rocket engine, the first production jet fighter,the flying wing the first true assault rifle, ect...

Also I might be wrong but I got the weight of that Russian tank at 46 tons if thats true the King Tiger at 70 tons is far from a kitten compared to it.

A lot of Russian tanks faced off with King Tiger-kitten. Unfortunately Russian environment not so good when mud tracks up fat kitten's tracks, then fat kitten get hungry for food but German army couldn't feed it. Tank without gas kinda useless.

Seriously, though, there are all different types of tanks and you can look at them from many angles and what their uses are. Tiger II was probably most feared tank of the war. As a heavy tank it was nearly invulnerable to enemy fire and the gun was a true monster capable of ripping enemy tanks to shreds up to 2200 meters. This wasn't a really good tank for the Germans in some ways because the Germans couldn't feed the thing, I mean it had a 100km road range, which means about a 30km cross-country range, on one tank of gas. There were many technical problems that caused the abandonment of the tank on the battlefield, and the treads were nightmares, often getting immobilized in mud or even from rocks. The thing was as big as a house and later on that made it easy prey for aircraft. When it was working it would work well, though, it could nail all other tanks of the war from further out than enemies could hit it.

The Sherman is another great tank along the lines of the T34, not as armored or powerful as the Tiger, but far more reliable mechanically, far less of a gas hog, and overall pretty good. The Sherman was produced in the order of 55,000 tanks, which is why they decorate bases and VFWs all over the country today.

I just like the T34 because it really astounded German commanders, it could move faster than German turrets could traverse, ran over snow, mud, and rough terrain with almost no problem, and was cheap to produce.
The biggest tank battles of the war turned into small, personal, Medieval type affairs at point-blanc range, and the T34s really chewed up the bigger German tanks in those because of their maneuverability.

The Pershing was known as the Tiger Tamer because it was a really strong, bad ass tank on the order of the Tiger II, but far easier for Americans to produce. It came into play too late though.

You are correct the T-34 was the most likey the most important tank of the war with the sherman a close second. But I think when a T-34 or a Sherman tank crew saw a King Tiger they were pretty scared I know I would be.

The Germans produced them to late and to few in the war to have a big effect now if they had them at the start of the war it might have changed things. But with fuel lines breaking down a tank is quite useless like you said.

Thats why I like the King Tiger When it was working right and was fueled it was a thing to be feared by all in its path.

[edit on 14-9-2004 by ShadowXIX]

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
You are correct the T-34 was the most likey the most important tank of the war with the sherman a close second. But I think when a T-34 or a Sherman tank crew saw a King Tiger they were pretty scared I know I would be.

The Germans produced them to late and to few in the war to have a big effect now if they had them at the start of the war it might have changed things. But with fuel lines breaking down a tank is quite useless like you said.

Thats why I like the King Tiger When it was working right and was fueled it was a thing to be feared by all in its path.

[edit on 14-9-2004 by ShadowXIX]

Well hell yeah I mean if you know there's a Tiger out there you'd be pretty afraid because it's likely going to rip through anything else. What would happen though is during a prepped assault you'd have covering fire and smoke barrage so that the Germans can't use their range until you are at a deadly range.

Anyway, the types of tanks a country uses are highly specific to the environment in which the tank will be used and the country's economy and enemy. For example M1 Abrams is designed to demolish endless waves of Soviet armor coming through the Fulda Gap. Israeli Merkava is designed to support infantry and keep the crew alive.

Tiger is very good defensive tank but you can't blitzkrieg with it, it couldn't even get over most of the European bridges in WW2. So it would have been pretty useless in the beginning of the war. Most of the German victories depended less on how awesome their tanks were and more on how awesome the composition of their forces (combined arms) and maneuvering and coordination of their armies were.

I was thinking if they had huge numbers of King Tigers to come in after the blitzkrieg to help better defend the land they already took. They had enough time to move them into places like France before the americans arrived. Imagine a bunch of those just waiting at Normandy on D-day.

Grandfather was there, an engineer, he said the Tiger was a monster. Took 4 times as many tanks to take out one. The plating made it a formidable machine.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
Imagine a bunch of those just waiting at Normandy on D-day.

Big panzer regiment with Tigers was waiting for Hitler to wake up from his beauty sleep to get the OK to advance on Normandy. Shows how technical superiority can be disabled by stupid politicians.

the problem with the Tiger and Tiger II series was the underpowered engine. The tiger was slow enough and the engine strained but with the even heavier Tiger II, they still used the same engine.

A better engine in the Tiger and Tiger II would of made it a brilliant tank.

thanks,
drfunk

The Panther was capable of taking out JS tanks as it did in Budapest. I'm a big fan of the long 75mm gun on the Panther which had more penetration power than than the 70 calibre 88mm.
Allied tanks were absolute crap.

*chokes* Who invoked the name Sherman?

That tank was a complete joke, only the British had worse tanks. The crews hated it. Exceptional mobility but poor armor, poor armament. Tiger breakfast, lunch and dinner on a silver platter, only on a side or rear engagement at very close range could the Sherman knock out a Tiger and its tall profile everyone saw it coming well ahead of time. Granted and here's the kicker, it wasn't even designed to fight other tanks, it was an infantry support weapon, all it did was keep up with the infantry and lay down suppressing fire, a very mobile artillery piece. Against other tanks though no question it was a very poor design, only made up by its vast numbers.

www.2worldwar2.com...

Originally posted by MPJay
*chokes* Who invoked the name Sherman?

That tank was a complete joke, only the British had worse tanks. The crews hated it.
www.2worldwar2.com...

We were only talking about the Sherman in context of important tanks in the War. Not that it was a well designed tank just that in the numbers it was produced it was very important to the war.

What did they use to call them Zippos or someother lighter. " They always light up the first time"