Best Tank of WWII

[Pastfinder]

My two choices are the T-34 and the Tiger I. What do you consider the best combat tank of WWII?

 

[Buddhist]

Best Single tank hands down, King Tiger.
Best tank realisitically in a world war II scenario, t-34.

In other words, if it takes you 10 t-34's worth of material and resources to make 1 King tiger, your better off making 10 t-34's.

It should also be noted that by the time the King Tiger was in mass production, german workmanship had not deteriorated as quickly as had the quality of its materials used. Thus, when referring to the King tiger as the best single tank, i'm referring to the earliest models which used very high quality resources instead of inferior grade stuff that was commonly used later on.

 

[ragazzo]

the Jadgtiger (King Tiger?) was the most powerful tank, but it's not the size of the beast that counts...it's how many you can push out from the factory. So, the M4 Sherman was kickass

 

[Dark4ng3l]

The m4 sherman was horrible in every way. Panzers would kill like 10 of them before being destroyed, The fact the US had like 10 times more factories making them is what made the look strong.

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: ragazzo
the Jadgtiger (King Tiger?) was the most powerful tank, but it's not the size of the beast that counts...it's how many you can push out from the factory. So, the M4 Sherman was kickass

They had to make a lot, they kept blowing up...

 

[Red Dawn]

Best Single tank hands down, King Tiger.

Just the name "King Tiger" has an onimous sound to it.

 

[Buddhist]

"The m4 sherman was horrible in every way. Panzers would kill like 10 of them before being destroyed, The fact the US had like 10 times more factories making them is what made the look strong. "

Well on a one to one basis a sherman would never take down a tiger or a king tiger unless they managed to also plant a ton of explosives on the outer hull of the tiger. Even then...they may not be lucky.

One story accounts of one of the earliest tiger's acheivments as having been hit by sherman tank rounds an astonishing 220 some times, and continuing to move and function without any severe hinderances! While this same tank mowed down over 20 Sherman tanks!

However, i too am also inclined to agree that in the end, the cookie cutter mentality of the Sherman was a much better idea then the Rolls Royce Tank of Germany, the Tigers.

"They had to make a lot, they kept blowing up..."

Yes, thats why the nickname our soldgiers called for the Sherman was "Zippo!"

 

[Bulk Beef]

T-34

 

[adlep]

T-34...
It is still in freaking service in some countries......

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Well i'd say the best of both worlds is better(ie t-34). Look at it this way if america had made tigers instead the tanks would have been safe while they were being built, so no production problems there, but if germany had made m4 shermans they could have made a couple each day and it would have been better in their defensive times. I hope this made sense......

Basically I meant that if a factory makes 90% of a tank, gets bombed, gets rebuilt it has to make one over again, but if one makes one and a half smaller tanks you can use the one made and lose less when the factory is bombed.....

 

[Aquaman]

the T-34-85 was probably the best varient of the T-34's and probabply the best tank in the war but I like the Panther (Pz V) G. Wicked awesome in my opinion.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[440sixpack]

As always, depends on the criteria for "best", but the T-34 and Tiger I are often mentioned, along with the PzKfw VG or "Panther" as it's better known. Although not seeing much actual action due to their late developement, the T-44 and IS-III were pretty impressive, as was the Konigstiger; and although far too big to be practical, the Maus would have been something to face. Note that all the ones I consider amoung the best are German or Soviet designs, I think their years of experience fighting each other across the vast distances of tank-perfect terrain in Russia brought out the best in both sides.

 

[Moonbeam]

I never fought any battles in them so I don't know.

 

[ragazzo]

So what's the most powerful modern tank now? The one with advance targetting system and armor piercing shells heh

 

[SuperTool]

T34 is the best tank design of WW2 in terms of the big picture. Mass produced in incredible numbers, fast, competent.
That tank won the war as far as I am concerned.

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: ragazzo
So what's the most powerful modern tank now? The one with advance targetting system and armor piercing shells heh

That would be the abrams, excellent targeting, fastest, with thickest armor. However the downside to this, is it required more logistics than other models.

 

[wnied]

By Far the best tank of WWII was the German King tiger hands down.

Put ANY tank of its day against it and Wave bye bye to that tank and its crew. Shot farther, and had better armament.

If I had to drive a tank in WWII and I had a choice....it would be the King Tiger.
~wnied~

 

[WarCon]

I always thought the perfect weapon against a thick skinned tank was a shell filled with skunk scent. No it won't damage the tank, but it will damage the ability of those inside to drive it (between gagging and vomiting they might get a shot off to somewhere).

But its probably against the Geneva Convention..........

 

[microAmp]

T-34

 

[wolf550e]

Originally posted by: ragazzo
So what's the most powerful modern tank now? The one with advance targetting system and armor piercing shells heh

Merkava IV

 

[crystal]

Originally posted by: Dark4ng3l
Well i'd say the best of both worlds is better(ie t-34). Look at it this way if america had made tigers instead the tanks would have been safe while they were being built, so no production problems there, but if germany had made m4 shermans they could have made a couple each day and it would have been better in their defensive times. I hope this made sense......

Basically I meant that if a factory makes 90% of a tank, gets bombed, gets rebuilt it has to make one over again, but if one makes one and a half smaller tanks you can use the one made and lose less when the factory is bombed.....

Remember, Germany needed men to man those tanks. BTW, if the German tanks lost are 10 x times higher (i.e. using m4 as stated), their moral as awhole army will will be 10 x times as worst (i.e. they will craved to the allies much faster).

 

[Aquaman]

Anyone hear the story of the german tank 'ace' michael wittman? This dude with his 4 tiger I tank squad wiped out an entire british tank battalion within 15 minutes( I think it was 12 or 15 tanks & various other AFV) ......... they only lost 2 tigers in the exchange. In the end...... a month later the allies set an amush for him & zapped his ass with extreame prejudice. I'll have to look up the story when I get home.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[TeflonMan1]

I recall one occasion when a Jadgtiger hidden in a barn hit about 70 sherman tanks that were crossing through a field. The crew abandoned the tank destroyer and burned it after it ran out of ammo. I read this in one of my books somewhere but cannot find the reference at the moment.

But personally i like the Tiger 1 or the Panzer V. The Panzer V was more manueverable and its 75 mm gun was adequate for destroying any but the heaviest of the soviet tanks (Stalin III, KV-2,etc) The T-34 initially was not nearly as good since the commander had to act as the loader, but later models improved dramatically over the early versions.

 

[Aquaman]

I also like the Jadgpanther tank destroyer......... very cool with the 88mm gun

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Scouzer]

The amount of people here talking out of their asses is absurd.

The Sherman was an excellent tank, where it's strengths were. Its primary strength was outstanding reliability. German tanks would break down like flies moving anywhere, whereas the Shermies would go on and on. Plus, if a Sherman engine was knocked out or did break, they could change the engine on the spot, whereas German tanks had to be taken back to shops in Germany just to put a new engine in.

The Sherman crews quickly learned speed is their combat asset. When a Tiger would be well positioned, they could usually move around to it's sides and get good shots. Sherman guns could punch the Tiger's side armor fairly easy at close to medium range. Its pretty easy to sneak up to tanks because if the Tank Commander if forced to be buttoned up, the visibility to the sides of the tank is terrible. In a combat situation, you probably wouldn't hear the Sherman engines off to the sides either.

I read before that of 120 assorted Panzer III's and Panzer IV's, they were the mobile reserve unit for the area, and in moving the 50km to the front, only 35 of them made it. That is not acceptable. It usually isn't that bad for those tanks, however.

King Tigers and Tigers may be the best armored/gunned tanks, but their reliabilty sucked even worse. I read somewhere of the first 10 King Tigers to drive to the front from the railroad tracks (not far...can't remember actual distance) only 2 of them made it. They were extremely slow cumbersome beasts. However, well positioned, they could do extreme damage.

As someone forementioned... you hit a tank with enough shells or artillery and chances are the crew will surrender as the shock from all the hits will cause nausea, deafness, puking, and extreme headaches.

Overall the best tank which I haven't mentioned is definitely the T34... it had a decent gun, sloped and adequately thick armor on all sides, and easy to produce. The Russians could make thousands of them with relative ease. Same for the Sherman. German tanks were all much more complicated and much more expensive to make.

The Panther tank was the best German tank overall...but it wasn't as good overall as the T34. Sure it could knock out a lot of T34's, but you could probably make at least 10 T34's in the time it took to make 1 Panther. Panthers had OK reliability, but when repairs were needed, it was far more difficult than it was for a Sherman.

Oh, and reguarding Micheal Wittman, he was extremely lucky in taking out that British column with his buddies. They almost caught him, but not quite. The British were all out of their tanks on a break...

Oh, and reguarding morale... German tank crews were of extreme high quality most of the time, and were usually better than their Allied counterparts (especially the Russians).

As for the best tank of modern times, its the M1A2 Abrams with the only relative competition being the Leopard Mk... well whatever model their newest is on to now. They have a lot of different models. The newest Merkava's, Challenger's, and Leclerc's are also very good modern tanks.

I hope that made grammatical sense... I'm tired and was writing off the top of my head. Oh, and I'm 15 .