Tanks Of World War Ii

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Tanks were of great importance during the battle that took play on the ground during World War II.

The British Army had two types of tanks. The first type was the Infantry Tanks. They were heavily armored with good terrain performance, but ended up being very slow. However, the lack of speed wasn't considered a flaw as they were designed to support infantry assaults on enemy strong points. The first infantry tank designed was the Mk I Matilda which came into service in 1938. After seeing its performance, it became clear that they needed a better armed tank. Luckily, the British army already was in the process of designing the Mk II Matilda, and started testing it in mid-1938. It first came in service in 1939 and was used during the battle of France in 1940. Losses of the Mk I in France were not replaced; however the Mk II remained in production. When the earlier tank Mk I which was also known as Matilda was removed from service the Mk II became known simply as the Matilda.

The second type was the Cruiser Tanks. They were intended for independent maneuvering, and flanking attacks against the opposition. At one point, the harsh conditions of North Africa and the mountainous terrains of Southern Europe questioned the reliability of the Cruiser Tanks as the A10 and A13 both picked up reputations for broken tracks and overheating engines due to the harsh conditions.

An effective Cruiser tank during the French and North African campaign was the A9 Cruiser Mk I. However, the thin armor made the A9 an easy kill for most of the Germans anti-tank weapons. An upgrade of the A9 Cruiser, the A10 Cruiser Mark IIs was part of the British Expeditionary Force that was sent to France in early stages of World War II. The cross country performances of the A10’s were recorded as poor however, they used the A10 in the campaign of North Africa, and it was praised for its reliability and suspension. As the war was breaking out, they made yet another upgrade to the model. The British had placed into production the A13. The new, faster Cruiser tank utilized the suspension and running concept of the American designer, J. Walter Christie. The new suspension provided fast and highly maneuverable designs. Soon after, the A13 developed into the A15 Crusader in 1941 and the A27 Cromwell in 1943. The A15 Crusader was outclassed as a battle tank on many occasions, but saw the war out in several special-purpose variants such as in the North African Campaign. The main value of the A27 Cromwell to the British was as a training tank. The troops finally had a tank that was something of a match for its German counterparts. However, by the time they were ready for active service the Cromwells were in the process of being replaced by the readily-available M4 Sherman. The Cromwell did however see some service in the field. Many of them were used by the 7th Armored Division in the campaigns that followed from the Normandy landings in 1944. In the end, the Cromwell was nothing but a stepping stone to the later produced, A34 Comet. The A34 Comet was first seen around the end of the war and was the final British Cruiser design to see service.

When the United States entered World War II, they didn't have any modern tanks. The army only had a few tanks from the previous war prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The M2 series was one of the most important pre-war tanks for the US which were developed in the late 1930s. These M2 Light tanks were very reliable mechanically wise, and had good mobility. However, they still had their issues. They had a high silhouette and poor armor. Only a few of these tanks saw combat due to these faults. The US came up with a new design soon after. It was a new medium tank, part of the M2 series which was slowly entering production in 1940. However, the design was poor with the thin armor and high silhouette and was quickly rejected.

From 1940 and onwards, new tank designs were being prepared. The Battle of France has shown the US the importance of medium tanks and by February 1942, American automobile factories only made weapons and militaries. Manufacturers such as General Motors and Chrysler quickly produced these tanks in mass quantities. The US manufactured as many tanks in the first half of 1942, than in all of 1942. They managed to produce around 1500 in May of 1942 alone.

During this time, they came up with the famous M4 Sherman which came into service in 1942. It was quickly developed as a medium tank, and since it was simple to produce, a decision was made immediately to start the mass production of these tanks. The M4 Sherman was very reliable, weighing 32 tons and being able to hold up towards 5, but as a tank the M4 Sherman had several problems compared to its enemies. It was inferior to the German tanks in most aspects however the M4 Sherman had relatively thin armor, and the guns attached couldn’t penetrate the front armor of the German Tiger tanks, even from short range. The US supplied over 8,000 tanks to the USSR, half of them being M4 Sherman’s. Soon, the M4 became the second most produced tank of World War II, and was also used by virtually all the Allied forces. Approximately 40,000 M4 Sherman’s were produced during the course of the war. Other nations that adopted the M4 were the British, Canadian, French, Polish and Chinese. When the M4 first saw service, it was equal to the German medium tanks, Panzer III and Panzer IV. However, by the time the M4 Sherman encountered the German tanks, Panver IV and the German Panther and Tiger I in Italy and Northern Europe, they were quickly outgunned. They never stopped the production of the M4 Sherman tanks. By the end of the war, the M26 Pershing heavy tanks were deployed operationally.

The other nations were inferior to the Soviets. They began and ended the war with more tanks than the rest of the world combined. When the war first broke loose, the most common tank in Soviet service was the Vickers-Based T-26. It was capable of penetrating most German tanks at normal combat ranges. The Red Army also fielded thousands of Light Recon tanks like the T-37 and T-3. These Light Tanks were poorly designed having limited combat value and very thin armor. Before 1941, the Soviets developed some of the most important trend-setting tanks of the war. The problems the Soviets faced were the poor state of maintenance and the appalling lack of readiness. In the previous year, the Red Army adopted an advanced doctrine that it just couldn't execute due to lack of production.

During this duration, the Soviets made up two significant designs. The first significant design they came out with was the T-34 in 1940. With its heavier armor and heavy dual-purpose guns became the best medium tank for the first half of World War II. The T-34 was an absolutely monstrous tank. It was one of the war-winning weapons of World War II. When it first appeared on the battle field, it was often described as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II by many military leaders including German tank generals Von Kleist and Guderian. The T-34 practically made all the German tanks produced up to that date obsolete and was so capable in every role, that production of every single other tank except the IS-2 were stopped to allow all the available resources to go towards this tank. This design forced the US, Germany, and Britain to upgrade their tank fleet. It forced the Germans to adapt to new heavier designs like the Panther and Tiger.

The second design they came up with was the KV-1 Tank. The KV-1 tank had much heavier armor than the T-34 and was often used as an assault or break-through tank, forming the spearhead of many attacks. As the war against Germany progressed the basic design was gradually improved. KV's successor was the heavy tank, IS-2(IS standing for Iosef Stalin), which had thicker armor and better mobility. It was mainly a breakthrough tank, firing heavy high explosive shells. It also had the capability of defeating the Germans Tiger and Panther tanks. During Operation Barbarossa, most of the Soviet tanks composed of the T-26 tank series, a few T-40s and KV-2. In October 1942 Life magazine wrote, "The best tanks in the world today are probably the Russian tanks."

The Germans had amazing success due to tactical innovation, not tank quality. Many of their tanks outclassed allied armor, delivered more casualties than they took in most engagements due to the impressive training the German soldiers received, and the excellent tactics used by the German forces. The pre-war plans called for two main tanks in Germany. The main tank was the Panzer III medium tank, supported by a smaller number of Howitzerarmed Panzer IV. When they first began the invasion of Poland, only a few hundred of these tanks were available. By 1941, Germany had only been able to produce 1,000 tanks, forcing them to use the Czech tanks as substitutes for the Panzer III. The Panzer IV was intended to carry a gun that could be used in support of infantry or other tanks. Initially it was armed with short-barrels to fire high explosive contents of fragmentation shells. By 1941, averages of 39 Panzer IV models tanks were being built per a month. It eventually rose to 83 in 1942, 252 in 1943 and 300 in 1944.