Best Medium Tank of WWII

[Paladin88]

I guess the Panther may be in fact the best tank in WWII, Ha ha, ironic isn't it.

[Sommarkatze]

To me, it seems like ALL german tanks were attentionwhores when it comes maintenance. Always seems to breakdown. Otherwise they were great imo.

The fanboys dilemma. I often describe it like this when my friends find it weird when Iam holding for the germans in war movies and such.

Its like in Starwars. Your favorites are the galactic empire. Yes, they are evil and are destroying whole planets. But jesus christ that plus their armours and weapons and all that makes them super cool!

The same thing with the germans ^^ The russians I see like the Jar Jar Binks people whatahell they now are called XD Brute force warriors who will fight to the death for their motherland!

 (No. I dont say the russians are technical inferior.)

Owh and right. M3 Lee! Woooh!

[Killar]

To me, it seems like ALL german tanks were attentionwhores when it comes maintenance. Always seems to breakdown. Otherwise they were great imo.

It is not possible to build a full working machine with no maintenance issues in within a few month. Remember the eurofighter did need 20 years of developing and building to become a realiable "product".

Panthers were needed asap for Kursk despite they were still far from finished. Thats the reason of the early breakdowns (the weight was much higher than planned) and engine fires.

The panzerIII and IV chassis had more time to develope. StugIII was very reliable.

[Paciat]

Panthers were needed asap for Kursk despite they were still far from finished. Thats the reason of the early breakdowns (the weight was much higher than planned) and engine fires.

They should be fielded in 1945. Then Germans wouldnt have problems with them... becouse the war would allready ended.

At Kursk Panthers brand new broke down so it wasnt a maintenance problem, it was a design problem. When Germans fixed those problems maintenance problems apeared.

[Killar]

Panthers were needed asap for Kursk despite they were still far from finished. Thats the reason of the early breakdowns (the weight was much higher than planned) and engine fires.

They should be fielded in 1945. Then Germans wouldnt have problems with them... becouse the war would allready ended.

At Kursk Panthers brand new broke down so it wasnt a maintenance problem, it was a design problem. When Germans fixed those problems maintenance problems apeared.

That makes no sense. What are you trying to tell me?

[RedGuard]

I think he said they messed up designing them, and when the design flaws were finally worked out they still broke down anyway

superior german engineering

[Killar]

I think he said they messed up designing them, and when the design flaws were finally worked out they still broke down anyway

superior german engineering

sigh^^

Then he didnt read my previous comment.

[maxi1991]

I think he said they messed up designing them, and when the design flaws were finally worked out they still broke down anyway

superior german engineering

Actually, Panther(and Tigers) were fixed and most of the breakdowns were due to beeing overused, because of vehicle shortage. Still Soviets lost many tanks due to failures like 2men turrets and no radios.

superior soviet engineering

[RedGuard]

I think he said they messed up designing them, and when the design flaws were finally worked out they still broke down anyway

superior german engineering

Actually, Panther(and Tigers) were fixed and most of the breakdowns were due to beeing overused, because of vehicle shortage. Still Soviets lost many tanks due to failures like 2men turrets and no radios.

superior soviet engineering

yeah superior alright, it won the war

theres story books dedicated to how axis tank crews tried to drive up a small hill with a light breeze and the tank broke down 

[Killar]

theres story books dedicated to how axis tank crews tried to drive up a small hill with a light breeze and the tank broke down 

Can you show me these story books?

[RedGuard]

without doing extensive researching heres a few you can start with, quoted german engineers as saying their engines had an almost 80% mechanical failure in the field
Germany's Tiger Tanks:VK45.02 to TIGER II
Panzertruppen
The Last Battle

the specific book which follows a tiger tank crew around griping about its unreliability, name has escaped me but I will rediscover it and post it for you very good reads with relatively unbiased technical reporting

the books also unanimously agree that the panzer 4 series was outclassed by the t34 series, as do every other WWII expert I've ever encountered or read. and the panther is not a medium tank it weighs about as much as an IS-2 
the panther tank weighs 1.2 tons less than an IS-2 at 44.8 tons compared to 46.0 tons

the panzer 4 and t34 weighed about 25 tons, thats a medium tank
an IS-2 will penetrate a panther at 2,500m using the BR-471 APHE 122mm round. the panther could do nothing like this
source http://www.battlefield.ru/is2_1.html

[Killar]

link is broken.

But yeah panther was a medium tank from german point of view. Most allied "heavy" tanks were nearly the same weight.

Most problems about this "unrealiability" was that the tanks and their gears were designed for much ligher vehicles. Thats because armor protection was rapidly increased and also the weight.

In fact most tiger tanks in the normandy werent lost by fighting or an air attack. They were blown up by their own crews because they ran out of fuel or broke down.

Like i said some needed changes (better engine, better gear that could sustaine the wight) couldnt make they way in the tank, becuase the time for developing was too short, air raids destroyed factories to produce them, too few ressources ...

Panthers shared the same engine with tigers and kt. A new engine, which was turbo charged, was ready to produced when the war was over. But this engine could have speeded up a kt alot.

So there are more facts to look at than only to say germans were too dumb to build a tank.

I read the wiki entry about t34. This tank had alot of problems in the beginning too. gear braking down, engine fires, mostly unreliable. Before the war soviets and germans shared their technology in tank building. So a PanzerIII made its way to soviet union in 1940. After a comparison of the t34 and the panzerIII soviet engineers granted the german tank in most aspects to be better than their own tank. It had a more comfortable figthing compartment, better quality, more speed, engine was more quiet and easy to repair. But T34 had on the contrary had sloped armor and a better main gun.

[Tankbuster]

I cannot believe that nobody voted for the Sherman Firefly

It was supposed to be the counter to German heavies, I guess


Calculus Rocks

[GodlikeDennis]

My vote goes for P4. I think that's what Guderian would've voted for too.

The unreliability of the German tanks was mostly because of maintenance shortages and lack of decent fuel caused by the overextended supply lines. The variety of German tanks didn't help either. Parts had to be manufactured for each tank seperately whereas a mass production tank could easily have parts available.

[Tankbuster]

It seems that the M4 Shermans were destroyed by the dozen during WWII. But the Allies always had more. What exactly happened to them in the postwar period?
Calculus

dx/dt = v
dv/dt = a