Tanks in World War II

This article deals with the history of the tank in World War II.

Overview

Tanks played a major role in World War II. The tank reached new heights of capability and sophistication. The early tanks of Germany were technologically inferior to many of their opponent's tanks in the areas of armour and firepower. It was in their tactical employment that German tanks dominated all rivals early in the war. German doctrine stressed the use of combined-arms involving mobile infantry and air support, and, after its surprising success during the execution of Fall Gelb (Battle of France), the tactic of the Blitzkrieg (lightning warfare). This doctrine required the Germans to equip their tanks with radios, which provided unmatched command and control. In contrast, almost all light French tanks lacked radios, essentially because their battle doctrine was based on a more slow-paced, deliberate conformance to planned movements. This required fewer radios at all levels. French tanks generally outclassed German tanks in firepower and armour in the 1940 campaign, but their poor command and control doctrine made these advantages irrelevant to the final outcome.

Just as in World War I, there was experimentation with effective tank sizes. On the heavy side, the United States experimented with the T-28 at 95 tons and Germany developed the 188-metric ton Panzer VIII Maus, though neither entered service. The trend towards heavier tanks was unmistakable as the war proceeded. In 1939, most tanks had maximum armour of 30 mm or less, with guns no heavier than 37-47 mm. Medium tanks of 1939 weighed around 20 tons. By 1945, typical medium tanks had maximum armour over 100 mm thick, with guns in the 75-85 mm range and weights of 30 to 45 tons. Light tanks, which dominated most armies early in the war, gradually faded out and were used only in very limited roles.

Turrets, which had always been considered, but were not previously a universal feature on tanks, were recognised as essential. It was appreciated that if the tank's gun was to be used to engage both 'soft' (unarmored) and armoured targets, then it needed to be as large and powerful as possible, making one large gun with an all-round field of fire vital. Also, mounting the gun in a turret ensured that the tank could fire from behind some cover. Hull-mounted guns required that most of the vehicle be exposed to enemy fire. Multiple-turreted or multi-gun designs such as the Soviet T-35, American Medium Tank M3, French Char B or British A9 Cruiser Mk I slowly became less common during World War II. It was recognized that a tank crew could not effectively control the fire of several weapons; also, newer dual-purpose guns eliminated the need for multiple weapons. Most tanks still retained a hull machine gun, and usually one or more machineguns in the turret, to protect them from infantry.

It was during this war that tanks usually began to be equipped with radios, vastly improving their command and control. By 1943, two-way radio was nearly universal. Tanks were adapted to a wide range of military jobs, including mine clearance and engineering tasks. Specialized models, such as flame-thrower tanks, recovery tanks for towing disabled tanks, and command tanks with extra radios and dummy turrets were also used. Some of these tank variants live on as other classes of armoured fighting vehicle, no longer called "tanks". All major combatant powers also developed tank destroyers and assault guns - armoured vehicles carrying large calibre guns, but often no turrets. Turreted vehicles are expensive to manufacture compared to nonturreted vehicles. One trend seen in World War II was the usage of older, lighter tank chassis to mount larger weapons in fixed casemates as tank destroyers or assault guns. For example, the Soviet T-34 could mount an 85 mm gun in the turret, but the same chassis could carry the much more effective 100 mm gun in a fixed casemate as the SU-100. Likewise, the obsolete German Panzer II light tank was modified to take a powerful 75 mm PAK-40 gun in an open-topped, fixed casement as the Marder II.

Germany

Main article: German tanks in World War II

Germany's armoured Panzer force was not especially impressive at the start of the war. Plans called for two main tanks: the Panzer III medium tank and the Panzer IV infantry tank. However, by the beginning of the invasion of Poland, only a few vehicles were available. As a result, the invasions of Poland and France were carried out primarily with the inferior Panzer I and Panzer II light tanks, with some cannon-armed light tanks from Czechoslovakia. As the war proceeded, production of the heavier tanks increased.

During the Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, it was discovered that the Soviet T-34 tank outclassed the Panzer III and IV. Its sloped armour could defeat most German weapons, and its 76.2 mm gun could penetrate the armour of all German tanks. This forced the Germans to improve their existing models. The Panzer III, which was intended to be the main medium tank, was upgraded to a longer, higher-velocity 50 mm gun. Thus the Panzer IV, originally intended to be a support tank, became the de facto main medium tank re-armed with a long-barrelled, high velocity 75 mm gun to counter the T-34. The Germans also started to develop newer heavier tanks. This included the Panzer V Panther, which was intended to be the new main German battle tank, but did not enter production before the war ended. The Germans also started to develop a new series of very heavy tanks. The first one was the Tiger which outclassed all its opponents in terms of firepower and armor when it was put into operational use. Being obsessed with very heavy and mighty tanks Hitler ordered even heavier and stronger tanks to be produced, which led to the development of the heavy Tiger II, which replaced the Tiger I late in the war. Its powerful gun and very heavy armor made it superior to every Allied or Soviet tank in a head-to-head confrontation, but the underpowered engine and the enormous fuel consumption limited its use in maneuver warfare. Right before the end of the war there were plans for even more heavier tanks, such as the Panzer VIII Maus, but only small numbers, or in case of the Maus only prototypes, were produced.

United Kingdom

A Mk IV Churchill (A22) Infantry Tank

Britain had been the worldwide trend-setter in tank development from 1915, but had lost its leadership position as the war approached. The British Army entered the war with an array of poor designs and hobbled by poor doctrine. British tank use focused on cavalry-type missions and infantry support without the focus on the combined-arms tactics that dominated German and Soviet thinking. The result was a series of under-armed, mechanically unreliable designs such as the A9, A10 and Crusader (A15) cruiser tanks, the Matilda (A11) and Matilda II (A12) infantry tanks, and a series of deathtrap light tanks suitable for reconnaissance work only. The few bright spots of British tank design included the Valentine, Churchill (A22), Cromwell (A27M), and Comet I (A34). The Valentine was a reliable, heavily-armoured infantry-support tank used successfully in the desert and by the Red Army as a light tank. The Churchill had heavy armour and good off-road capability. The Cromwell was in most respects the equal of the early model Sherman of the United States or the German Panzerkampfwagen/Pzkw-IV, but was fielded only in small numbers beginning in 1944. The Comet was an excellent design fielded in the final months of the war.

Beginning about mid-1942, most British tank units were equipped with vehicles supplied from the United States, such as the Stuart light tank, the Lee (or the Grant variant thereof) and the Lee's/Grant's replacement the Sherman.

Immediately before and during the war, the British produced an enormous array of prototype tanks and modified tanks for a variety of specialist tasks (see Hobart's Funnies). For example, the Churchill AVRE mounted a 290 mm (11.4") direct-fire mortar which was used for destroying buildings and clearing obstacles.

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union began and ended the war with more tanks than the rest of the world combined. How ever at the start of world war two most of these tanks were obsolete. The most common tank in Soviet service in 1941 was the T-26. Most T-26s were armed with a 45 mm gun capable of penetrating most German tanks at normal combat ranges; few had radios, and the design was mechanically sound although incapable of further development. The BT tank series, based on the Christie suspension system, were usually armed with the same 45 mm gun and were the most mobile tanks in the world. Close-support versions of both tanks existed, armed with 76.2 mm howitzers. However, the BT was at the end of its design life. The Red Army also fielded thousands of light recon tanks such as the amphibious T-37 and T-38. These had limited combat value; although highly mobile, they were armed only with 7.62 mm machine guns and had very thin armour. The Red Army also had about 400 T-28 medium tanks, which were in most respects equal to the German Pzkw-IV. Again, though, this design dated from 1931 and was obsolescent. The Soviet Union ended the 1930s with a fleet of tanks almost completely derived from foreign designs, but later developed some of the most important trend-setting tanks of the war. The problem the Soviet tank force faced in 1941 was not primarily the technical quality of its vehicles, but the very poor state of maintenance, the appalling lack of readiness, and the poor command situation brought on by the purges. The Red Army had in 1940 adopted an advanced doctrine that it was simply incapable of executing.

On the eve of war, the Red Army had embarked on two closely-related projects to reorganize its mechanized forces and re-equip them with modern designs incorporating the lessons of the Spanish Civil War and the Finnish Winter War. Some of these designs leapfrogged other countries' tank designs.

Several excellent designs were just entering production in 1940-41. The most significant was the T-34, originally designed as the successor to the BT series, but with its heavier armour and heavy dual-purpose gun it became the best medium tank of the first half of World War II. The T-34 eventually replaced almost all other Soviet tanks. The basic design was good enough to keep it battleworthy beyond 1945, having been upgraded with heavier guns, new turrets and other modifications. The other significant design was the KV series tanks. These were armed with the same excellent 76.2 mm gun as the T-34, and had the same V-2 diesel engine. However, the KV had torsion bar suspension and much heavier armour than the T-34. The KV was slow, intended as a breakthrough tank. The KV-2 close-support version was armed with a 152 mm howitzer. The KV series was the main Soviet heavy tank until 1943, when production ended and most had been expended. Early in 1944 the KV's successor was the IS-2 Iosif Stalin tank, armed with a 122 mm gun and with heavier armour and better mobility. The new Infantry-support tank of 1941 was the T-50, armed with a 45 mm gun but with torsion-bar suspension and excellent armour for its class. Production problems with its new engine led to the tank being cancelled after less than 70 had been made; however, it was intended to be the replacement for the T-26. Finally, the light reconnaissance role was to be filled by the amphibious T-40 and the cheaper non-amphibious T-60.

At the beginning of Germany's Operation Barbarossa most of the Soviet Union's tank forces were composed of the T-26 tank series and BT. A few T-40s had appeared, along with about 1363 mechanically unreliable early T-34 tanks, and 677 KV-1 and KV-2s. Many early T-34s were captured or destroyed. Much of this early failure was due to lack of coordination, ill-supplied and ill-trained tank crews, and the lack of readiness of the Red Army in general. Another difficulty for the T-34 was that it had only a four man crew, with the tank commander doubling as the gunner. Although spared from loading duties, as French tank commanders had been, it still crippled the tank commander's ability to maintain awareness of the battlefield while firing the tank's main gun, giving a tactical advantage to German armour.

In 1941 great numbers of T-60s appeared, supplemented in 1942 with the similar T-70. Both light tanks had torsion-bar suspension, light armour, and small truck engines. Their simple construction kept them in production even though their combat value was limited. The T-60 had only a 20 mm gun while the T-70 had a 45 mm. However, both had one-man turrets, making them difficult to crew effectively. The T-70 formed the basis for the much more important self-propelled gun SU-76 later in the war.

The T-34, however, effectively made all German tanks produced to that date obsolete. In fact, at its height the T-34 was deemed so successful, and so capable in every role, that production of all other tanks except the IS-2 was stopped to allow all available resources to be used exclusively for this tank. The T-34 forced the Germans to adopt new, heavier designs such as the Panther and Tiger, which in turn forced upgrades to the Soviet, United States and British tank fleets. Perhaps more significantly to the ultimate course of the war, the move to more complex and expensive German tank designs overwhelmed the already critically strained German tank-production capability, reducing the numbers of tanks available to German forces and thus helping to force Germany to surrender the initiative in the war to the Allies.

Mid-war, the KV series began to show its flaws. Better German antitank guns made it vulnerable, and its slow speed and lack of mechanical reliability were great handicaps. As it only carried the same gun as the T-34 but in a slower, much more expensive chassis, production was stopped in 1943.

Later in the war the light tank role was increasingly filled by Lend-Lease supplies of United States M-3 light tanks and British and Canadian Valentine tanks. Ironically, the T-34 was as fast or faster than many of the light tanks that were supposed to scout for it, further encouraging reductions in Soviet light tank production.

In response to better German tanks, the Soviets began to produce the T-34-85, which had an 85-mm gun, in the winter of 1943-44, while retaining superiority in speed and mobility over the German tanks—an advantage it enjoyed until the very end of the war. This model also had a much larger turret with a 3-man crew, finally allowing the tank commander to concentrate fully on maintaining a tactical awareness of the battlefield. The Soviets also responded with the 122 mm-armed IS-2 heavy tank, which carried heavier armour than the KV without an increase in overall weight; this was achieved by thinning the rear armour and moving most of the armour to the front of the tank, where it was expected to take most of its hits.

The IS-3 variant, produced in mid-1945, had a much more streamlined look and a larger, bowl-shaped tapered turret. Remarkably, the IS-3 had thicker armour but actually weighed slightly less than the IS-2, remaining under 50 tons (as compared to the Tiger II's 68). The armour design of the IS-3 was an enormous influence on postwar tank design, as seen in the Soviet T-55 and T-62 series, the United States M48 and the Federal German Leopard.

Soviet tank production outstripped all other nations with the exception of the United States. The Soviets accomplished this through standardization on a few designs, generally forgoing minor qualitative improvements and changing designs only when upgrades would result in a major improvement.

External links

• http://web.archive.org/web/20010710230433/www.wargamer.org/GvA/weapons/usa_guns7.html
• http://web.archive.org/web/20010420095140/www.wargamer.org/GvA/weapons/british_guns5.html

US Army tests Normandy 1944

• http://www.wargaming.info/armour06.htm