T-34
The T-34 was the most produced tank of WWII, with over 84,000 rolling out of factory floors. It was also the best tank of WWII because of its superbly simple, powerful, and robust design. It was the most influential tank of the war because its presence in the battlefield in 1941 effectively made all German tanks produced up to then obsolete, and compelled the Germans to respond with new and heavier tank designs such as the Tiger and Panther, and to up-gun and up-armor the backbone of their tank fleet, the Panzer IV. That, in turn, forced changes and upgrades to the Soviet, American, and British tank fleets. Additionally, adoption of the heavier, highly engineered, and expensive Tigers and Panthers, overwhelmed Germany’s strained tank industry and severely limited the number of tanks available to the Wehrmacht. By war’s end, Germany had produced 16,300 Tigers, Panthers, and Panzer IVs – the tanks capable of taking on T-34s and Shermans. The US and USSR built 50,000 Shermans and 84,000 T-34s.
A German commission assessing captured T-34s in 1941 described it as the perfect medium tank because of its near-perfect blend of effective sloped armor that outmatched that of German tanks, firepower that greatly exceeded that of available panzers, wide tracks that readily traversed snow and mud that narrow tracked German tanks could not, and excellent power to weight ratio. The Germans designed the Panzer V Panther in response, emulating most of the T-34’s best characteristics such as sloped armor, wide tracks, and powerful gun, but failed to emulate its simplicity, with the result that only 6000 Panthers were manufactured, or one Panther for every fourteen T-34s.
When the Germans first encountered T-34s in 1941, the Soviet tanks proved superior in both armor and firepower to all German tanks. The only saving grace was that the Red Army in 1941, still reeling from Stalin’s military purges and in the midst of a major restructuring, was inept and riddled with incompetence, and so was unable to take advantage of its technical superiority in tanks. That changed after the Soviets learned from the Germans and bitter experience.
Soviet engineers had designed the T-34 with sloped armor because it afforded extra protection without adding extra weight. They gave it a simple engine that was easy to maintain, and because weight was kept to a minimum, it was able to propel the T-34 at 34 m.p.h. – impressive for a medium tank of the era. That speed allowed T-34s to rapidly exploit breakthroughs, and also gave them a tactical advantage, allowing them to quickly close the standoff distance with better gunned and heavier armored panzers such as the Tiger, and maneuver to fire at their vulnerable rears and flanks and from close enough to inflict damage.
T-34s were initially equipped with 76.2mm guns that could destroy any German tank when the Soviet Union entered the war. When newer panzers with thicker armor arrived at the front, the improved T-34/85 version was introduced, with an 85mm gun that could penetrate any German tank’s side and rear armor from a respectable distance, and even thick front armor from up close. And because they were simple to manufacture, T-34s could be produced in prodigious numbers: the Germans built approximately 1800 Tigers I and II, 6000 Panthers, and 8500 Panzer IVs during the war, or about 16,300 main battle tanks. The Soviets built over 84,000 T-34s.
M4 Sherman
The M4 Sherman medium tank was America’s main tank of WWII, and the most widely used tank of the Western Allies during that conflict. They were mechanically reliable, easy to maintain, durable, easy and cheap to produce, and thus available in great numbers: about 50,000 were built during the war. They had a large turret and roomy interior, a good gun traverse rate and excellent stabilization system, and routinely managed to get off the first shot in tank-vs-tank confrontations.
They were also relatively safe by WWII tank standards, and crews on average suffered only one fatality for every Sherman destroyed: the tank might be lost, but most crewmen lived to fight another day, helped by a plethora of large escape hatches. A US First Army study of losses suffered by its 456 available Shermans from June to November of 1944 revealed 129 killed and 280 wounded, for a Sherman crew loss ratio during 6 months of intense combat of only 0.3% killed, and 0.6% wounded. On the downside, early Shermans were notorious for brewing up when hit because of inadequate fire prevention measures in ammunition storage – a problem that was remedied in later models.
When Shermans entered service in 1942, they outclassed the German tanks then in service, being more heavily armored and better armed. The standard antitank gun of the Panzer III was 37mm, whose shells the Sherman shrugged off, and when Panzer IIIs were upgunned to 50mm, they still had to get very close to inflict damage. In the meantime, the Sherman’s 75mm gun could kill anything the Germans fielded until the arrival of the Tiger. Shermans got an unfair rap for being poor tanks, mainly because they did not perform well when fighting the heavier Tigers and Panthers that were introduced later in the war. However, Tigers and Panthers represented only a fraction of German tanks, and fighting other tanks represented only a fraction of the Shermans’ workload – a fraction the Shermans had never been intended to perform.
American combined arms doctrine when the Sherman was designed held that tanks were not intended to fight other tanks – that was the task of tank destroyers armed with high-velocity guns. Shermans with bigger guns, such as the Firefly Sherman equipped with a 17 pounder, matched or exceeded the Tigers’ and Panthers’ firepower, but most Shermans kept their standard 75mm general-purpose gun with its effective high explosive shell. That was because the Shermans’ primary mission was to support infantry to achieve breakthroughs, then race through the breach and wreak havoc in the enemy’s rear. The Sherman, mechanically reliable and armed with a 75mm that fired a highly effective high explosive round, was excellent in the role for which it was designed.
The breakout from Normandy in 1944 and the ensuing rapid sweep through France and Belgium that only came to a halt at Germany’s border for lack of fuel, was the kind of performance that only an armored force equipped with mechanically reliable and easily maintained Shermans could have pulled off: other countries’ armored forces would have halted because their tanks broke down long before they reached the line where the Shermans halted because they ran out of fuel.
Shermans were outclassed by Tigers and Panthers 1-on-1, but they almost never had to face them 1-on-1. American tanks prevailed against German armor because they were part of a combined arms system that operated more smoothly than that of any other combatant. Panzers had to worry not only about American tanks – and nearly 50,000 Shermans were manufactured vs only 1300 Tigers and 6000 Panthers – but also about American infantry who were usually nearby, tank destroyers that were seldom far away, artillery, or tactical bombers that frequently circled the battlefield in taxi ranks, only a radio call away from any American tank platoon commander who found himself in trouble.
Iosef Stalin (IS)
The Soviet Iosef Stalin (IS) tank line, developed to replace the KV heavy tank family and address its shortcomings, were a success during the war and went on to set the template for Soviet tanks for decades. In 1941, the standard antitank gun on Germany’s dedicated armor-killing tank, the Panzer III, was 37mm, whose shells KV tanks simply shrugged off. The Germans quickly upped their firepower, upgraded their Panzer IVs with more powerful antitank guns, and in 1942, rushed the Panzer VI Tigers into service with powerful 88mm guns.
Against the Tigers’ thick armor, especially up front, the KV’s 76.2mm gun proved largely ineffective. Moreover, the slow KVs were unable to maneuver and close in quickly, like the T-34s could, in order to fire at the Tigers from closer ranges and at weaker spots so as to inflict damage. With a weak gun that could not damage the German heavy tanks, and armor that could be penetrated by the Tigers from long range, the rationale for the KV disappeared: it was far more expensive than the T-34, but lacked greater combat performance to justify the greater cost.
To cope with the tougher threat environment while fulfilling the KV’s designated role as a breakthrough tank, the IS line was designed with thick sloped armor to counter 88mm shells. IS tanks had thicker armor than the KV, but because of a better layout were lighter and faster than KVs, as well as lighter than Tigers and Panthers, and had a lower silhouette. IS tanks were equipped with powerful guns that, while intended primarily to fire high explosive shells at infantry strong points and bunkers, were also capable of taking out Tigers and Panthers.
The IS line was born from an interim evaluation tank, a KV armed with an 85mm gun. The increased firepower was good, but the KV’s armor was inadequate, so the Red Army issued directives for a new tank design to be armed with an 85mm gun, but with better armor than the KV. The result was the IS-1, which entered service in 1943, retaining the KV’s running gear and hull, but with greater armored protection thanks to a welded turret, and armed with an 85mm gun.
In 1944, IS-1s were succeeded by the IS-2, armed with a 122mm gun that had separate shell and powder charges, resulting in a slow rate of fire only 1.5 rounds a minute initially, later improved to 3 or 4 rounds. The huge shells and powder charges meant that fewer could be stored, and IS-2s were limited to 28 shells on board, usually 20 HE and 8 antitank. Slow rate of fire and fewer shells was balanced by devastating power, as the 122mm gun could penetrate a German Panther’s front armor at 2700 yards, and its side armor from 3800 yards. By contrast, a Panther would have to close in to 870 yards to penetrate the IS-2’s turret, and 660 yards to penetrate its front armor. Against the Tiger, testing showed that the IS-2’s gun could penetrate its turret at 1600 yards and its front armor from 660 yards.
The IS-2 was even more effective against infantry, as its 122mm high explosive shells proved murderous against strong points and bunkers. At a pinch, the 122mm HE shells could also be fired at German tanks, and if they struck, no matter the distance, the explosion could cause cracking and even tear off the front armor’s weld. The mechanical shock could disable the enemy tank even without penetrating its armor.
