Small Scale Military Headquarters

There are actually a few questions I have, if someone knowlegeable could answer them. First, was there any U.S. tank that could stand up 1 on 1 with the panther or tiger, I know the shermans couldn't, but the pershing seems like a bigger tank, was it the largest u.s. tank, and how well did it stand up to the german tigers and panthers.

The Sherman 'Firefly' was a modified Sherman with a British 17-pounder gun that could knockout either Tigers or Panthers...that withstanding, armor protection was still a problem.


The Pershing was our answer to the German heavy tanks.


The Comet was a successful design that utilized the powerful 17-pounder gun


The Centurian was the British answer to German heavies[/img]

My vote would be for the Pershing.. But the M18 Hellcat wasn't bad either..

The M26 Pershing was a great tank which serve in combat during the
latter stages of WWII and also in the Korea War. Why 21st C didn't produce this tank and made the M41 Walker Bulldog instead is beyond comprehension. Hey, " Lets make a U.S. tank that saw no combat in any of our wars or conflicts." That will be a great seller.
Yes, I know it served in Vietnam with the ARVN troops but that's not good enough. The Pershing would have so many possibilities and would be a great addition to the 1/18 world. "That's all I have to say about that"

Have to agree with what has been said about 21C not producing any tanks other than the Sherman for their WW2 line. How are the odds gonna be when you have a bunch of Shermans going into battle with those Tigers and Panthers.

The Pershing was better then the Panther, close to the Tiger I but less then a Tiger II. There weren't that many in Europe by the end of the war anyway. Somewhere around a hundred or so.(IIRC) The best Tiger killer was the Soviet JS -2 with its 122 mm gun.

It really depends upon the experts you want to use as a reference.

For German armour, probably the best all around tank was the Panther (Panzer V), it had a great high velocity gun, good gun sites, good speed, excellent armour protection and a well sloped glacis plate. Except for the early production, it did not have the reliability problems and poor power of the tigers. Perhaps the best anti- tank armour was the Jagd -Panther with it’s simple design, lethal 88 and super thick well sloped armour..

For the Allies, the tanks equipped the the 17 pounder were the only ones that were able to approach the Germans in gun performance and none were very well armoured, except the M4A3E2 Jumbo. Note: the 90 MM gun's muzzle velocity and penetrating power was not as good as the 17 pounder. The exception, (aren't there always exceptions?) being the Super Pershing which was experimental and bagged only 1 Tiger II. The Pershing was the tank that the US should have had several years before, instead of continuing with the obsolete Sherman. According to one US source I read, you can thank General Patton for that.

Despite this, the reliability, speed and fast turret turn rate of US tanks , especially the tank destroyers made them formidable opponents using shoot & scoot tactics.

It's pretty hard not to include the russian T34/85 as one of the all around best tanks of the war. Fast, well sloped armour, excellent gun , diesel power, very reliable, easy to use, and able to go where most tanks feared to tread - because of it's wide track and low ground pressure. This tank cause a revolution in German tank design resulting in tanks like the Panther & Tiger.

The Centurion deserves some mention because it borrows heavily from T34/85 & Panther design and is one of the most long lived WWII tank designs.

By any post war measure, the 2 most successful WWII designs to come out of WWII and have cuurency long after, are the T34/85 and the Centurion. The Centurion proved it's battle worth quite readily in Vietnam & Korea where it proved to be much hardier than the Patton or T34/85. In the hands of the Israelis, it proved to be lethal.

Anyway, that my 2 cents worth.

By the way, the Russian JSIII put the fear of God into everyone. Here is a quote:

On September 7th 1945, the allied nations were staggered by Russia's disclosure of their JS-3 heavy tank at a victory parade in Berlin. Although coded a JS (Josef Stalin) tank, it had a totally different appearance from its preceding models. The one-piece cast turret had a simple flattened hemispherical shape. The maximum thickness of the turret armor reached 250mm. The front hull was constructed by welding three 120mm thick armor plates, forming a shape like a ship's bow. The main armament used the same L/43 122mm gun as the JS-2. The 520 horsepower diesel engine provided 40km/h of maximum speed.

Here is the URL to give you an idea of the killing ability and distance of some WWII opponents:

http://homepage.tinet.ie/~nightingale/killing.html

Cheers,

HD

Oh yeah,

I forgot to mention the Pershing was formidable to the Panther and had no trouble dispaching it. There were very few Pershings to actually engage in battle in WWII. The best known story I read about is the classic encounter in the center of Colone, Germany. A Panther - just having destroyed a Sherman - was then shot up and destroyed frontally by a Pershing. There was some gruesome footage to go along with it. That was medium vs heavy tank.

In a distance fight, a Tiger II would reduce a Pershing to scrap. But then again, a Tiger II could reduce just about any tank to scrap in WWII.

HD

Looks like the Tiger wins by a knockout!!!!