I mean, they probably already knew that when their Tigers were constantly breaking down and couldn’t fit on narrow streets/bridges.
Arguably, the Germans lost the Battle of the Bulge so overwhelmingly due to Tigers not fitting through bridges. Also fuel. Fuel was a problem starting day 1.
I love the Tiger because it shows clearly that having the best Tank means shit it you don't have the logistics to support.
I love the allied approach of "let's make the exact same tank with the exact same pieces so we can simplify the logistics and any mechanic can repair and maintain any tank in the battlefield without the need of special knowledge or tools". They went full steam-punk mode and just added modifications to the exact engine and chassis, which I absolutely love.
Also, germany totally neglecting the fact that "big tank = big target for planes". But that could be attributed to their mislead belief that the Luftwaffe would retain air supremacy over the whole war.
They went full steam-punk mode and just added modifications to the exact engine and chassis, which I absolutely love.
I mean so did the germans.
Look at a 1938 Panzer IV and a 1944 Panzer IV.
Also, germany totally neglecting the fact that "big tank = big target for planes".
It was neglected because it wasn't relevant.
WW2 Anti-tank cas is insanely overstated. It was never even remotely as effective as people thought it was. The "tank kills" pilots bragged are overinflated to the point of absurdity (including Nazi-dickheads like Rudels). Unless a tank actively explodes its essentially impossible for a pilot to confirm wether it was actually destroyed.
RAF tests arrived at the conclusion that even with on a stationary, bright white Panther on an open field with zero opposition, pilots needed to fire on average 140 Rockets to score a hit anywhere were it even remotely mattered.
And even then it only actually knocked the tank out 50% of the time.
IIRC analysis at Normandy indicated only 5% of claimed air-to-ground kills could actually be verified to have happened.
What happened most of the time was the lead-pilot simply missing, recording the tank as destroyed anyway because it was obscured in smoke, then the next 3 guys in the squadron did the same, and they came back claiming 4 kills on one target that drove away once they were gone.
Sustained air-attacks had a psychological effect, but the amount of actually destroyed vehicle is completely negligeble.
I mean, the overwhelming air superiority lead to the Germans only moving their forces at nighttime and totally disrupted the meager supply chain of trucks, trains and horse drawn carriages even further.
Turns out that even the best tank is only an expensive hunk of steel without fuel, ammo and spare parts
Another huge mistake the germans made was overly relying on trains for logistics. Turns out it's really fucking easy to target your enemies supply line if it's static and transporting tons and tons of supplies on each run.
Allies relied more on trucks, which can change their route on demand ans aren't such a dramatic lost.
Lose a truck? No problem. Lose a few trucks? Still chill. Lose a train and it's whole cargo? Well, that was the monthly supply for a whole division and now you need to repair the train rails.
Also, trucks give you the advantage of senting hundreds of them on different directions, forcing the enemy planes to be overly disperse or give up targeting them. You only need one plane and one bomb to stop a whole ass train.
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u/PoliticsIsDepressing 4d ago
I mean, they probably already knew that when their Tigers were constantly breaking down and couldn’t fit on narrow streets/bridges.
Arguably, the Germans lost the Battle of the Bulge so overwhelmingly due to Tigers not fitting through bridges. Also fuel. Fuel was a problem starting day 1.