American tank design philosophy

Im not shure that air strikes did not destoy alot AFV in WW II, One Hans-Ulrich Rudel According to official Luftwaffe figures, Rudel flew some 2,530 combat missions (a world record), during which he destroyed almost 2,000 ground targets (among them 519 tanks, 70 assault craft/landing boats, 150 self-propelled guns, 4 armored trains, and 800 other vehicles; as well as 9 planes (2 Il-2's and 7 fighters). He also sank a battleship, two cruisers and a destroyer.

More then 650 AFV only one man.

 

The obvious question - how do they know he destroyed that many?

There is an obvious difference between 'claimed' and 'destroyed', and in addition it is kinda hard to identify ground targets from a 200+ mph plane, let alone confirm that you have destroyed it. We have had a similar discussion before when discussion the claims that P-47 pilots had knocked out Tiger I tanks with their .5 cal machine guns!

 

Not just that, it was claimed that US fighters destroyed German tanks by deliberately bouncing bullets off the ground into the weak under armour :roll: , despite how ridiculous this sounds there was at least one individual who was claiming this as fact...

 

German tank losses to September in The West:

1845

Stug/JgdPz/SP losses June to Sept:

829.

Total tracked AFV losses:

2679

There are no agreed Bulge totals for German tank losses but generaly the pan out a bit under the 1000 mark

US ETO losses to May 1945:

4541 medium tanks
1507 Light tanks
1414 SP guns

7462 in total.

UK losses 21st Army Group NW Europe:
Stuart M3 248
Stuart VI 185
M24 2
Sherman 2712
Cromwell 609
Challenger 39
Comet 26
Churchill 656

Total 4475

UK SP guns belong in RA returns and I have not seen them yet.

 

so much reading its hurting my eyes. anyways the Sherman was ment for mobility and easy maintenance. the facts are that American repair units were vastly the best in the world, fixing up tanks and getting them back on the line faster then other country.

how many of the 2000 German tanks lost were lost to tank as to aircraft?

 

That is usualy what happens when the real totals are posted.. All sorts of complicated reasons are advanced to explain why X number of German losses should be excluded from the totals. The reason seems to be that no one expects the losses to average out to such a low exchange rate, it has to be explained away because it simply can't be right!

 

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Maybe simply because Brits and U.S. tanks regularly walked into ambush ( the price of advancing ) or were thrown into massive assault ( Goodwood , Epson ) to save infantry lives or were not that much flash against the opposition and payed in tears and blood for their shortcomings
that's call war ,
unadressed problems usually cost someone their sons or husbands

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