Biggest tank battles

The rockets carried by Typhoons could smash any WW2 tank - providing it actually hit it.

The RAF took a captured Panther, painted it white and parked it on a nice flat piece of Salisbury Plain. Then they lined up a bunch of Typhoons and fired rockets at it.

When one eventually hit it, it destroyed the tank. But it took a LOT of rockets before one hit. And that was on an uncamoflaged, stationary vehicle in plain site on open terrain and with nobody shooting back.


Using strategic bombers as an artillery barrage - well, yes, it did destroy a few enemy tanks - but not many. It also repeatedly failed to actually clear the way for the attacking army, and if anything made their jobs harder due to the ploughed-up nature of the bombed terrain. You would have thought that they would have learnt the lesson on WW1...


Basically WW2 air support was great for destroying any lightly-armoured or unarmoured targets that required only a near-miss with bombs or rockets, but very poor at actually knocking out tanks.

 

I see what your saying Ricky but change the scenario to a dozen tanks moving camouflaged on a straight road and a Typhoon coming in parallel to the road I am pretty sure the probably for a hit would increase dramatically.

Maybe I should skip over to the Normandy Campaign in that book about the Das Reich division.

 

Actually according to the findings of the RAF itself, hit probability went way down in combat.

 

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While in agreement with Ricky about the disappointing results of air strikes against armor , it must be pointed out that the Germans soldiers arriving in Russia from the west were very air shy, always scanning the sky .

This was noted as early as january 43 with the 6th panzer division transfered from Fance to kotelnikovo for winter storm .

the "jabbos" fear increased steadily until by mid 44 on the western front no german in its right mind would drive an open road without a spotter .

stangely while the russians tanks were getting air cover machine gun on the turrets in late 44 , I don't believe it was the case for the germans ? ..could be wrong


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