German Tank Myths

Hi, I remember a discussion I had with a coulple of old gentlemen about 35 years ago, they all served in WW2 and they laughed at me when I said that the German Armour up 1941 was no better then the Allied stuff. the Germans main weapons mounted on there AFVs were 20mm and 37mm with the short 50mm and 75mm coming later, I dont think threre were many Pz Mk IVs as there were Pz Mk IIIs in 1939/40 and even in 1941 the Pz Mk III and Pz Mk IV still only had short barrelled guns (the 37mm being phased out), but I reckon the main German Tank Gun must have been the 37mm (mounted on the Pz Mk III & 38-T), putting that in total, the main French (37mm SA-18 + 37mm SA-38, 47mm & 75mm) and British (40mm) must have put both the Allies and the Germans on equal footing, going on to the armour of tanks from this period, they were more or less equal to, except for the Matilda.
Regards Yan.

 

Production of all the aforementioned German tanks severely outnumbered Allied tank numbers in 1939/40, especially those of France and their Char-B1s with 75mms. Unfortunately for the Allies, France miscoordinated their Chars and spread them out instead of concentrating them against a single German armored force, which probably would've caused devastating casualties for the latter and possibly could've benefited the cause of the Allies. Most of France's stationary armaments - including their 37- and 47mm weapons - were operating on the Maginot line, and were captured/destroyed after France was butchered by German tank units. Eventually the surviving Chars, along with most of France's former armored units fell into the hands of the Germans. And the British Matilda was also a match for German AT weapons of the day, it's armor deflecting and stopping any shrapnel that came it's way. This of course ended by 1942 with the introduction of long-barrelled 75mm weapons on Panzer IVs and later to other AFVs as well. In the end I guess you could say that the Allies did, for a short time, have somewhat superior tanks in comparison to the Germans, but this was undermined by poor leadership and command decisions that lead to the fall of France and the evacuation of Dunkirk.

 

I would say French and British armor was actually better than German armor at the outbreak of the war. However, the Germans had a few things that the allies did not at this time. first they had the 8.8 cm flak gun that was initially used as an AA gun but the Germans found it to be very effective at taking on the Char B1's and S35 that the French had. Next the Germans had the STUKA which was really good at taking out any tank and German air superiority was a big thing in the French campaign. Next German tanks though out classed were used more effectively as they had very good communications, leadership, and rather good optics. There could be other factors i am un aware of as well.

 

Going on tactics (which the Germans were far advance with) I bet Liddle Hart and Fuller were tearing what hair they had left out of there heads, when they seen the Germans putting into practice what they had invented in the 1930s
Regards Yan.

 

Considering Fuller's involvement with the with Sir Oswald Mosley and the British Fascist movement, it's hard to say exactly which side he was on. According to Wikipedia "On 20 April 1939 Fuller was an honoured guest at Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday parade and watched as "for three hours a completely mechanised and motorised army roared past the Führer." Afterwards Hitler asked, "I hope you were pleased with your children?" Fuller replied, "Your Excellency, they have grown up so quickly that I no longer recognise them."

In my opinion, both Fuller and Hart were somewhat guilty of exaggerating the influence their writings had on the development of German armored tactics in the pre-war period. This is illustrated in Alex Danchev's book Alchemist of War: The Life of Basil Liddell Hart, written with the cooperation of Liddell Hart's widow. In it, it shows that Liddell Hart corresponded with Heinz Guderian, convincing the latter to include a paragraph in the english edition of his autobiography "Panzer Leader" giving credit to Liddell Hart's writings as important in the formulation of the Blitzkrieg strategy.