Tanks were first developed and introduced to the frontlines in the Great War.
This was in direct response to the stalemate into which the Western Front had devolved.
Some tank designs and prototypes had already been in the works in the decades prior to the
First World War. Some of these include an 1855 proposal for a steam-powered land ram,
which was basically an armored tractor mounted with a cannon.
Yet, it was the alarmingly high number of casualties caused by trench warfare on the
Western Front that propelled the creation of the first tanks. The first tanks ever built,
the heavy British Mark I, were introduced to the battlefield for the first time on September 15,
1916 during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, supporting British infantry as they advanced.
[Text: The Battle of Flers-Courcelette was a part of the larger Battle of the Somme.] Although
their mere presence on the battlefield had great shock value and caused fear within German ranks,
their design was still lacking and their reliability was low, and many of the tanks sent
to battle broke down due to mechanical failures, mainly broken tracks. Nevertheless, with this
offensive, the British achieved the longest advance since trench warfare began in 1914.
In spite of these facts, it was in World War 2 that the tank would take center stage.
Following up on the lessons learned from the Great War, European nations started to modernize their
armies in the interwar period, giving rise to motorized infantry and tank divisions.
Tanks would eventually take on a major role in the outcome of World War 2, as battlefield
supremacy depended heavily on both the number and the quality of tanks available to each side. The
importance of tanks in World War 2 was such that several of the largest tank battles in history
were fought during this time, immortalizing some of the tanks that fought on either side.
In today’s video, we will assess which country had the most effective tanks in
World War 2. Some of the criteria used for this assessment are the thickness of the tank’s armor,
the caliber of its gun, its speed, its affordability, and, of course,
how effectively they performed on the battlefield. Also, we will only be covering some of the major
nations that took part in this conflict, including the USA, the UK, the USSR, France, and Germany.
Furthermore, when possible, we will try to take into account several of the most used tanks by
said nations during the war and their overall contribution to their nation’s war effort.
France’s rapid loss of the war and subsequent occupation by Germany came as much as a surprise
for the French as it did for anyone else. By the beginning of the war or, at least, right before
the Germans invaded France, the French boasted one of the largest tank forces in the world,
second only to the Soviet Union. Its tanks were not actually much worse than any other nations’
either, even Germany’s. In reality, French heavy tanks were more than a match for any of the tanks
the Germans fielded at the beginning of the war. In the Battle of France, for example, a single
Char B1 heavy tank took on and annihilated 13 German Panzer IIIs and IVs in just a few minutes.
The tank’s crew even reported that the tank had been hit 140 times in the course of the battle.
The Char B1 boasted a 40 mm armor and a 75 mm howitzer gun,
weighing 28 tonnes in total. It was one of the most powerfully armed and armored
tanks of its day, and its firepower was more than enough to pierce German armor.
However, this did not prevent the German tanks from outmaneuvering the much slower French tanks.
The Char B1 only had a maximum speed of 21 to 28 kmph. On the other hand,
all German tanks carried radios with them, unlike French tanks, in order to maintain
a solid chain of command and communications and comply with their combined arms doctrine.
In the end, it was the lack of good communications that prevented the French from effectively
countering Germany’s advance. For these reasons, the French fall in the 5th place of our list.
Although the UK built the first tanks, by the beginning of World War 2, they were already
lagging behind in tank development. In fact, for most of the war, British troops relied on American
tanks supplied to them through the Lend-Lease program. However, at the beginning of the war,
they did field their own British tanks. The Mk II was one of them. This medium tank was developed
almost at the same time as the Mk I, as a heavier infantry tank version. Its armor was thicker than
its predecessor, the Mk I, with a thickness of 30 mm, but it carried a similar 40 mm gun.
The Mk II was effectively used during French, Greek, and early North African Campaigns. Its 40
mm gun made it lethal against the lighter Italian tanks and meant it could hold its ground against
the early German Panzer II and III. On the down side, its light armor meant it was susceptible
to most Axis anti-tank weapons. Its reliability and suspension in desert conditions were praised,
as was its performance in the defense of Tobruk. However, when taken to Greece, even as
they managed to effectively engage German tanks, over 90% were lost due to mechanical breakdown.
The bright spot for British tank design was probably the Comet I and the Mk IV Churchill.
The Comet I was a medium high-speed tank developed from the earlier Cromwell tank. Its armor could be
as thick as 102 mm, and it featured a 76.2 mm gun. It weighed 32.7 tonnes and could move as
fast as 51 kmph. The Mk IV Churchill, on the other hand, was a super heavy infantry tank, well known
for its heavily armored chassis. It weighed 40 tonnes, carried a 57 mm gun, and could only reach
a speed of 24 kmph. However, it was designed for navigating the most uneven, shell-cratered ground,
demolishing infantry obstacles, and attacking enemy defenses, duties for which great speed or
heavy armament were not necessary. Finally, due to the loss of France and lowered productivity,
from 1942 on, British units started to be equipped with tanks supplied by the US alongside their own
British-designed tanks. The British would later modify the American tanks supplied to them,
giving birth to tanks such as the Sherman Firefly, a M4 Sherman mounted with a 76.2 mm gun.
When the Americans entered the war, their army had virtually no tanks, and the few they
had were light tanks. The Battle of France had already proved the importance of medium tanks;
French and British light tanks were destroyed by German guns, while their heavy tanks were simply
outmaneuvered by the faster German tanks. So, the Americans needed a tank that was maneuverable,
sturdy enough to endure enemy fire, and capable of carrying a 75 mm gun into battle. Finally, they
developed the Medium Tank M3, which would later evolve into the Medium Tank M4, the most used
tank by Western Allied forces in World War 2. The M4 Sherman, as the British nicknamed it, would be
supplied to most of the Allied forces through the Lend-Lease program. The Medium Tank M4 featured
177.8 mm armor, it was mounted with a 75 or 76 mm gun or a 105 mm howitzer, and it weighed 30.3-38.1
tonnes. These features made the M4 a formidable rival for the German Panzer IIIs and IVs.
As the war progressed and the Germans deployed the Panzer V Panther and Panzer VI Tiger,
so too did the Allies need to upgrade their own tanks. The answer was the M10 and the M36,
respectively. The M10 tank destroyer, officially the 3-inch Gun Motor Carriage M10,
featured a 76.2 mm gun, mounted in a rotating turret on a modified M4A2 Sherman tank chassis. It
also featured 57.2 mm armor and weighed 29 tonnes. Finally, the M36 tank destroyer, officially the
90 mm Gun Motor Carriage M36, featured a 90 mm gun mounted on a massive turret on the reliable
M4 Sherman chassis, and sloped armor. It also featured 127 mm armor and weighed 29 tonnes.
By the time the Germans launched their invasion of France, their armored force was not particularly
striking. In reality, the Germans managed to conquer the country with less tanks and much
less firepower than the defending French forces. However, their combined arms doctrine, their
tanks’ higher mobility, and command-and-control capability gave them tactical superiority.
It was during Germany’s invasion of Russia that German tanks met their match.
During Operation Barbarossa, the Germans bitterly discovered that the Soviet T-34
outclassed the Panzer III and IV. Its sloped armor could endure most of the German weapons,
and its gun could penetrate German tank armor.
This forced the Germans to develop heavier tanks, such as the Panzer V Panther.
For its impressive firepower and excellent armor, this tank is usually considered one
of the best fielded throughout the Second World War. The Panzer V Panther was clad on 100 mm armor
and featured a 75 mm gun. While the Panther’s gun caliber was common among the Allies,
its gun was the most powerful of the war. Only the British Sherman Firefly 76.2 mm gun had
more potential armor penetration, although it was much less accurate than the Panther.
Another of Germany’s tank divisions’ jewels was the Tiger I. This incredibly heavy tank outclassed
all Allied tanks in terms of firepower and armor when it was first deployed in 1942. It featured an
impressive 88 mm gun and was clad on 120 mm of thick armor. The Tiger I was later replaced by
the Tiger II, which was more heavily armored and made use of armor sloping, as did the Panther.
The problem with the German tank design was that,
in their effort to achieve technological superiority over the Allies, they were
over-engineered. They tended to use expensive materials and complicated production methods,
which made them very difficult to maintain and repair when they broke down.
The Soviet Union started and ended the war with the largest tank fleet in the world.
In 1939, the most common Soviet tank was the T-26, which was only lightly armored but -- fitted with
a 45 mm gun -- could penetrate most German armor. Very few of them had radios, and this proved to be
as big an issue as it was for the French. Once again, Germany’s combined arms doctrine,
along with its command-and-control capabilities, gave them tactical superiority. Not only were
the Soviets materially unprepared for war at the time of the invasion, but their army
was in almost complete disarray after the purges of the officer class of the 1930s.
In the first months of the invasion, the Soviets suffered heavy losses at the hands of the German
forces, mainly due to lack of coordination, training, and unpreparedness for the war.
Although the Germans were initially successful in their advance, when the Soviets managed to
reorganize themselves, the T-34 played a major role in halting the German offensive in 1942.
The T-34 was instrumental in the execution of the double encirclement manoeuver that
cut off the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. Surrounded, the 6th Army surrendered, dealing
a major blow to the Germans. This is regarded as a turning point for the war on the Eastern Front.
When it was first deployed, and with its 76.2 mm gun,
the T-34 was unmatched by any of the German tanks it came up against. In fact, all standard
German anti-tank weapons were ineffective against its heavy, sloped armor, to the
point where the standard German anti-tank gun was nicknamed Panzeranklopfgerät (tank door knocker),
as when fired against the T-34, they would just give away their position without causing any
damage to the tank. It was also very inexpensive and easily repaired. This meant they could produce
large quantities of T-34s and meet the demand of tanks needed to halt the German invasion.
Its impact on the war and its enemies was such that Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist, Commander of
the 1st Panzer Army during Operation Barbarossa, called it: “The finest tank in the world”, and
Life magazine wrote: “The best tanks in the world today are probably the Russian tanks.”
But which country do you think fielded the most effective tanks in World War
2? Do you think that, as von Kleist said, the T-34 was the “finest? If not,
which would you say was the best? Please share your thoughts in the comments.