Jmcmenamin wrote: | Unless of course you are in one of the many Sherman tanks knocked out by German Tigers/ Panthers. You could always take comfort that the US had thirty more.
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This is basically the problem I am seeking to point out.
This "overwhelming numbers" myth was soundly disproven in Korea when the U.S. sent a group of U.S.M.C. M-26's to confront the Russian T-34's that the North Koreans had after they had overrun and decimated the U.S. Army Shermans.
These M-26's were leftovers that we had sitting around from WWII.
The result was upon the first shot, the M-26 gunner could not tell that he even hit the T-34 because the 90mm AP round went completely through the T-34, gutting the chassis, engine and all, the round going on to strike a distant hill-side! They found that the M-90's HE rounds could do just as well by blowing their turrets off.
After that initial battle, they went on to fight and destroy every T-34 they encountered.
Oddly enough, the massed swarms of Chinese soldiers gave them more of a headache then the enemy T-34's. This was because they fired directly into the tanks gun muzzles right after the tank gunner fired, often with the rifle round entering the tank through the gun's breech and tehn zinging around inside the tank.
The problem was in WWII Patton was the first to be offered the M-26 but he turned it down, preferring the old WWI way of fighting using massed numbers of M-4 "Ronsons" (Shermans) over superior firepower. So, you see, it was not a matter of availability, hence the saying "Old blood and guts, yeah our blood his guts". Later on we did manage to get the M-26 into Germany and it did see limited action.
So if I am asked to do a "tank vs. tank" scenario, I want my M-26 Panther killer!
Tom T
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