From what I\'ve read, the T34\'1943 compared to the Panzer 4, had sloped armor, was faster, and more maneuverable. However, it\'s guns were not strong enough to penetrate the Panzer.
So it was pretty much a stand off. All of the panzer shots would reflect off, all the T34 shots would not do anything. So the winner came down to whether or not the T34 would get a lucky shot, or whether or not the Panzer would hit the T34\'s armor at a non sloping point (or move so that the slope means nothing).
the panzer 4 had good sloped amour at the end. No other tank of ww2 was still usefull for so long.
The German armored Halftracks were also some nice vehicles. For troop deployment the soldiers had to feel pretty safe entering a battlefield. The only time they would prove inefficient would be in urban fighting where the enemy could get a overhead advantage over the carrier.
The_Punisher Wrote:Err, nothing could top the King Tiger.
You needed a clean shot to even get it from the back.
I concur!
The best tank of WWII had to be the T34/85. The 85mm gun could and did defeat German heavy tanks at more than the 200 meters that was average for the 76mm gun.
The strategic vision behind the T34 was a cheap, massed produced vehicle which could operate under poor maintenance conditions with minimal support for a defined number of hours.
The engine and tracks of the T35 were good for about 1000 hours of operation. About 400-500 miles of operation. After that they were basically replaced.
Don\'t forget that at least one variant of the T35 had a baffle plate by the return wheel of the track. Its purpose was to force the track pin back into the track blocks. These track pins were simple bolts with no nuts. This simplified track repair and contstruction.
There is also the rumored T35 design that has the turret screwed on. Too many revolutions to wrong way unscrews the turret from the chassis. Too many the other way and traverse stops.
The Soviet designers spared no cost on the comfort of the crew.
It was designed to carry a gun. The crew was secondary. It was cost efficient.