The Five Best Tanks of World War II

hello everybody welcome to a brand new episode of side projects in this one today we're keeping it pretty simple because we're just talking about five of world war ii's best tanks let's jump in the second world war was the single most important event of the 20th century it changed almost everything borders international trade political systems and a lot more besides and its echoes are still being felt today one of those echoes is in warfare as world war ii was the conflict that saw the rise of the most iconic army unit the tank tanks were developed in britain during world war one ironically by the royal navy under the direction of winston churchill from there multiple countries began developing them france germany the usa and eventually russia after it became the soviet union the rapid development of tanks that followed would see its trial by fire when world war ii broke out and new designs were put to the test under wartime conditions today we have five designs that proved themselves on the battlefield on june 22nd 1941 germany launched operation barbarossa an invasion of the soviet union hitler and the german high command believed that the soviet armed forces were of such inferior quality that they wouldn't be able to stand up to german blitzkrieg tactics and that their panzer divisions would be almost unopposed as they advanced they were not prepared whatsoever for what they got instead tens of thousands of unexpectedly superior t-34 medium tanks when the t-34 was encountered by german forces a german general described it as the finest tank in the world it was so effective that several famous german tank designs including the panther medium tank and the tiger heavy tank were built specifically to counter the t-34 it drove german generals and hitler crazy so what was it about this tank that was so impressive well two traits stand out sloped armor and mass production sloped armor is one of those innovations that it seems very obvious in hindsight but it doesn't look that revolutionary but make no mistake this small difference in design was so crucial to the success of the t-34 that other countries including germany began incorporating it into their own tank designs sloped armor is exactly what it sounds like armor that is placed at an angle or a slope what this means is that when a projectile hits the armor it's not going to go through it head-on instead it's going to go through the metal at more of an upward angle so even though the technical armor for the t-34 was only 47 millimeters the effective armor of the tank was double that like i said is a really really good idea the second feature that set the t-34 apart from other tank designs was its mass producibility though it's described as one of the best tanks of the war the reality of the t-34 design was that it was crude and rushed it had to be given the circumstances but the soviets worked around its design floors well for example the pins holding the tracks in place were not locked in like with other tank designs this caused the pins on the tracks to fall out over time but instead of trying to fix this problem directly which would have cost them valuable time and resources the soviets just put a chunk of metal that stuck out towards the tank hammering the pins back in as they pass by this solution is emblematic of the soviet's wartime approach to tank design which was pretty much good enough isn't it these duct tape solutions paid off by 1945 the soviets had produced over 80 000 t-34s of multiple variants making it the most produced tank of the entire war germany simply couldn't keep up with this stream of metal monsters every time they destroyed one the soviets just put out a new one though some have coined this as quantity over quality one might say that quantity is equality all on its own next on the list is one of the most famous tanks of the war the panzer camp vargan vi named tiger after encountering the unexpectedly strong armor of the t-34 german high command realized that their own armored divisions consisting largely of panzer threes and pens of fours were not up to the task of taking on the soviets to that end they fast-tracked pun intended the production of some newer tank models that could meet the demands of the eastern front two models which even today cause controversy among historians and tank enthusiasts eventually came out of this push the panther medium tank and the tiger heavy tank a quick note to those same tank enthusiasts who right now probably absolutely rushing to the comment section to say their piece were including the tiger another panther because unlike its smaller cousin the operational history of the tiger tank was not marred by a tendency to destroy itself in all seriousness the real reason is because there is a great deal of back and forth on whether the panther tank was the best tank of the war or whether it was just trash-tier garbage the tiger by contrast is much simpler to break down so yeah we're taking the easy way out on this one so sue me please don't sue me the tiger was built primarily for one specific task taking on other tanks interestingly the tiger did not use sloped armor although it's success that the tiger ii or king tiger wood despite this it still sported some of the heaviest armor of any tank fielded during the war with frontal armor up to 100 millimeters thick and side and rear armor anywhere from 60 to 80 millimeters thick the tiger's armor also utilized what is known as marriaging steel which is made by treating martin static steel through an extended heat treatment process all of this is just the fancy metalwork way of saying that it's really really strong the design ethos of the tiger was basically the opposite of the t-34 where the t-34 was built for quantity the tiger was built for quality it utilized labor-intensive production methods and expensive materials to round out its design which made each unit prohibitively expensive as such it couldn't be fielded in large numbers even so the ones that were put into action soon proved themselves to be more than capable of taking on all comers at them its 8.8 centimeter guns were powerful enough to pierce through basically any enemy tank at the time the advantage proved decisive particularly in the west after the normandy landings the tiger was so influential on the strategic planning of the western allies that the heavy tank battalions including the tiger tanks were the only non-division element to be included on war maps all of this is just fancy war gaming speech for it's real scary allied tank crews often went out of their way to avoid tiger tanks instead preferring to call in air support or use artillery to deal with them because most allied tanks simply couldn't stand up to their firepower and armor as we said before the tiger was not perfect it was most definitely over engineered and too expensive for the demands of the war effort and it suffered from similar reliability problems as the panther tank this however was more down to it being forced into roles in situations that it wasn't designed for rather than inherent design flaws and when conditions improved the tiger performed incredibly well with most of the heavy tank battalions in the german army racking up an average ratio of five enemy tanks destroyed for every one tiger lost with that in mind we can conclude that despite its flaws the tiger tank was most definitely one of the top tanks of the war we're kind of cheating with this next entry on the list because it isn't really a tank however this vehicle is under-appreciated enough that it seems worthy of including to bring its storied operational history to a bit of a wider audience speaking of wider audience have you subscribed yet the stormgeschutz3 shortened to stug 3 was a german assault gun based on the panzer 3 chassis the turret of the panzer 3 was taken out and replaced with a fixed casing to allow the vehicle to support a larger caliper gun the panzer 3 was an early medium tank that was used in france and was intended to see the german army through russia but that plan fell flat when the panzer iii proved to be inadequate for taking on the soviet t-34 we have talked about this already however the chassis of the panzer 3 was considered capable enough that it was used as the base for another vehicle that would outshine it completely that's the stug 3. though the stug itself was a fairly simple vehicle boasting a turretless 7.5 centimeter gun and a 50 millimeter frontal armor plate some later versions would have an additional 30 millimeter plate welded on as a supplement it differed from many other german fighting vehicles in one simple but crucial way and that's that it actually worked it was introduced in 1940 and served all the way to the end of the war seeing action on every front from france to italy to russia to norway while the tiger and panther tanks were more expensive to produce the stug was comparatively cheap one tiger cost as much to make as four stucks in addition the stuck did not suffer from the reliability problems of its larger tank counterparts in essence it was the workhorse of the german army performing its tasks reliably while the flashier tiger and panther tanks took the spotlight the effectiveness of the stug was down to its simple design and firepower the vehicle had a low profile being one of the shortest vehicles germany deployed at only 2.16 meters tall this made it a surprisingly difficult target as well as making it easier to camouflage than the monstrous tiger tanks the vehicle itself could perform a variety of different roles from infantry support to functioning as a tank destroyer though would ultimately be outclassed by other tanks later on it offered a flexibility that other german designs simply didn't have there were eight total stug three designs but the most common by far was the orfs g with 8 000 produced by the end of the war in total just under 12 000 stugs were built far above the 1 400 tigers produced and the 6000 panthers the legacy of this vehicle is not that it was famous groundbreaking or even incredibly good but rather that it just got the job done next on our list is the american m4 sherman the sherman is another famous example among tank types for being neither nice to look at or super effective despite that it can most definitely be called one of the defining tanks of world war ii just based on how widespread it was at around 50 000 units built it was second only to the t-34 in numbers produced it saw combat all over the world from africa to europe to the far east and pacific around 4 000 were given to the soviets under the lend lease program earning the sherman the distinction of having served in both the eastern and western fronts of europe this tank was absolutely everywhere so well what did it have going for it the design goals for the sherman were quite similar to those of the t-34 first it was to be mass producible so that the americans could get a lot of them into action very quickly second it was to be flexible so that it could perform a variety of different roles ranging from supporting infantry to spearheading assaults to engaging enemy tanks and third it had to be reliable in all three of these cases it performed admirably being cheap to produce effective in varying combat situations and easy to repair and get back into action should it break down at the height of production one sherman rolled off the factory floor every 30 minutes the sherman was produced in several variants but the common theme between most of them was its 75 millimeter gun only being upgraded to a longer 76 millimeter barrel after it became clear that the sherman needed to compete with the larger tiger and panther tanks its armor was 50.8 millimeters thick angle to be effectively 90 millimeters when the sherman was first put into action in north africa it proved superior to the lighter german and italian tank designs and contributed heavily to the allied victory this victory would come back to bite them however as the americans believed that the sherman in its current state would be sufficient to win the war against germany in addition the americans largely followed a tank destroyer doctrine which dictated that killing tanks should be left to dedicated teams of anti-tank personnel and that tank on tank duels should be avoided as a consequence little emphasis was put on improving the sherman for the role of tank combat as we already know the germans were not sitting around with their tank designs with the panther and tiger tanks soon to be introduced in larger numbers than the allies expected the sherman though a perfectly capable tank in its own right was an unfavorable match-up against the panther and was hopelessly outgunned by the tiger casualty raids among allied tank crews would continue to climb as the war dragged on nevertheless the allies always had numerical superiority and with the introduction of the 76 millimeter gun the sherman was found to be able to compete with the heavier german tanks ultimately after the war ended the sherman would continue to see service throughout the 20th century in wars around the world cementing its legacy as the most enduring tank of the war once again we're kind of cheating with the last entry on the list today because technically the firefly is just the sherman again but it's a british design it was only used by the british and has his own wikipedia page so we're going to say it's fair game the british unlike the americans saw the dangers posed by the german heavier tanks to allied armor they believed correctly that the sherman was inadequate to take them on but as we explained before the u.s wasn't interested in making tanks that could duel other tanks the british on the other hand wanted just that yet their own home-grown tank designs were experiencing delays so well what could they do well the british had developed an excellent anti-tank gun the 76.2 millimeter qf-17 pounder they also had a bunch of sherman tanks that the us had given them through the lend lease program you can probably see where this is going yep the british just slapped their anti-tank gun onto the sherman tank and said that's good and actually it was pretty good since the firefly was capable of penetrating the armor of the panther and tiger tanks something the original sherman's jews couldn't do the first fireflies were put into service just in time for the normandy landings and they couldn't have been introduced at a better time the allies were just beginning to realize that the germans had far more heavy tanks in their forces than they anticipated and the american doctrine of avoiding tank duels was not going to pan out with that in mind the firefly proved indispensable to the allied forces it ended up being so effective that german tank operators were instructed to target fireflies first when engaging enemy tank formations keeping an eye out for the distinctive longer barrels realizing this firefly crews attempted to camouflage themselves into looking like regular shermans even going so far as to put fake muzzle breaks halfway down the barrel and painting the rest another color it's unclear if this actually had any effect but fireflies do seem to have been statistically less likely to be destroyed in combat than other tanks so draw your own conclusions overall the firefly wasn't a highly produced vehicle unlike others on this list only clocking in at about 2 200 in total however it certainly made its mark on the war in several ways first it proved its worth by being capable of knocking out german heavy tanks despite their large size second it demonstrated to the americans the necessity of heavier armaments on their own designs and third it was an effective stop gap design until the introduction of newer designs such as the comet and centurion all in all it's difficult to find anything hugely negative to say about the firefly and maybe that's a legacy we should all aspire to so this was a video all about world war ii tank design there are dozens of designs from other countries that we didn't even mention in this video and of course there are many tanks from the cold war and beyond that and implemented new technologies and tactics even so it's always interesting to see how these things progress from the earliest iterations even modern tanks like the m1 abrams still use sloped armor and there are a whole lot of other tanks we can cover on this channel so if you have ideas for tank videos do you want us to cover them from other wars stuff like that please let me know in the comments below i do look at the comments for videos to make on the side projects channel so yeah hit up the comments hit that like button don't forget to subscribe and thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Sideprojects

Views: 599,518

Keywords: megaprojects, construction, engineering, projects

Id: _emFifQu31I

Length: 16min 4sec (964 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 21 2020