Re: [DS] Tank designs was Re: [ds] Ogres

Kenneth Winland wrote:

> > Uhh. . . yeah, it's a brilliant idea.
> 
>	  The best direct fire weapon on he best armoured tank?

OK, let's compare resource investment.	If you can kill a JS-II with an
88mm gun, then why do you need anything bigger?  How many JS-IIs can
USSR build for cost of one Maus.  Ever hear of diminishing returns? 
Maus went past that line.  Long way past that line.  Of course, IMHO,
building more Panthers would have been best way to use all the resources
that went into Tigers, King Tigers, Mauses, other "Supertanks", et al.

> > If you assume you'll never have to cross a bridge.	No bridge in the
> > world in 1945 could have supported it's weight, and most of them
today
> > won't.
> 
>	  Wrong.  Many rail bridges would be able to carry it.	The Maus
> was to be carried  by rail to most areas.  This thing was NOT meant to
> truck under its own power to various engagements.  Check out Jentz's
> "Panzerkampfwagon MAUS" and Sawondy and Bracher's "MAUS and other
German
> Armored Projects".  German engineers were NOT idiots.... :)

Yes, they were.  Or rather, Porche was an idiot, and Hitler a bigger
one.  You have to cross bridges during COMBAT operations.  Remember
Battle of Bulge?  Lead German Kampfgruppe was stopped because stupid
commander left his bridging unit behind (Would have "slowed down"
offensive) and the US Army's "Damned Engineers" dropped the bridges in
front of him.  Ooops.  Now, let's imagine he had his bridging unit, and
a company of Mauses.  He's still stopped dead because it requires a rail
bridge.  Ooops again.  Maus is fine idea if you assume there are working
railheads from your country to enemy capital, with an agreement not to
destory or damage rails at all, and not to shoot at trains as they
unload this Maus.  How long does it take to unload?  Of course, much
cheaper and easier to drop 5 inch rocket off P-47, but that applies to
all tanks.  Except that if I drop a 5 inch rocket on a force of Pz IVs,
there are some left.  I drop on Maus, and the only one you got is dead. 
Mass production is good thing.

John M. Atkinson