Re: [OT/DSII] Re: Shermans and Panthers

On Sat, 06 Jan 2001 12:23:42 -0500, Richard Bell <rlbell@sympatico.ca>
wrote:

>The truth may be even wierder, the supply problems at the front for the
germans
>were such that; although they could reliably destroy every sherman that
came
>into view, there were more shermans than anti-tank rounds.

There is something no one has really mentioned yet. One of the primary
reasons
the Germans did so poorly in the West was something fairly new: tactical
air
support. When the weather was clear, the Germans could not easily move
their
forces without Allied aircraft attacking them with impunity.

>The Avalon Hill solitaire game "Patton's Best" teaches a very stern
lesson to
>M4 (not Firefly) commanders-- Do not fire upon german tanks, it only
draws
>attention to yourself.

I saw, during the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, an account by
a
Canadian Firefly commander. He said that he and his tank took out
several
Panthers from the front! The Panther had a nasty "shot trap". If you hit
the
turret just below the gun, your shot did not penetrate, but it bounced
down
and into the thin armour covering the driver's area. Very nasty.

Allan Goodall		       awg@sympatico.ca
Goodall's Grotto:  http://www.vex.net/~agoodall

"Now, see, if you combine different colours of light,
 you get white! Try that with Play-Doh and you get
 brown! How come?" - Alan Moore & Kevin Nolan,