"Paul J. Adam" wrote in message ...
In message , Eunometic
writes
(Krztalizer) wrote in message news:20040
...
You realise the Sherman was four inches lower-slung than the Panther?

Damn, Paul, that's just plain low - how dare you toss facts into this
argument???

G

It was a "disproportionatly" tall tank.

It was less tall than the Panther - you seem eager to damn that capable
if overcomplicated German vehicle.

Merely pointing out that the Allies made mistakes as well. The
Sherman I assert could have been a better tank if it had not of been
designed for installation of an aircooled radial. That drove the
designe and I suggest it compromised protection.



"According to statistics of the American army, destroying a Panther
costed five Shermans or about nine T-34's."

Q: If you only have 45 tons of steel and the necesary chromite,
vanadium and manganese to make it into armour do you build 1.5
shermans or 1 panther?

Personally, I'd go for 1.5 Shermans and make sure they were Fireflies.

Personaly I'd go for a mix. With Panthers being the bulk and PzKw
IV/Sherman class and Tiger/JS2 class vehicles for specialist duties.
(Infact the US had a 60 ton tank heavier than even the Pershing in
service at the end of WW2)

The 3 inch 17 pounder was a powerfull gun however from all accounts
the APDS tungsten shot it needed to deal with Panthers and Tigers lost
accuracy rapidly. Thus while the round still had penetraion at 500m
it lost accuracy so much it was difficult to actualy obtain a hit.
On the other hand without APDS it couldn't obtain penetration except
at point blank range and with it it couldn't obtain a hit much beyond
it. Latter work (much latter) clearly debugged the issues with APDS
and the sherman received 90mm and even 105mm (lower velocity and
caliber but ideal for APDS)

The 3000fps L70 75mm of the Panther would easily obtain hits and kills
at 1500-2000m. The L100 (I suspect) would have achieved 3500 fps and
surely opened up range even further.

For whatever reason range was opening up. The Germans also had very
limited supplies of tungsten and had to rely on these hypervelocity
guns. Tungsten was reserved for machine tool production though some
was available to long barrelled Mk103 30mm canon wielding Fw190s which
could penetrate 140mm with its muzzle velicity increased by the 150m/s
of the aircraft.

Since the Germans used Uranium (they had their own mines) as a
substitute for Tungsten in hardening some of their metal cutting tools
one wonders whether they would have hit on the idea of using it as
shot or mayber even hardened some armour piercing shells with it?