[Closed] Tanks!

I think that's a Panther not a Tiger .

Correct

I nearly broke a challenger 2 when I was an army cadet!

We were on a residential with 2RTR in Fallingbostel and out on exercise when the chance to have a go at driving one came up and I jumped at it! The captain put the barrel out to one side at 90 degrees to the direction of drive so that he could stand next to the drivers pit and give me instructions.

I drove forward until an almighty STOP! was yelled through the headset. Turns out if you hang the barrel up on a large tree they can bend a bit.... ah well, good lesson in spatial awareness.

Might be the last time they let a cadet have a go at driving one...

When they drove it over a wreck of a car to show off in the yard it was properly scary. It didn't so much drive over the car as just make the car thin enough that it didn't have to go over. Mental. Great trip that.

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Technically not a tank but pretty nasty looking.

Jagdpanther - Take a Panther, get rid of the turret and put an 88mm gun on it.

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Call those tanks?

This is a tank. 188 tonnes

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the 17 pounder in the firefly was a very effective weapon when it fired the discarding sabot round introduced in september 44, meant it was a match for the long barreled 88 in the king tiger and Jagdpanther and much better penetration than the long barreled 75mm in the panther. The trouble for the british only 1 in 5 tanks in a platoon was a firefly and the Germans would target them.

Klunk - Member
the 17 pounder in the firefly was a very effective weapon when it fired the discarding sabot round introduced in september 44, meant it was a match for the long barreled 88 in the king tiger and Jagdpanther and much better penetration than the long barreled 75mm in the panther. The trouble for the british only 1 in 5 tanks in a platoon was a firefly and the Germans would target them.

About half the history of British tanks in WWII is made up of the various attempts to get the 17 pounder to fit into one...

[list][*]They attempted to fit it into a cruiser tank, called the [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruiser_Mk_VIII_Challenger ]Challenger[/url], but that didn't work. The cruisers were just too small to fit it.[/*]
[*]They attempted to fit it into an infantry tank, called the [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Prince_(tank) ]Black Prince[/url], but that didn't work. It was basically a scaled up Churchill, but the only thing they didn't make bigger was its engine and the Churchill was already a slow tank.[/*]
[*]They modified the Valentine into a tank destroyer called the [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_(tank_destroyer) ]Archer[/url], but they had to fit it backwards to get it to fit! Though this made falling back from ambush positions really easy. :-)[/*]
[*]The [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Firefly ]Sherman Firefly[/url] was pretty good but they had to fit the gun on its side, get rid of one crewman and add a big box to the back of the turret to get it to fit.[/*]
[*]It worked fairly well in the [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17pdr_SP_Achilles ]Achilles[/url], but that was another tank destroyer (based on the Sherman) and had an open top turret.[/*]
[*]They accepted that the cruiser tanks needed to be bigger, while also cutting down the 17 pounder and came up with the [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_(tank) ]Comet[/url]. At that point they were nearly there, but very few were in service before the war ended.[/*]
[*]By increasing the size of a cruiser tank giving it decent armour and working out how to arm it will a full fat 17 pounder, the [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion_(tank) ]Centurion[/url] tank was invented, and by accident the MBT. By that point the UK had the best tank in the world, but the war had ended. Oh well.[/*][/list]

I must admit to having a soft spot for these machines. I think that anyone with both a passing interest in modern tanks and a Kindle should have a read of [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chieftains-Bob-Forrest-Webb-ebook/dp/B006ISI2DK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1460132613&sr=1-1 ]Chieftains[/url] and [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chieftains-Bob-Forrest-Webb-ebook/dp/B006ISI2DK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1460132613&sr=1-1 ]Team Yankee[/url].

Tigers you say? "Shoot it in the ass!"

[Fairly sweary so possibly not NSFW]

The free to play video game World of Tanks is lots of fun. It's not hugely realistic, except visually, but entertaining especially for someone who was Ww2 nerd as a kid.

No love for the Challenger 2?

Here's some Challenger 2 love. I helped with the filming of the Challenger 2 segments of this(fast forward to 10:34)

My father was a trooper in the Lothians & Borders Horse Yeomanry during WW2 - an armoured regiment, part of the 6th Armoured Division. I never got to talk to him about his war exploits (he died when I was 11) but after reading the regiment war diary he must have been involved in some frantic battles - Kasserine Pass, Monte Cassino, Argenta Gap. The thing that struck me was the attrition rate of the Sherman. If it wasn't for American/Canadian industrial might we would never have won.

There is something gorgeously Steam Punk about the first tanks:

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In 1916, THAT^^^ was a game changer

If it wasn't for American/Canadian industrial might [s]we would never have won[/s] the russians would have won.

FIFY

it's worth remembering 80% of all german armoured units were deployed on the eastern front.

had the above transpired this is what the centurion and comets would have been up against
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the design of the Chieftain was partially inspire by it, when the front cast armour was dragged from a german lake and analysed