Figure 1.--Early in the war, infabtry had no effective way of stopping tanks. This looks like the rear view of an American M3 Grant tank with the turret (upper cupola) facing to the rear. The Grant was the first American tank deployed abroad. It was a compromise based on the desperate need for tanks before a modern type was ready for production. The photograph here was probbly taken in Sicily. It probably was destroyed by a German anti-tank mine based on the damage. The main gun was a 57 mm in the turret but what can't be seen in this angled shot is the 75mm cannon fired from the front ride side of hull.

The tank was a major World War II system. All of the great tank battles of history were fought during World War II. The tank was first introduced in World War I by the Allies. It played an important role in the final year of the war, but the War ended before tank tactics had been fully developed and anti-tank tactics had been developed. The tank was a key weapn early in the War. Poland was the first German and Soviet victim (1939). They did not have the industrial base to build a large tank force. The British and French did, but pursued disaterous tactics (1940). The Soviets did which the Germans encounteredwhen they invaded (1941). The largest tank bttles in history were fought in the East. Time and space alloed the Soviets to learn modern tank warfare from he Germans. The same occured in North Africa where the Germans taught the British and Americans modern tank warfare (1941-43). In both the East and North Africa, German superiority was not great enough to defeat either the Soviets or British so they wound up teaching their enenies how to defeat them. The greatest tank battle of all time was fought at Kursk (July 1943). The German defeat meant a fundamental shift in German tactics. The Germans did not have the industry to match Soviet and Allied production. Tank technology advanced rapidly during this period, but so did anti-tank technology as well as Soviet/Allied air power. The Germans first grasped the importance of anti-tank artillery. Both the Germans and Allies developed infantry weapons thst could stop tanks. This meant that tankers needed infantry (grenadiers) to protect their tanks from infantry. This meant a basic shift on the part of the Germans. Their battle doctrine shifted from massed, high speed tank formtions to slow, massive behemoths that were essentially moveable pill boxes. The Sovits and Allies continued to lunch armored attcks, but no longer to attack German armor, noe to break through znd ebcurcle increasingly imobile German units--the sane tactics with which the Germzns began the War. Here air power was part of the shift. Tanks cannot operate in mass uner enemy air attack. And the Soviets and Allies by 1944 controllthe skies.

Created: 11:29 PM 9/7/2016
Last updated: 8:23 AM 6/28/2017