Your Favorite Tank of WW2

**PanzerJaeger** · 01-09-2007, 09:50

I havent made one of these in a very long time.

Note that this is not "The best tank of WW2", as that would enivitably narrow it down to a very few types.

Which is your favorite and why?

Edit: Some had to be cut and some from the lesser combatants didnt make it on due to poll limitations. If your favorite is not on the list please name it anyway. I think Ive covered all the usual favorites plus many that are probably no one's favorite. :P

**King Kurt** · 01-09-2007, 11:19

I would say that including Centurions, Pershings and IS3s is pushing it a bit as they were not WW2 tanks. The IS3 was the closest and that only appeared in the victory parade.
As for my favourite, it has to be the T34/76 simply for the impact it made. It is the definitive tank in that it's combination of armour, mobility and gun was the model for all future tanks, even up to today. It was simply the qunitesential design which shaped all others. Other tanks might have been individually better - for example the Panther - but they had been designed with the T34 in mind as a role model.
The other aspect of the T34 was its ruggedness - no need for a full workshop to be following this tank around - it just ran and ran.
To my mind the T34/76 was the perfect combination of firepower, armour and mobility for its day, was unlikely to breakdown and was so cheap and easy to produce you could have thousands of them - what more could you ask for.

**Uesugi Kenshin** · 01-09-2007, 11:35

Pershings were WWII tanks from what I've heard. I believe they entered service late in the war as heavy tanks and then later evolved into the first MBT of the American army, the M48/M60 series that just happens to have been given so many numbers and designations, and modifications ranging from small additions to whole new turrets that I am not entirely sure you'd call it the same tank.

Anyway I would go with the Panther, it was an excellent tank and I'd rather have been in a Panther than pretty much anything else because it combined good firepower, engineering, optics and all that in a way that I don't think any other tank did. On a mass scale other tanks that were easier to produce and maintain would be better, but I'd still rather fight in a Panther than a T-34/85 for example.

**Stig** · 01-09-2007, 11:43

The Matilda, nice and slow

http://www.wwiivehicles.com/unitedki.../tetrarch.html
This one is one of my favourites too

**King Kurt** · 01-09-2007, 14:10

I stand corrected - apparently the Pershing snuck in at the very end of the war - apparently the yanks were going to make do with the Sherman, but changed their minds after the battle of the Bulge - I wonder why!!!

**RabidGibbon** · 01-09-2007, 14:29

I always have a soft spot for the French B1 Bis, more for the terrible runaround they used to give me playing Panzer General on my old playstation than for anything they did in real life, although I understand in the right circumstances they could be quite formidable.

**Mount Suribachi** · 01-09-2007, 18:17

Originally Posted by King Kurt

I stand corrected - apparently the Pershing snuck in at the very end of the war - apparently the yanks were going to make do with the Sherman, but changed their minds after the battle of the Bulge - I wonder why!!!

They would actually have had them earlier, but that would have meant changing the training schedules which were geared towards the Sherman, by that point the US Army was focussed on getting as much men and materiel to the front, quality was a secondary issue (hence reduced training times etc)

Originally Posted by yesadachi

its tough to brag about the Sherman. “oh ya, well the Sherman would have been great in… in… WWI!

Thats slightly unfair. It was a good tank in 1942 & 1943 when the British used it in the desert. Indeed, it was the first MBT that British had that was the equal of the German PzIIIs and IVs, with its mobility, armour and gun it matched them in every department. Hell, just having a gun that was bigger than the puny 2 pounder AND could fire a HE shell was a massive upgrade for us! And throughout the war it remained what it started as - a match for the IIIs & IVs, the latter remaining a staple of German armour till the end but dominated by the Vs & VI.

My favourite? Y'know, I don't know if I really have one, I can see the good and bad in most tanks so I'm a bit too objective about it. Probly the T-34/76 for being the first to get all the bits right.

**yesdachi** · 01-09-2007, 17:44

The Maus would have been sweet if ever completed/production ready but I will say the Panzer IV because there were so many of them, and the Tiger would be my second choice because of all the fantastic stories I have heard about them or encounters with them. I wish the US would have made better tanks back in the day, its tough to brag about the Sherman. “oh ya, well the Sherman would have been great in… in… WWI!