Strongest World War 2 Tanks?

[The Spartan (Returns)]

IS-2
how bout that.

[Marshal Murat]

I would say bingo.

Especially the part about knocking a tanks turret off.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Like most of these questions, there is a lot of relativity involved.

In the late war, the top Heavy tanks would have been:

IS-2/3 Soviet Heavy. Extremely well armored and possessed of a heavy gun. Expensive to produce, though less so than the German heavies.

Tiger II German Heavy. Corrected the weaknesses in the armoring of the Tiger I, though only marginally better gunned. Expenseive to produce.

Though not strictly considered "tanks" Germany also produced a couple of very effective turretless tank destroyers -- The PZj 4 & 5 -- that would have been very difficult if fielded in numbers. The heaviest Pzj -- the Huge mark 6 -- was barely beyond prototype stages when the war ended.


Among Main Battle Tanks:

Russian T-34/85 Soviet MBT. Reliable, quick, nicely armored and with a solid gun (outclassing the German standard 75). Relatively inexpensive and easy to use. Just a good all-around AFV (many would argue the best of the entire conflict, and with a good deal of justification), that stayed in production well into the 1950's.

German Pzkw-Vg Panther. excellent frontal armor and possibly the best gun in mounted by any tank during that war on a kill per cost ratio (including night-firing equipment). Much more expensive than the T34-85 and the earlier models were really plagued with drive train bugs. Never produced in the numbers the mark 2-4's were.

M-26 Pershing. Good armor and mounting a reliable 90mm gun, easily the best tank America produced during that war and the only one that could have taken the field against the T-34/85 on more or less equal terms. Saw VERY limited service in Europe just before the close of hostilities.

[The Foolish Horseman]

i would say the strongest ww2 tank was the Soviet T34 tank,masslyproduced and the best tank in the war

[Derfasciti]

I had always heard that the T-34 tank of the U.S.S.R. was the best out of production during the war. As I remember from a documentary though, it did not perform nearly as good as it should have since maintenance of the tank and training of the crew were low.

[MilesGregarius]

I had always heard that the T-34 tank of the U.S.S.R. was the best out of production during the war. As I remember from a documentary though, it did not perform nearly as good as it should have since maintenance of the tank and training of the crew were low.

Early model T-34s were mechanically unreliable and had some other design flaws, but later models had worked out their teething problems and were more reliable than Germany's (usually over-engineered) tanks. To put it in perspective, I read once that your average German tank could perform operationally for about one hour for every one hour of maintenance it received; a T-34 could perform for 8 hours per hour of maintenance; the Sherman could go for a whopping 40 hours per hour with the mechanics. It doesn't matter how fearsome your weapon is if you can't get it to the battlefield.

The quality of the crew bears no relation to the quality of the tank design. During the initial phases of Barbarossa, the T-34 and the KV-1 terrified the Germans. Better tactics - employed by more experienced, better trained crews - initially allowed the Germans to overcome the T-34's strengths, but by the end of the war, the Soviets had learned an awful lot of hard lessons.

As to the OP, it depends on how you define "strongest". The various heavies - Tiger I, King Tiger, IS-2, and M-26 Pershing - mounted the biggest guns and were the most heavily armored, so on a strictly tank versus tank base they could be considered the strongest. Bring in overall performance, and the Panther G might take the prize. Add in mechanical reliability (late war at least) and ease of production, and the T-34 is the hands down winner.

[English assassin]

It doesn't matter how fearsome your weapon is if you can't get it to the battlefield.

Absolutely spot on. "strongest" tank of the war for me was therefore unquestionably the Sherman in all its guises.

Not that I would have fancied being IN one in its tommycooker days, but then the early T34 had a lot of problems too. (Blindspots out to 200 yds? One man turret? No radio? No thanks)

Here's a random thought: how about the Matilda? Entirely impervious to 37 and 50mm AT fire, and withdrawn from service before 75mm guns came in. Survivability is looking good...

[Kralizec]

M-26 Pershing. Good armor and mounting a reliable 90mm gun, easily the best tank America produced during that war and the only one that could have taken the field against the T-34/85 on more or less equal terms. Saw VERY limited service in Europe just before the close of hostilities.

During the Korea war, the Pershings were the only tanks the Americans had that could penetrate the armour of the enemy's T-34's.