Are you german? Your pronunciation is really good. :D Nice channel keep going!

He is Austrian.

Please do an analysis of the battle of Arras 1940, My Grandad served as an AT gunner with a 2pdr in the Royal Artillery with the BEF, related to this video, the Wehrmacht must have known the utility of the 88mm Pre war as Rommel used it so effectively with the correct AP ammunition at Arras

Awesome video. I know this had probably been asked before. But the German tank museum doesn't do English speaking videos. It would be fantastic for a collaboration. Of coarse I don't know your circumstances but it would be sweet to see. Thank you for the videos, super informative. Love the no BS approach. Das ist güte. Man I wish I know better German lol.

Actually the Panzermuseum Munster just announced a few days ago they will begin to release English videos in the future.

Ok

Every damn time.

Reading this at 1am glad that I'm not the only person that gets sucked in like this.

literally started this at 3am xD

I google "Panzer IV" daily....

Panther vs IS 1?

​@@Romanotieu look at the number produced. About 100 IS-1. By the wartime USSR standards it's nothing more than experimental design

Anubis Einheit 33 I would prefer to see the tactical solutions employed, rather than the technical ones. To be fair though, he did say this was a technical comparison.

@@user-yj8vj3sq6j the is1 was designed to combat the panther, but the cheaper t3485 was coming into production with the same firepower. The is series were taken to a actual heavy tank with the is2 with the 122mm, which was found to be more effective. The is1 was a upgraded kv85, which was only a stopgap measure, until a better tank could take over, in this case that tank was the is2.

@@ethanedwards422 IS-1 was designed as replacement for KV-1, capable of withstanding 75mm and 88mm shells. So, you can't compare it with T-34-85. But 85mm cannon was not enough

Well, yes, this is not a landing in Normandy in 1944 where the Allies fought against Hitler Yugens) Against children who are 15-17 years old)

Completely correct. Of course there are well known examples of single Soviet tanks holding up German advances for hours or sometimes days. When you are defending your country, you dont think about sloped armour, the size of your gun, the speed of your vehicle. Most of the time these defenders died at their positions.

@@user-fs6cw3xl9u Germany had veterans from the Eastern front fighting the landing in Normandy. The allies fought valiantly against a serious enemy.

@@derekcollins9739 Veterans are actually worse than fresh troops. War eats away the nerves and destroys morale over time. But yes, there were serious troops in Normandy.

Not to mention the BIGGEST problem the T34 had, NO RADIOS! Only 1 T34, in 4 had a radio. So in practice you had one tank equipped with radio and the other 3 just followed along to where that one went! Naturally if that tank got knocked out right away it was not just a matter of swapping the radio, the other tanks were seriously hindered on the battlefield. Meanwhile EVERY Panzer had (or was supposed to have) a radio. Command and control were crucial and without those radios the Panzers could never have been as effective as they turned out to be.

I second this entirely.

Vat achzent??

What do you think of TIK? Pretty reliable and trustworthy, or no?

@@Mineav Hes great also...

@@Mineav tik is good too, but hes no political scientist.

Never underestimate the value of teamwork. It gives the enemy somebody else to shoot at.

I only need vodka and a T80

@@charlesshepperson7102 and i only need is vodca with a rag and lighter n a good arm

Indeed. Folks seem to have this misplaced idea that the goal of diplomacy is to avoid war. This just isn't so. The goal of diplomacy is to further the political objectives of a nation when those objectives relate to its relationships with other nations. War is not necessarily a failure of diplomacy (though it can be), but the role of diplomats (at least good ones) is to make every possible effort/attempt to shape the international political landscape to further the national interests of the nation(s) they represent. If war is on the horizon, the diplomat's sole priority will be to set the stage so that the armed forces of the nation they represent will have the most favorable war posture possible.

Best of all, use the sly diplomats for cannon fodder!

I LOL'd at this too. Zing!

I lolled at the rubber duck icon for low quality manufacturing of armor.

No it's acutally a pretty trivial catchphrase

@@TTuoTT Well that's just like... your opinion bro.

Yet Nazis lost, go chew on that one.

Another way to put it, with the information that I recall having, is that American tanks are designed to accommodate the 95th percentile crewman, whereas Soviet tanks were designed to accommodate the 5th percentile or maybe the 15th percentile crewman. It's all fun and games until you run out of short guys. Plus which, short guys are probably less strong and less able to load heavy shells, shift a stubborn transmission, change treads, etc.

@Lex Bright Raven it's not strength it's room

@@nichevo1 Shorter guys are bio mechanically stronger in their weight up until the limits of their frame, shorter guys would likely be stronger as I doubt the caloric intake and access of free time to work out would breed many buff tall people.

i think its about legroom

*FOV INTENSIFIES!!!*

F for respect

I don't get the reference. Could you explain, please? I mean, I get the hat, but is there more to it?

@@MaxRavenclaw Totalbiscuit was a youtuber (recently deceased). His content included reviews of PC games. In these reviews, he would take a look at the graphics settings of the games, where he would often talk about the Field Of View (FOV) slider as an adjustable option in these games.

​@@MaxRavenclaw He was all about the FOV sliders :) It took me moment to get it too (pausing the video and noticing the acronym). Dirty editor jokes :)

Ти Урод в смислі вродливий, чи в смислі потворний?

Lol

i bet at one point during the war this exact situation did happen.

There is an account of a Wirblewind which was equipped with 4 20mm flak guns shooting a SU-100 at close range and destroying it.

The prisms for the sights will surely be damaged by a hail of 20 mm autocannons. If you can't see you might likely bail out.

There is an idea that revolutionary was not technical design of T-34 which was full of old and dropped later technical decisions but the overall concept of one universal tank instead of several specialized designs for different roles. I know that that time and even after war in Red Army have been present multiple different specialized designes as heavy, mid and light tanks with different roles. But the idea that experience of implementing of this tank led later all countries to different tank doctrine when only one common role tank is used in army which can solve all kind of tasks. Sorry for my English.

It was by design. As Chieftain elucidates in another video about Soviet tank development as a whole, production design came built-in as it were, as a byproduct of the Central Planning system. They assumed very high attrition, so that tanks would only likely need to run for a few hundred kilometres before becoming inoperable, per Deep Battle doctrine, so the all important consideration was cost of production, so that they could be churned out in vast numbers. By relentlessly finding ways to reduce the per unit cost, they streamlined the production process and cut out unnecessary refinements so that they could be made very quickly and with less complex work for the factory workers. The same applied with artillery pieces, anti-tank guns and AA guns - standardised calibres, so they could all fire the same 76.2 mililimetre shells, for instance, and then 100mm, 120 mm and 150 mm (where all those giant calibre SP guns came from - they were making the calibres of shell for AA guns and naval guns, so why not make AT guns to match). And not bothering with smoothing and polishing the outside surface of artillery gun barrels which doesn't affect the flight of shells in any way, but does consume time and resources in the factory.

@@patrickholt2270 I'm pretty sure Chieftain wouldn't put it in those words. Some of what you said is right. A bit of it is not. But the foundation statement is misleading and it likely leads to people making the wrong assumptions (and they always do) about Soviet war planning.

What was the original turret and why was it so bad?

@@Zorro9129 Two man crew turret I think. Commander was also the loader so it overworked the crew if I’m remembering right.

The Spartan "Tortoise" phalanx position had sloped armor! Actually, the plain old tortoise has sloped armor...winner by 200 million years!

The Pyramids had slopped armor!

Although the plain tortoise and the pyramid had sloped armor neither had the offensive capability when engaging the enemy.....Enter Triceratops,,,ADJUSTABLE armor slope,,Heavy and medium weapon deployment ability and able to resupply deep in enemy territory (eat grass) Truly the best breakthrough and exploitation weapon Getting the Cretaciuos panzer vector deployment correct was a true winner as only rogue T Rex units could engage usually with no combined arms support..

andrew piera 3 hours ago lol thanks...I just realized my love of tanks started with my love of dinosaurs as a young lad. Triceratops FTW

No mention of CSS Virginia/Merrimack?

the Imps got me again...

@Soren G In some older English texts, numbers like 24 are written like "four and twenty" as well.

@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized We Americans missed Mars because of a conversion error between SI and Imperial. You're not doing so bad by comparison. Imperial is homey and fun. SI is what the big girls and big boys use.

@@jamallabarge2665 muricans!!!

​@@jamallabarge2665America landed on the moon just fine with imperial alone. It's the conversion process that brings a significant probability of error into the process.

" "So no PzGr 40 spam" I lol'd xD You telling me there was no gold spammers on the Eastern front? I hiiighly doubt it xD" At least, Wargaming make this ammo useful ... contrary to Gaijin.

@@dse763 it was useful, too useful in fact so gaijin decided to slap an absurdly unrealistic slope modifier in it. It was basically an early rank APDS that lost pen faster with distance

@@bassbusterx Let me think : too many PZ III used it as primary ammo and destroyed many T34 so they make it useless for the comfort of T34 drivers ?

@@dse763 Russian Bias

@@dse763 Nope , in warthunder apcr was NEVER usefull against sloped armor , however it is usefull against something like KV1 flatish armor where the standard apcbc would never go through , i do agree apcr need a bit of a buff , or it should not afect the battle rating of the tank at all ( like the t34 57 at 4.7 and Tiger E at 6.7) , anyway , in war thunder ealier T-34s are more powerfull than real life , but in game they face lots and lots of Panzers 4 F2s and Gs which will kills T-34 like wingless flies with a flamethrower.

Even in 1941, there were 1800 T34s produced and in operation at some time. To my knowledge, the Pzr 3 with 50mm didn't amount to 800 vehicles in 1941, when the Germans were winning. Later on, the Soviets really outstripped the Germans in logistics particularily.

The Soviets wished they had Panzer IIIs during the Russian Civil War 7 million deaths becomes a few hundred thousand

@Adrian Shephard When an army is on fallback or even retreat then many vehicls will be blown up because its unable to transport them into repair stations. This is true for germans at 1943-45 same as for soviets at 1941-1942.

But as they were on the defensive they couldnt always go and take the damaged tank and then repair it

@@thurbine2411 No, but simple field maintenance and repairs were a lot easier and faster compared to the over-engineered German tanks.

Chieftain Visualised

I'm reminded how "The Squire" makes guest of other youtubers in his shows and have fun

Chieftain don't need five stones to entertain.

Did you say mass production?

Plus diesel engines are much more fuel efficient than petrol engines, thus requiring considerably less fuel, and consequently logistical support to keep the tanks moving, a significant advantage.

@D L The US did supply the Soviet Union with aluminium after 1943. However, two facts to remember. The T34 engine head was aluminium before this. Second fact is that the Soviet Union at the time had some of the worlds largest resources and production of aluminium. The Germans considered copying the T34 but rejected the idea because aluminium was needed for aircraft production. So no candy on that one.

Making equipment and ability to deliver it where it was needed decided WW2 once it was clear that German operational skill could not give them early victory.

@@UmbraHand t 34 were far less reliable than the german panzers early t 34 had an engine life of 100 hrs and often carried a transmission on the back

@Markiplier777, the roman god for war, based on the greece god Ares if i remember right.

Nooooooo, I think that the commander loved to multi-task. =)

Well then

@@ognjenlazarevic4120 maybe thats why they used women tankers lul

@@christianhoffmann8607 ye of course, how could I forget

Another reason Christie suspension was used prior to and during WW2 was ease of manufacture; torsion bars weren't nearly as perfected and reliable as Christie at the time. This changed as technology progressed, and that + interior space considerations made the advantages obvious.

You mean the "Panzeranklopfgerät" aka tank knock-at device. There are some reported frontal penetrations usually through the lower front plate at very short range. Also apparently some AT gunners were able to get an HE round through an open drivers hatch when firing at short range. Apparently because of sometimes faulty drivers optics this seemed to have happened at least a few times.

If we base it off other tank studies some 70% of hits are to the sides and rear. Tanks are actually very rarely able to hide the sides and rear unless dug in

80% of Russian tanks used during 1941 were vulnerable to 37mm

Doesn't Christie also tend to just scale poorly after around 25 tonnes, as well? Hence the intention to switch the T-34M to torsion bars before...stuff happened.

buster117 I mean like the t-34 is a sexy looking tank but the inside is just crap

@@das_edelweiss8736 T34 inside is tight if you know what I mean ;)

Alexandru Bucur Dan ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

@@das_edelweiss8736 😂😂😂

Grab a meme on the go thicc and thight :^)

Bollox ... unbiased my ass ..you must be a fucking Kraut ..idiot ...

@@kittyhawk9707 ok the information source sometimes could be biased, but for the most part he's neutral, probably making some bias jokes here and there

The video seems to take the panzer 3's strong points and shove them into as many categories as possible to give it an advantage.... Optics brought up in both the firepower and ergonomics section? Crew space brought up in both the ergonomics and armour sections???

@@kittyhawk9707 you yourself sound biased as fuck.

@@Seawiiplay But it only really counted once and crew space etc. is part of those categories

China wished it had Panzer III tanks which would have allowed them to easily defeat the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War, 1936-1945

Christian Dauz Tbf, China would have preferred to have any kind of tank during their war against China. Their tank force in WW2 pretty much consisted of tankettes that were in no way fit against Japanese tanks.

Correct. I wonder if it would have been better to have seperate gunner rather than loader.

@ALEX HUANG, for instance, Merkava

@ALEX HUANG Probably none. Does it matter? The OP was simply pointing out that Christie suspension was not a complete disaster.

Two man turrets were the norm for most tanks of the period. 75mm guns were not.

@ALEX HUANG Typo. Doesn't change anything though. Guns of that calibre were not the norm for that period, whether they were 75mm or 76.2mm.

“Fool! There is no retreat! THERE IS NO SURRENDER!”

@@looinrims but, but I just wanted to get in another tank :(

Hetzer was a beautiful example of last ditch engineering turning an obsolete tank into something that can bring the pain and is a reasonably hard target, but it pales in comparison to any purpose built tank destroyer, like Jagdtpanzer IV, Jagdtpanther, Jagdttiger or the Su and ISU 85/100/122/152. The Hetzers Gun had no room to swivel and the tank was horribly crowded. The one cool feature it had was a roof-mg controlled via periscope. In any case it was meant as a mobile artillery piece for setting up ambushes, rather than hunting tanks in the open as it's name implies... To a lesser extend this is true for pretty much every SPG. Also comparing Panther and IS2 is very lopsided as the Panther was a medium tank and the IS2 a heavy tank. IMHO even the Tiger was more of a (sluggish) medium tank regarding its cannon (comparable to t34/85!) and rather weak amour (turret and side were not much better than the Panther and IMHO still inferiour to the IS2). The Tiger II had at least an excellent cannon, which had better penetration, accuracy and range and rate of fire than the IS2 (which however had far more explosive cargo).

The IS-2 is only 2tons heavier than the Panther and has a comparable, still worse gun, worse manuverbility but better armor. The Hetzer is a great example how you can use greatly oldend material to make a reasonable, functioning vehicle which is able to fight the most threads it would face! As the G13 did it even serve till 1973!

IS-2 is a Tank Destroyer thought and that it had a 122mm gun the panther only had a high penetration 75mm so Panther and IS is not fair by firepower wise better comperason is Tiger II vs IS-2

ThE tIgEr 2 JuSt HaD a HiGh VeLoCiTy 88Mm GuN

@@TheLPN05Fan The IS-2's 122mm gun was in no way worse than the panther's, it was unwieldy and took much longer to load. But the 122mm shell it fired was so heavy and impacted with so much energy it was able to break the hull and welds of tiger2 tanks even without penetrating.

That is a WG decision I have no sway over, i’m afraid

He said technical tactical. Watch for four seconds after your own timestamp and prepared for your mind to be blown

FOV sliders are cool

danke!

I guess he wanted to stay with mechanized stuff

It may not be clear, but he was talking about the side armor. The T-34's side armor was sloped while the T-44's sides were not. Sloped side armor is a waste of space

@@habe1717 butt better be in sloped then in same amor who not sloped... be safet mm more. ;)

And whether supported by aerial or infantry or not

@@fulcrum2951 Yes. Tactical implementation and coordination is part of why certain sides are victorious.

Lots of factors go into the decision, so in my opinion it all depends on the what if’s

The only one of those not talked about was Ease of maintenance, but I was under the impression none of them where particularly painful to maintain. Its not like we are talking about a panther or an early lee.

> Also, optimization for mass production was a huge factor that was merely mentioned at the end. hint: technical-tactical level NOT strategic level. At was mentioned in the end, because it didn't fit the comparison.

@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized Please do a video on the T-34, I've heard a lot about reliability issues but the proof I've seen is at best vague or anecdotal

eventually

It's more like: History: hordes of Russian tanks prevailed Germans tanks Some guy in internet: I'm disagree, because *30 min explanation of why

Well...very technically you could make the full designation of the T-34 into : Tank of armored corps enhancement program of 1934... but only if you are VERY nitpicky. That's actually one of the things I like about a clear and detailed designation system. Talking about a Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausführung H gives you a very detailed model of equipment to look for...where as T-34 you first have to determine if you are talking about the US or Russian one, and don't get me started about the "M1" designations that literally EVERYTHING in the US arsenal had at some point

@@Chrinik "if youre very nitpicky" can be directly translated into "if youre very german" :D

@@BraindeadCRY Coincidentally I AM :D

@@Chrinik I figured as much :D

Panzerkampfwagen VIII

He was talking about the side armor of the T-44 and most modern tanks don't have their armor sloped that much

the ranking was due to scripting reasons, I assumed firepower would be the most interesting for the majority and also feature Chieftain soon.

@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized No arguing with that logic! :p Would you consider doing this for more tanks?

@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized Read your comment with your accent. Will still strongly stand against any neurologist that suggests that a lesser amount of MHV videos should be watched.

+Mermaid Man Is this implying a Panzer III could somehow take out 7 Shermans? You have to remember that the majority of Germany's armored forces on the Western Front consisted of their standard Panzer IIIs and IVs, mixed with support such as the StuGs or other captured vehicles. As covered by the Chieftain himself, the Sherman was an operational king and given the sub par competition, a tactical king on the Western front. If you were plopped into France in 1944 and asked to crew a tank, you would most definitely want to be in a Sherman.

LUNAR BLOODDROP dude the US alone unfortunately had 35,000 deaths in Korea. The T-34-85 WAS a great tank. It’s just that the North Koreans couldn’t use them on the same level that the Soviets did in WW2. Its kinda like the battle of arracourt where the Germans had greater numbers and better tanks, but the Americans had more experience tank crews so the Germans were smashed with heavy loses. The American tankers in Korea would obviously be better then the North Korean ones due to American experience in WW2.

the fact is that the Germans couldn’t deliver anything to the Soviet T 34 at the beginning of the war, because of this they were afraid of him. But in 1942, with the release of modification PZ 4 F2 with a 75 mm long-barrel caliber gun, the Germans leveled their strength

@gillecroisd 92 feared of t34 german have too many time before german made tigar and other big tank. In beggining of war german not have tank better then rusia thet why scery of t34....

Ray Z “Germans smashed with heavy losses” you’re 42,000,000 dead tend to disagree with you .

Although i would read Otto Carius with a lot of skepticism, as well as most of war memoirs. Especially coming from Germans.

@@clouster75 I would say all of them in general.

*_"I can't help but wonder if the strength of the low-quality Russian armor was further reduced by cold temperature effects. When most structural steel alloys are subjected to low temperatures they can transition from a ductile failure mode where the material yields and stretches to that of a brittle nature where the failure becomes more glass-like and sudden."_* That's what happens when your factory roof gets blown off in the middle of winter and your tank is made by old people and children because everyone else is at the front.

Actually this supposition is very well conceived and likely mostly correct in general, if not exactly, on the particulars. Metallurgy is a highly specific art, and stress loadings over time was not fully understood across the board then like it is today. A variety of factors will cause failure, the most common being the state of the materials at the location of shock impact, over and above angle, distance, and velocity.

Considering the russians already heat treated their armor to extremely high temperatures, making them brittle, add the ductility reduction due to the low temperatures of winter, and you have armor that's very hard, but so brittle it'll likely kill the crew just from the spall of being hit.

Yep. A picture for comparison: two gentlemen on the right are T-34 M1940 with a short L-11 and T-34 M1941with a noticably longer F-34 and a somewhat bigger turret. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/T-34_prototypes.jpg

In the video je compared the Panzer with the T34 model 1941, so were is the problem.

@@user-gz3qd3jn4r M1941 was not present in large numbers at the start of operation Barbarossa.. M1940 was most numerous version.

@@JaM-R2TR4 But he is only comparing the 1941 model, not the current most used tank

@@user-gz3qd3jn4r then it should be compared to PzIIIJ which was 1941 german tank, not PzIIIH which was 1940.. of course, J version came later in 1941, but so did T34 M1941.

yeah, if you look at the captured T-34s the Germans usually built in the commanders cupola on top.

@Jimmy De'Souza perhaps, but I think you're missing the point. The widespread question is "why didn't the Germans EXACTLY copy the T34?" Why did they design an ultimately unsuccessful (in that it didn't win them the war) "Germanised" version in the form of the Panther and not simply build an identical (or near identical) copy of the Russian wonder-weapon? The answer may well be that by the end of 1941 the T34 really didn't look all that wonderful to the Germans. Therefore applying the good bits (the gun, the armour, the tracks) to apparently superior German underpinnings is by far the most logical path forwards.

They did build a Exact copy. Down to the nuts and bolts. Guderian wanted the simpler copy, Hitler chose panther, end of story. Alit of people don't know that the Germans built an exact copy of the t34.

@Jimmy De'Souza I don't think it's possible for me to miss my own point.

@@rickmoreno6858 Do you mean the VK3002 (DB)? It looks very similar to the T34, but it's not an exact copy.

Well costs are relative. Both countries relied on slave labour, so you can't really compare it with currencies. Usually they compare them by man hours, and the germans invested way more in their tanks than the russians. I think it's more important to have the context of each country: germany starts having problems supplying rare materials/metals and diesel towards the mid/end of the way, where as russia has basically an unlimited supply of natural resources. Therefore sheer quantities were enough to topple up any tank that the germans could invent.

35k t-34 were built in ww2, the germans produced a total of 25k tanks (not counting tank destroyers). Granted, the germans knew their tanks were too complicated, so they simplified the design with the panther, they built 6k panthers from 43 to 45, meanwhile 8.8k panzer iv were built from 36 to 45, so the panther was much better in terms of man-hours per tank (contrary to popular belief).

Well suspention is maybe good for limousine, but tank does not really need it...😂

The most important fact in any battle is spotting your enemy before the enemy spots you. After that you can worry how to destroy it. Cheiftain points out a situation, where a T-34 was hit by 23 shells of a 37mm and only the last jammed the turret ring. The question he asks: "Why did it get hit 23 times at all?" Answer: "Because they didn't see the enemy -- or because they couldn't put a round on target." Now imagine this had been a PzIII with 50mm gun (which was in widespread use at the eve of Barbarossa, compared to Fall Rot). Do you really think a T-34 would've taken 23 shots of a 50mm KwK 38 L/42? Probably not. tl;dr; Yes, armour and firepower are important. But you need to see your enemy to hit him.

@@Ruhrpottpatriot Your comment also proves my point. It took 23 hits to knock out the T-34. For all we know the T-34 was out of ammo. The only thing we know for sure was it took a shit ton of hits before it was knocked out. Thanks for proving my point.

@@Cervando The T-34 that manages to withstand many hits is a statistical outlier, what if the German squad had access to any one of the more powerful anti-tank guns in use at the time? It was unlucky for the particular German squad that they lacked a significantly stronger antitank gun at the time and that none of their hits managed to influct critical damage to the tank until the 23rd hit, but we know the 50mm was perfectly capable of knocking out a T-34, and it would only take one antitank gun that the Russian commander couldn't see to knock it out. In this case it worked well for the Russian crew to have a T-34, but there's also many situations where having better optics, crew ergonomics, etc. would result in the tank crew being able to fight back instead of blindly hoping they can take out their target by sheer luck.

@@Uberrandom You make many assumptions. The only thing that is stated is that it took 23 hits before one managed to disable the tank. There is zero evidence to support your premise that the reason the T-34 did not destroy any guns was because of it's optics or field of vision. Like I said the only thing the example proves is how robust the armour is. Even if they had been 88mms and the T-34 was knocked out by the first shot, it still doesn't prove the issue was either the optics or vision. It is just as likely that the tank had no ammo left with which to retaliate, a shell was blocking the breach, the crew had abandoned the vehicle etc. You simply picked what suited your agenda and ignored the actual facts which support my viewpoint. Finally, your observation that it was lucky that the Germans did not have larger calibre AT guns, further reinforces my point that a larger gun is more preferable than better optics. In short, in a fight I would prefer a kevlar vest and a pistol than a sniper rifle firing low velocity peas.

​@@Cervando My point still stands: Why could the T-34 been hit with a 37mm 23 times at all? In every other encounter this is a death sentence. German battle reports (from which we know the encounter) don't report any losses. This is all mentioned in "Zaloga, Steven J., Peter Sarson (1994). T-34 Medium Tank 1941-45 (New Vanguard 9), Oxford: Osprey Publishing" Being able to be hit 23 times and not take out any enemy is not an indicator of good design on your part. And a Military Commissariat Report of the 10th Tank Division, dated 2 August 1941 reported that within 300-400 m the 37 mm Pak 36's armour-piercing shot could defeat the frontal armour of a T-34. Also, according to soviet examination in '43 nearly 55% of all T-34 losses were inflicted by the 50 mm KwK 39 L/60. The T-34 is one of the best tanks on paper, but in reality it left much to be desired.

@@redbaron4908 Germany wasn't better. Her weapons were.Why, because they had to be, for Germany to even have a chance. The most important weapon on the battlefield is the soldier. Tanks ,guns trucks, planes can be built it a relatively short time but it takes 18 years to grow a soldier. With enemies on all sides ,especially after the tide turned Germany was out numbered.

But it still didn't have a 3-men turret and it still had bad optics and poor visibility (which are the most important points in a battle tank, because if you can not see the enemy you can not shoot). And even if the new radio set was better than the old one that it replaced, it still didn't change the fact that most of those T-34 didn't even have a radio to begin with. You think just because it got a new radio set that all of those mentioned critic points somehow get irrelevant? Also I like how you said "and other upgrades", without mentioning what those "other upgrades" were. Just excuses, excuses, excuses....

@@redbaron4908 The looks don't matter in combat. Though, I like the looks of the T34, it's actually a cute tank design

@@johnkendall6962 Germany has the finest armed forces in the world up until the end of 1942, and then it was a downhill run all the way to Berlin. Losses in men and equipment could not be easily maintained, while the allied powers got exponentially better in every way.

@@perihelion7798 I think we are saying the same thing . For Germany to even have a chance she needed the best weapons. and hope for a short war. In a war of attrition you are right she had no chance. It matters little how many tanks planes or guns an army has if it doesn't have oil and it still takes 18 years to grow an effective soldier.

Usually when welding thick plates, one would champfer the edges so the weld can go trough the whole thickness of the plate. Rivets are good at handling static loads, like in bridges, not impacts of high explosive shells. The plate connection seams are the weak points even in tanks of today, they are a lot smaller though. I cant remeber which was it exactly, might be Persian gulf or the afganistan invasion where an abrams tank got knocked out by an RPG7 because it hit the seam between the upper front and side plate, pretty much evading the ceramic layer of the armor. Regarding cast turrets, they are much thicker and robust than a sword. When you look at a sword, it needs to be thin to effectively cut, casted blade simply wont do there as the crystaline structure of the steel would make multiple cells span the entire thickness of the blade, making it a weakspot. In a turret that is 50mm or thicker, those seams between crystals are much less of an issue. What MHV overlooked when trashing the turret was that you have to weld the rolled steel turret, not the casted one. Those curved lines you see on soviet turrets? Excellent way to distribute impact shocks (and simplify extraction from the mold, hence the slight vertical slope) as the crystaline structure at that thickness is largely homogenous. While casted armor will crack from shocks, welded rolled armor will fail at the welds, but that also deppends on the quality of the weld, the type of steel and methods of casting, look up "Spalling". Making this same comparison in 1944 yields an entirely different story when germans have no access to critical alloying metals like molybdenum and spalling becomes a common occurence.

this is mentioned in Kavalerchik's book that basically soviet welding early to mid war did cause armour weakness where welding on the nose plates took place. It meant even lighter guns like a 37 mm could penetrate if the heat treat had been messed up

Question Krupp.

Pre war and early war, they were welded together with arc welders. Later they went to submerged arc welding. Arc welding is the traditional stick welding by hand. Submerged arc is a more industrial process and is much faster while giving a better result. He mentions in this vid that the welding burnt many of the alloying elements out of the hardened steel, resulting in weaknesses along the weld seams. Furthermore, look up photographs of the tank hulls... they were anything but superficial welds. And probably full depth, too.

In addition to these answers the Germans dovetail cut armor plates so that they physically interlocked in later models and heavy tanks. Cast turrets are just that giant steel castings. By the end of WW2 the Soviets are casting turrets with 200mm thick frontal areas (IS-7, T-55)

Djemiaj Well, he speaks German so of course he could pronounce them. I don't think he speaks Russian however.

+@@andreivaldez2929 I think that was part of Djemiaj's point. ;-)

I actually found it funny when he was talking about radios, and he said "Fu zwei, and Fu five..." Cant he at least settle for one language?

+@@builder396 If you use another language as much as or more then your native language it's incredibly easy to mix them up in some situations (at least if they're related).

@@Luredreier Im well aware of that, as I too speak both english and german, though I can pride myself in most people thinking that my accent is british.

grass is always greener on the other side, among many other points.

I beg to differ. T-34-85 had many of the same crude mechanical issues as earlier T-34s. The 85mm gun was nothing too special when compared to other guns of the time like the German KwK42 L/70, American 76mm M1, or British 17pdr. Despite having a larger turret it still failed pretty heavily in terms of ergonomics, being still quite cramped with the addition of a third turret man. It was also nothing special armor wise, having around the same values as the M4A3 and having a good amount less than Panther. Production wise it wasn't too crazy either, especially when compared to the 1941-43 T-34s. During the war around 19,000 T-34-85s were produced. Panther totaled just over 6,000 and the Easy Eights 4,500. While I think T-34-85 did it's job very well, I don't consider it any more effective than early model T-34s (in relation to their respective adversary vehicles), as the general idea was still to manufacture a relatively crude tank in larger numbers than the enemy. It was a good tank, but not the best.

@@Spitamen I never claimed Tiger was the best tank of the war, and I never will. Tiger and Tiger II were products of Germany's lack of resources and ability to mass produce. Germany simply didn't have the steel to build, oil to fuel, and men to crew 50 to 80k tanks like the Americans and Soviets. The result was larger, more powerful tanks that were overall less expensive to run than an army of, say, 60k Panzer IVs. Larger, more complex tanks, however, does open the door for a slue of serious engineering and mechanical problems, which is why the big cats didn't usually perform the best, and why I don't consider them the best of the war. This is also why I don't necessarily look at the number of vehicles produced as a true comparison point, as at that point one is not comparing the vehicles, but rather the state of the nation producing them. If Germany had the industry and material equivalency of the United States or Soviet Union, they likely could have pumped out either thousands more cats or as many Panzer IVs and StuG IIIs as the Americans did M4s. They didn't, however, and tank production was limited, not just to the cats, but the other panzers and armored vehicles as well. To properly compare tanks, one must look at ease of production, crew ergonomics, field reliability, and specifications. Cost wise the T-34-85s weren't outrageously cheap, costing around 164,000 rubles (1941) or 32,000 usd (1941). This is compared to Tiger 1 (100,000 usd), M4A3E8 (64,000 usd), Panther (29,000 usd), and the Panzer IV (24,000 usd). If any tank is to be labeled a bargain it would be Panther, which cost only a little more than a Panzer IV, hence why 6,000 Panthers were produced and only about 1,200 Tiger Is and IIs. We already know how the T-34s do when it comes to ergonomics. Cramped and uncomfortable. T-34-85 did indeed, however, improve drastically over crew roles, as it relinquished loading operations from the Commander. Adding a third man, although, did keep the turret quite tight. Overall, T-34-85 was pretty outclassed by the Sherman and Panther, which were quite spacious. Reliability wise T-34-85, I must say, wasn't too awful. While it did retain a crude manufacturing process and various bits and blips to make the tank cheaper, it did improve drastically over the horribly unreliable 1941-43 T-34s. It certainly was up to snuff. As we know, Panther didn't have the best of starts either, as early variants were known for their catastrophic mechanical failures. Early Shermans like the M4A1 weren't anything special either, however their problems weren't nearly as bad. Overall, though, I'd still give the edge to the Americans and Germans, as down the line their tanks became some of the best functioning of the war. Not to mention that the Panzer IVs and IIIs were pretty robust and reliable tanks for the entire duration of the war. Finally we have specifications, which I've already touched on. Compared to its counterparts, T-34-85 overall had lackluster armor, an average gun, and good mobility. In the end, T-34-85 was a good tank, there's no doubt about that. It was the right tank for the Soviets and their needs. However, it wasn't anything special, and was often outclassed by the American and German tanks. It really just came down to the fact that the Soviets had the industry and resources to manage such a behemoth army of them, which the Germans couldn't do with their tanks.