Today in Sasha's history.
Author: Sasha
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World War II What is the performance of British tank ? September 15, 1916: World War I : British Empire army fought in the Somme Battle in Picardysom, France. This was the first time tanks were used in human military history. Tanks like
MARK1 are very garbage and have very low practicality. At best, it just provides an interesting concept.
Although the British were pioneers, their concepts in tanks gradually lag behind.
During World War II, the British still stubbornly divided tanks into infantry tank and cruise tank .
so-called infantry tanks are similar to the concept of German assault guns . Tanks such as
require powerful support artillery and heavy frontal armor, but have poor mobility. As long as they can keep up with the infantry's advance speed.
Infantry tanks are mainly used to be equipped with infantry divisions to assist infantry in combat.
, while cruise tanks are just the opposite, emphasizing excellent maneuverability, but poor attack and defense. These cruise tanks are mainly pulled out separately and are marshaled into armored divisions and armored brigades for mobile combat.
Speaking of which, the British army also had many tanks in World War II.
Take infantry tanks as an example. The early 26-ton Matilda infantry tank was very powerful, and the German tanks 1 to 4 were not easy to deal with.
Its cannon is relatively weak, with a caliber of only 40 mm, which is similar to the German Type 1 to 3 tanks.
Its maximum road speed is only 25 kilometers per hour, which is very slow.
However, Matilda infantry tanks have strong armor defense.
tank front armor thickness reaches 78 mm, turret armor thickness reaches 75 mm, side armor thickness reaches 70 mm, and rear armor thickness reaches 55 mm.
In the early days of World War II, this kind of armor was against the will of heaven.
North African 's main tank is tank No. 3, with armor thickness of 10 to 37 mm, which is very different from Matilda.
and the 37mm tank gun of the No. 3 tank is almost no threat to Matilda.
A No. 3 tank hit Matilda 5 guns in succession, without any injury. The German commander of the No. 3 tank complained: We were simply smashing the bronze bell with stones.
Because conventional anti-tank weapons cannot deal with Matilda, Rommel was forced to use 88mm anti-aircraft gun to fire flat against such thick-skinned tanks carrying small cannons.
Matilda was an early tank after all, and by 1943 it was outdated and production was completely stopped. A total of 4,000 vehicles were produced.
With the emergence of German F2 tanks and Tiger tanks in North Africa, Matilda's armor could not block the 75mm and 88mm tank guns.
arrived at Valentine infantry tanks, the weight was reduced to 16 tons, the firepower was slightly enhanced, but the armor was reduced, and the mobility was still bad.
As a cruiser tank, its speed is too slow, with a maximum road speed of only 24 kilometers per hour.
As an infantry tank, its defense is not high enough and is quite mediocre.
Even so, 8,275 of this tanks were produced during World War II.
Valentine was officially put into service in 1941 with the goal of eliminating the already dated Matilda tanks.
Valentine's early models were equipped with 40mm cannons, which was no different from Matilda and was approved by the British Army in North Africa.
So Valentin gradually replaced the 57mm cannon, and its firepower was enhanced, and it could deal with tanks from North Africa and Germany.
The British Army evaluated Valentine in a general way, believing that its performance improvement is limited, and its biggest advantage is that its reliability is much higher than that of Matilda.
In 1944, Valentine was replaced by a new generation of tanks.
When it comes to Churchill Infantry Tank, the situation is different. The front armor of this tank is as high as 100 mm, and the later models are as high as 150 mm. It is difficult for the German 75 mm and 88 mm tank guns to penetrate it from a long distance.
This itself is very amazing. In the eyes of the German army, there is no tank that cannot be dealt with by 88 guns.
Although the mobility is still very bad, there are many models of artillery. After all, the armor is too thick, and it is scary as an infantry support tank.
, which makes more than 5,000 vehicles, is also one of the few British tanks that can compete with German Black Panther and Tiger tanks.
In the second battle of Alahman , Churchill tank exchanged head-on fire with the German army. Faced with the fierce artillery fire of the German army, only one of the five tanks was completely destroyed, and one of them was even hit by dozens of shells, and it was amazing that it could fight back.
In Tunisia Battle , Churchill had a tank battle with the Tiger tank.
Objectively speaking, the maneuverability and defense of the two tanks are not much different, but there is a gap in artillery. Churchill's 57mm tank gun has much worse performance than the 88 gun, and can only pose a threat to the Tiger tank at a very close range.
The only existing Tiger tank that can be activated is killed by Churchill tanks in the Tunisian battle.
Churchill tank withstood the shelling of the Tiger tank, and then hit the turret race of the Tiger after continuous counterattack. The German army could not repair the tank, so they had to give up it and retreat, and then seized it by the British army. It can be seen that the Churchill tank is still very strong, even if it is not as powerful as the Tiger and Black Panther tanks.
The British government is not very satisfied with the Churchill tank, mainly because its cost is too high. The cost of building 1 Churchill tank can be used to build 2 to 3 Valentine tanks.
As for the cruiser tank?
The first type of Crusader cruiser tank has good mobility.
, a 20-ton tank, has a maximum speed of 42 kilometers per hour and a maximum journey of 320 kilometers.
Its armor is thinner, less than 32 mm, and uses 40 mm or 57 mm cannons.
Although this tank is relatively practical, its performance can only be described as mediocre.
The second type of Cromwell cruiser tank is still quite excellent in mobility, with a road speed of up to 61 kilometers per hour.
Cromwell tank focuses too much on mobility, resulting in poor attack and defense of this 30-ton tank.
Most models of Cromwell are equipped with 57mm or 75mm guns, and their attack power is limited.
Fortunately, the maximum thickness of the armor has been increased to 64 mm, which is much stronger than the predecessors. Unfortunately, it still cannot deal with German medium-sized and heavy tanks .
In the bloody battle of Lieutenant Weitmann , its Tiger tank encountered Cromwell at a distance of several dozen meters and shot each other.
Even at such a close distance, Cromwell could not penetrate the front armor of the Tiger tank, and he was destroyed by a gun.
The third comet cruiser tank maintains high maneuverability and has a maximum speed of 51 kilometers per hour on the road. This 33-ton tank has increased its maximum armor thickness to 76 mm, and finally reaches the level of first-class medium tank . At the same time, it was equipped with a 76.2mm tank gun, and its armor-piercing ability was increased to a distance of 472 meters for the first time, and a single shot shot through a 30-degree inclined 140mm armor.
In other words, only Comet tank has the ability to face the German heavy tank head-on.
In the final stage of the war, Britain finally developed an excellent medium tank, Comet cruiser tank. Unfortunately, it was already in December 1944 when it was in service, not far from Germany's surrender.
It can be said that the division between the so-called cruiser tanks and infantry tanks of the British was originally very absurd. The biggest advantage of the tank is not firepower and defense, but maneuverability. As for the task of covering infantry, it can be completely left to assault guns to complete. Infantry tanks have no meaning at all, and the facts of World War II have proved that.
In the middle of World War II, the British had already understood this.
In order to make up for the shortcomings of the medium tank, they used the US-supported M4 Sherman tank to graft with the British 76.2mm artillery to produce a tank called Firefly Sherman.
This tank is a temporary pieced together, but it perfectly combines the maneuverability of Sherman with the British 76.2mm artillery to become a fast tank with extremely strong attack power.
It can be said that the performance of Firefly Tank is stronger than that of all previous British cruise tanks.
In addition, the British also understood the traditional infantry tanks.
In the final stage of the war, the British launched the famous Centurion Tank . This heavy tank weighing 51 tons uses a 76.2 mm gun and a maximum armor thickness of 152 mm, which is quite good.
The most important thing is that the centurion tank improves mobility and the maximum road speed is 35 kilometers per hour. Although it is still slow, it is not so outrageous, almost the same as the German Tiger tank.
If the British had learned it earlier, it would not have been so big that the research and development of Armored Forces would have gone around such a big circle.
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