Who had superior tank forces in May 1940

Many people contend that the French and British had superior tanks compared to the Germans. I'm not too sure what the numerical superiority was but... The French and British tanks had good armor and guns but their tank designs were poor compared to the Germans. The Allied tanks had too small turrets making it difficult for the crew to operate effectively.

The French tanks did have one major design flaw, namely the one man turret, which forced the tank commander to be the loader and gunner as well. The Soviets found the two man turret of the original T-34 (commander doubled as a loader) to be a major tactical drawback, so you can only imagine how much the one man turret design must have hampered the fighting ability of French tanks.

Most of the numerically important French light tank also had the impotent 37mm SA18 L/21 main gun, which was derived from a WW1 low velocity infantry gun. The AP shot for this gun penetrated less armor than the 20mm gun of the German Pz II, and was unable to penetrate the 13mm armor of the Pz I except at point blank range. All other German tanks were practically immune at any range. The French apparently did not even realize that this was a major problem until they encountered panzers in battle.

Furthermore, most French tanks did not have a radio (the B1 bis was an exception) and unlike Soviet tanks later, they were not even designed to have a radio (the Soviet tanks lacked radios because of inadequate production, not design).

In short, many people look at the armor of the French tanks and the quite good 47mm gun of the heavier tanks and come to the conclusion that the French had very good tank designs, when in fact the heavy armor and the 47mm gun were about the only things they did got right...

Tero P. Mustalahti

In response to your inquiry, and to assist others seeking similar information:

The Russians had the superior and largest tanks.

I agree. Many people just do not realize that there is more to tank design than just main gun and armor. Besides, most French tanks had a very poor main gun as well (the 37mm SA18 L/21).

Tero P. Mustalahti

The T-34 went into production in 1940..

Not true. The T-34's side armor was only 45mm. (And the A model had only the same armor on its front.)

At close ranges, the 50mm/L42 gun of the Panzer III G, H, and J could penetrate it (with Panzergranate 40 tungsten-core ammunition).

At very close range the 75mm/L24 of the Panzer IV D also could do the job, again with tungsten-core ammo.

Also, the Germans had towed 50mm anti-tank guns, (Pak 38) which were also effective (in fact their primary counter to the T-34 in 1941).

Largest, yes. Germans had nothing in the size of T-35. T-28 was quite big in the medium class of tanks as well. But I wouldn't rate either as superior to any German tank. Except Pz I or Pz II but Pz II might actually hold its own against the T-28 or T-35.

What about other Soviet tanks? BT-5? BT-7? T-26? Superior or large. Well, no.

Good mobility on some of the those lighter ones, but reliability was then completely different matter. The German tanks were at that time superior in handling, reliability and tactics. Nothing in Soviet arsenal that could match the Pz III or Pz IV.

Speaking of Allied AT guns, I was just curious about when exactly did the British 17-pounder AT gun (or is it 25?) come out? I read the instruction manual for some computer game and it said that the 17 was one of the most effective British weapons of the war, blah, blah, blah. Also, have any French H-39's seen combat against German tourists in May/June 1940?
http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/1975/ g_tnkfra.htm

The man who has seen the rising moon break out of the clouds at midnight has been present like an archangel at the creation of light and of the world.

Well, only with expectional skill AND luck. The 20mm gun of the Pz II would require APCR (Pzgr.40) ammunition to penetrate the frontal and even most parts of the side armor of the T-28 (The T-35 was so rare that it did not really matter. It was a parade tank.). The up-armored T-28e was completely immune frontally to the 20mm gun even with APCR. On the other hand the 76mm gun (even the original short KT-28 L/16.5) of the T-28 could penetrate the 14.5mm armor of the Pz II from far away.

In my opinion the T-28 is perhaps somewhat underrated. Especially the T-28e was not such a bad medium tank and with a competent crew it could hold its own against the early Pz III & IV models (prior to Ausf. J with 50mm L/60 & Ausf. F2 respectively). Reliability was poor, but that did not stop the Panther from reaching fame... Despite low production numbers (503 total) some T-28s managed to survive until summer 1943.

In general that is true, but do not forget that the KV-1 M1939 started to enter service just about that time.

Tero P. Mustalahti

{snip}

1942, in time to fight in Tunisia but missed El Alamein. The 6pdr was really a 1940 weapon but was not widely introduced until mid 1942.

As they comprised almost 25% of the French tank park, I would imagine so, especially with the DLCs assigned to Priouxs Cavalry Corps.

Cheers

german used 105mm (not only 88mm) as anti-tank weapons in 1940 (forr example against B1, heavy french tank). german 37mm (widespread) was totally ineffective against french B1 (allowed recapture of some french towns like combats around Rethel) but tactical use of B1 was very deficient when used efficiently (massive tank attack), like in flanders (dcr de gaulle offensive in flanders to join with brits), german air power and anti-tank stopped offensive one instance of tank againt tank (Gembloux) in 1940 turned against germans, it was mainly somua against PS III and IV 88 mm was still capable of penetrating most frontal allied armor later in the war (except some soviet) german guns were excellent (thanks, very precise not one tank could resist 105mm, and it was true for some time (!)

this fact is overlooked, anti-tank weapons were powerful in wwii british 17pd was excellent also

Group Captain Lionel Mandrake wrote:

german used 105mm (not only 88mm) as anti-tank weapons in 1940 (forr example against B1, heavy french tank). german 37mm (widespread) was totally ineffective against french B1 (allowed recapture of some french towns like combats around Rethel) but tactical use of B1 was very deficient when used efficiently (massive tank attack), like in flanders (dcr de gaulle offensive in flanders to join with brits), german air power and anti-tank stopped offensive one instance of tank againt tank (Gembloux) in 1940 turned against germans, it was mainly somua against PS III and IV 88 mm was still capable of penetrating most frontal allied armor later in the war (except some soviet) german guns were excellent (thanks, very precise not one tank could resist 105mm, and it was true for some time (!)

this fact is overlooked, anti-tank weapons were powerful in wwii british 17pd was excellent also

Group Captain Lionel Mandrake wrote: