Hi Rikk
>I had the dates reversed, The t34 was built then to take down Panzers &
>Tigers, correct?
Err... nope :-) First off, "Panzer" just means "Tank" in German.
Everything they built which was armored, tracked, and had a turret is
one or another type of "Panzer".
The T-34 entered into limited service in late 1940. It went through some
teething problems, but was available in small, but growing numbers, when
the Germans rolled over the border on June 22, 1941. The Germans had
basically 4 major AFV families at the time:
Panzerkampfwagen II - standard light tank, armed with either 20mm gun.
Designed for recon and light support work.
Panzerkampfwagen III - standard medium tank, armed with either 37mm or
50mm gun. Designed to engage other enemy tanks.
Panzerkampfwagen IV - "heavy" tank armed with short barreled 75mm gun.
Designed as a break through tank, much like the US Sherman 75.
Sturmgeschütz - turretless, short barreled 75mm gun mounted on Panzer III
chasis. Designed to take on fixed fortifications or stubborn infantry.
The Germans also had two Czech tanks in large numbers:
Panzerkampfwagen 38(t) - armed with a 37mm gun. Designed as a light tank
but substituted for PzKpfw III due to shoratges. Hulls used for all
sorts of things later.
Panzerkampfwagen 35(t) - also armed with 37mm gun, but not as capable a tank.
The Germans had particular problems with the few KV1, KV2, and T34 tanks
they encountered, but BT5 and other tanks posed serious threats due to
large numbers and fast speed. To counter the big stuff the Germans
designed the Tiger, which went into service late in 1942 around
Lenningrad. This tank then dominated for the next full year, but it was
never designed to be anything other than an independent Heavy Tank. The
Panther was one of many designs which was to supposed to replace the
PzKpfw IV, which in turn was progressively replacing the PzKpfw III (the
two Czech tanks were already out of service and the PzKpfw II was in the
process). The Panther first saw action at Kursk, but suffered huge
reliability problems which were worked out very quickly. Kursk was also
the last major use of the aging PzKpfw III family of vehicles.
Ok, this just BARELY scratches the surface of just the German side of the
"bigger, better" tank game played out on the Eastern Front. Best bet is
to go down to a good book shop and look for a tank book which looks to be
general in nature. There are plenty of them out there, often times in
the discount bin :-) Otherwise, Amazon or the likes has hundreds of
books on the subject.
Steve
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