Tank Destroyers.....WHY???

[Widewing]

You can download a copy of U.S. Army tank destroyer doctrine in World War II from the Combined Arms Research Library here:

https://cgsc.leavenworth.army.mil/carl/download/csipubs/gabel2.pdf

It will explain much the thinking related to the U.S. Army's concept of Tank Destroyers.

<Edit> There appears to be a problem with the security certificate for the above PDF. If I have enough space, I may upload the document to my web server.

My regards,

Widewing

[Widewing]

Even still they distinguished themselves in the Battle of the Bulge where they killed about 300 German GVs, about 50 of them tanks, and themselves only lost less then a dozen TDs.

The battle of St. Vith showed how effective TDs could be on defense. You can read about it in "Battle at St. Vith, Belgium, 17-23 December, 1944: a historical example of armor in the defense". You can download the document from the Combined Arms Research Library using the link below.

http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/p4013coll8&CISOPTR=362&filename=351.pdf#search=%22St.%20Vith%22


My regards,

Widewing

[Rich46yo]

Thank you. Yes there were many other battles where the Yank TDs distinguished themselves. They fought well in North Africa as well.

They were, in fact, very large units of tight nit armor types and they stayed tight even after the war.

The German armored spearhead into France must have been a tremendous shock to the worlds military brass in 1940. Poland as well but most of all France once it was over and dissected. It changed warfare forever and it was a credit to the American army that we were able to react so quickly to this new type of warfare. Tank Destroyers figuring heavily into the new equation.

Perhaps you still see them, at least their shadow, in the TOW equipped Stryker Brigades. Certainly you see much the same of what they brought to the table in the 1940s.

[Tr1gg22]

They were just cheaper to build and still packed a punch

[BigPlay]

Towards the end of WW2 the Germans preferred the tank destroyer.Not only was it much less complicated to build and repair it was cheaper to manufacture than a main battle tank . It was also easier to conceal due to it's lower profile. At wars end offensive operations were all but over for Germany and the tank was basically used as a stop gap at chock points and other defendable positions where a single tank could cause the most damage. Traversing turrets were not as needed . Simply having the gun barrel pointing at the area where oncoming AFV's would pass was all that was needed. Some of these tank destroyers were able to up gun. The Jadgpanther and Jadgtiger was able to accommodate a larger gun than the Panther or King Tiger.

How would they affect this game is another debate.