We need a true early war tank

[guncrasher]

so was the tiger story i read a few years ago, cant find it anymore but it talks about a tiger 1 coming back with 248 hits and the only problem it had was a transmission problem.


talking about cheating .



semp

[Fish42]

Really?  What is the armor thickness and slope on the Matilda?

Like many other British infantry tanks, it was heavily armoured; from 20 mm (0.79 in) at the thinnest it was 78 mm (3.1 in) at the front, much more than most contemporaries. The turret armour was 75 mm (3.0 in) all round,[4] the hull side armour was 65 to 70 millimetres (2.6 to 2.8 in),[nb 3] and the rear armour, protecting the engine to sides and rear, was 55 millimetres (2.2 in).[4] The frontal armour was 75 millimetres (3.0 in), although the nose plates top and bottom were thinner but angled. The turret roof was the same thickness as the hull roof and engine deck: 20 millimetres (0.79 in).[14] The German Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks, of the same period, had 30 to 50 millimetres (1.2 to 2.0 in) thick hull armour. The shape of the nose armour was based on Christie's designs,[16] and came to a narrow point with storage lockers added on either side. The heavy armour of the Matilda's cast turret became legendary; for a time in 1940–41 the Matilda earned the nickname "Queen of the Desert".[17] The sheer thickness of its armour made the tank impervious to the 37 mm and 50 mm calibre anti-tank guns that were then commonly used by the Germans, as well as the 47 mm used by the Italians in North Africa; only the 75 mm PaK 40 anti-tank gun — and as demonstrated as early as the Battle of France on May 21, 1940 from the counterattack at Arras, the 88 mm anti-aircraft gun — could penetrate its armour reliably.

The long 75s in game already will be enough to pen the Matilda. some will need to close the distance to make sure, but the Matilda's 2pdr would need to be close to pen most of them too. Though the LittleJohn would give the Matilda a real punch (though I am not sure if any Matildas even used them).

http://www.wwiiequipment.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=121:british-anti-tank-gun-penetration-tables&catid=49:other-data&Itemid=61

[Lucifer]

Thats absolutely right : Rommel had no available Panzer to knock B1-Bis from Front, and had same problem wit Mathilda on front/side and even rear : slope and armor were extremely well designed for 1940 and by far superior to Pz1/2/3/4 at that time (Rommel used 88s against Mathildas in desert, as only the few Tigers he had could deal with them, among with bombs).

Not sure, but it is rumored that Rommel personally directed the anti-tank guns against them when the Panzers could not punch through the armor. I think they had a similar problem with the B1-bis. Both the 4th and 7th RTR claimed that their tanks had superior armor to the B1-bis (Battles of Arras 21 May 1940), but I don't know how they figured that out.

[R 105]

Should be one per nationality, if such a project is undertaken:

Germany:

(Image removed from quote.)
Panzer III

Great Britain:

(Image removed from quote.)
Matilda II

Russia:

(Image removed from quote.)
BT-7

Italy:

(Image removed from quote.)
M13/40

Japan:

(Image removed from quote.)
Type 97 ShinHoTo Chi-Ha

U.S.

(Image removed from quote.)
M-3 Stuart

[JimmyD3]

Are we going to ignore the French Tanks? 

[10thmd]

Are we going to ignore the French Tanks? 

You do know the CharB1 they are talking about is french right?

[Arlo]

You do know the CharB1 they are talking about is french right?

My list ignored it. 

[10thmd]

Imagine if the French Generals wouldn't have had their heads up their you know what and unleashed the B1's en masse on the Germans.

[Arlo]

Imagine if the French Generals wouldn't have had their heads up their you know what and unleashed the B1's en masse on the Germans.

The French generals didn't even conceive anything like a 'blitzkreig.'

[SmokinLoon]

The French generals didn't even conceive anything like a 'blitzkreig.'

There wasn't a military in the world set up for "blitzkrieg", the Germans got lucky a few times. Their supply lines were stretched as far as they could go and very feable at that. If France's government would have unleashed their military WWII may have been very different.  Instead, the French military had no choice to hunker down and be cut off.

Military docrtrine was far different in 1938-40 than it was in 1943-45.   

Oh, and just an FYI: most people do not know that the "combined arms" approach (focused infantry, mechanized infantry, AFV's, and air force), was not originally a German idea.  The Germans were simply the first to put it in to practice. Same goes for the "blitzkrieg" tactics. Do some digging and find out just WHO put the idea to paper and was devising the "by the book" approach to the tactics.      

[Skyguns MKII]

Hotchkiss H35 french tank


In service   1936–1952
Used by   France, Poland, Nazi Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Yugoslav Partisans, Chetniks, Israel
Wars   World War II; Israeli War of Independence
Production history
Designer   Hotchkiss
Designed   1933
Manufacturer   Hotchkiss et Cie
Produced   September 1936 - June 1940
Number built   ~1200
Variants   Hotchkiss H35 modifié 39
Specifications
Weight   11 metric tonnes
Length   4.22 m (13 ft 10 in)
Width   1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)
Height   2.15 m (7 ft 1 in)
Crew   2
Armour   40 mm turret, 34 mm hull
Main
armament
37 mm SA 18 gun
Secondary
armament
7.5 mm Reibel machine gun
Engine   six-cylinder 3480 cc
78 hp
Power/weight   7.1 hp/t
Suspension   horizontal helical springs
Fuel capacity   180 litres
Operational
range
129 km (80 mi)
Speed   28 km/h (17 mph)

[Zerstorer]

They might be a bit too early war....but they would be fun!  

[JimmyD3]

You do know the CharB1 they are talking about is french right?

No I did not.

[Arlo]

There wasn't a military in the world set up for "blitzkrieg", the Germans got lucky a few times. Their supply lines were stretched as far as they could go and very feable at that. If France's government would have unleashed their military WWII may have been very different.  Instead, the French military had no choice to hunker down and be cut off.

Military docrtrine was far different in 1938-40 than it was in 1943-45.   

Oh, and just an FYI: most people do not know that the "combined arms" approach (focused infantry, mechanized infantry, AFV's, and air force), was not originally a German idea.  The Germans were simply the first to put it in to practice. Same goes for the "blitzkrieg" tactics. Do some digging and find out just WHO put the idea to paper and was devising the "by the book" approach to the tactics.      

Please tell me you're not trying to prove me wrong. 

[Oldman731]

Please tell me you're not trying to prove me wrong. 

I think he's talking about Fuller, deGaulle and Guderian between the wars. 

Of course, they weren't generals then, so you aren't wrong!

- oldman