----- Original Message ----- > From: Mike Adams <[email protected]> > >T iger and King Tiger, due to in part ego of Hitler and all, lead the attack > in the "Battle of the Bulge" teachs some things.
Don't put slow and heavy tanks at the speartip of an offensive that must progress rapidly? The Tigers and Kings Tigers should have been on the Eastern Front, where they matched up better with the Soviet heavy tanks. The Panthers were better suited for dealing with the SHermans and Cromwells in the West, plus the Panthers were faster. > 1. One do not depend on a new untested weapon to do all it should be able to > do. The Tiger had been in use since late 1942, so it was hardly new. IIRC. > 2. If you have a tank, you got to have a way and means to remove it, take it > back and repair it. This was rather more of a problem with the King Tiger than the Tiger. > 3. How to resupply it with ammo and more? Supply train or pillage? IIRC, the Germans expected to loot fuel (and other supplies) from Allied depots that were abandoned in the face of the offensive. Didn't work. > 4. If your tank is 40tons or so, but the bridges and roads are made for 30 > tones or less, and they are narrow and like, so that you are channelized > into only using bridges that can handle your weight and you have to cut the > trees along the way and even upgrade the roads/bridges you best not put it > first? This is why the Panther was better suited for this job than the heavier tanks and it's very long 75mm gun was the near equal of Tiger's 88mm. > There was more but ... It was like when the M60 was replaced by the M1. Look at the M103 tank from the 1950's. Just about every flaw it had applied to the M1. The big difference was engine, with it being much slower than the M. > It was ok if you plan to only stay in S.Korea, and have a support network > for it, such as recovering vehicles but the M88 was not strong enough > normally to handle recovery of an M1 and the semi-available and trailer was > not as well? This is part of the reason MBTs fell out of favor in the TL8 setting I've used since the early 90's: too hard to move strategically. Light tanks are favored. Also, being a cyberpunky setting, megacorps fight more wars that first or second world nations, and they prefer low intensity conflicts (nothing says big war like a platoon of 80 ton MBTs). > The Leopard of WW2 was fast, it was worked out with most of the bugs worked > out and the support network was there and also the TACTICs for how to use it > and training was there. I think you mean the Panther, which was rushed into service for Kursk in 1943 with disastrous results. > The Tiger did. Impressive but easy to take out unless you have some way to > support it with infantry and like? > I'd hardly call the Tiger easy to take out. Brandon _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
