Tanks of World War Two

M4 Sherman: the M4 Sherman was the most widely spread allied tank in World War II. It was used mainly by the U.S, but also by Canada, the U.K, and the soviets. Since the Sherman was so widely used, it became the base for most other vehicles. It was adapted to become AA weapons, Artillery, and bull dozers during the war. The Sherman tank had 91mm thick gun armor, 76mm turret armor, and 63mm armor for the rest of the tank. This thick armor was designed to withstand the blast of German anti-tank guns and panzer fire. The primary gun on the M4 was a 75mm gun with 90 rounds. The tank also carried a .50 caliber browning machine gun with 300 shots, and two .30 caliber machine guns with 4,750 rounds. The Sherman could reach speeds of up two 38km/h, or 25mph. the M4 Sherman was manned by a crew of five. Over 48,000 were built.

Tiger 1: The Tiger 1 tank was the heavy tank for Nazi Germany. The tiger was built to defeat the unbeatable soviet tanks during operation Barbarossa. The Tiger carried 8.8cm (88mm) gun with 92 rounds. It also had two 7.92mm machine guns with 4,800 rounds. The tiger was very heavily armored. The front of the tank had armor of 110mm. the thick armor was supposed to prevent damage from the soviet tanks. This thick armor also made the bazooka fire nothing but a scratch. The Tiger tank could reach speeds of 24mph. because the tank was slower, allied forces could move around to the rear of the tank and attack it wear the armor was only 25mm thick. The tiger could destroy many allied tanks at ranges of 1000, 1500, and 2,000 meters. But numerous other tanks could easily destroy it at closer ranges and at side and rear angles.  The unreliability of the tiger forced production to be stopped at only 1,355 tanks being produced.

Panzer: was medium tank for the Nazi’s.  The tank was designed for infantry support; however, due to the increase threat of enemy armor it began it role as an anti-armor tank. The panzer was similar to the Sherman because the German’s used the panzer as a base for other vehicles, such ad A.A guns, artillery and tank destroyers. Unlike the tiger the panzer was very reliable and was produced throughout the entire war and had over 8,500 built. The panzer had a 7.5cm, or 75mm, tank gun with about 87 rounds. It also carried 2-37.92mm machine guns.  The panzer was lightly armor, but its lack of armor was balance with high speeds of 26mph to escape enemy tanks.