Artillery isn't meant to "penetrate" armor. It IS intended to hit from above as it falls to a target and fracture or destroy the lighter armor on the top of a tank. Tanks have their heaviest armor at the fron and often around the turret. The armor is thinner along the sides and usually even lighter in the rear. The thinnest armor is the "deck" plating, or the top of the vehicle because most other tanks can't hit then there. Most of the Pzkw VIB's destroyed during the Ardennes Offensive were destroyed from the air by fighter bombers that could take advantage of that thinner deck plating deficiency.
The tanks in the movie were supposed to be Tiger II's or "Konigstigers" (Pzkw VIB). The Werhmacht had 332 Pzkw VIB's available for the "Ardennes Offensive", (The Battle Of The Bulge), plus numerous other types.
The "Panther Pzkw V" was in very limited supply on the western front and only comprised a very small part of the German force. Most Panthers were in use on the eastern front, being used against Soviet T-34 series vehicles, which is what they had been designed to be used for. The OKW (German High Command) saw very little sense in using the Panther against Anglo units because even the Pzkw IV Panzer was still very effective against all armor types deployed by the Americans or the British. The Pzkw IV Panzer was equipped with a long bore 75mm main gun that was superior to most allied tanks, and was in fact, the primary German tank of the entire war. It went through numerous upgrades and modifications and was also the basis vehicle for several other German weapon systems including several self propelled artillery types.
The Pzkw VIB's used in the Ardennes were veiwed as a sort of super weapon because of their overwhelming superiority to allied units. They were originally intened for use in the East but destroyed rail transportation systems prevented their deployment.
A 105mm AP round to the front of a Pzkw VIB would NOT have penetrated the armor. A APDS round of the extreme late war or later might have. At the time of the Ardennes offensive, the Allied command had no common round in inventory that was effective against the PzKw VIB. With the exception of some late war modifications, most Shermans were equipped with a 75mm main gun firing AP (armor peircing) rounds. The only effective place on a Pzkw VIB for a 75mm round to hit would have been the rear of the vehicle.
As for the Soviet T-34, either the /76 or the /85 models, being superior to "Panthers", this is not fact. The T-34 models were superior to the PzKw IV's and previous German armor, but not the Panther (Pzkw V). Although it was an excellent weapons system for the period, it was surpassed by the Pzkw V Panther. In fact, the panther was designed from experiences and examples learned from the T-34 series, and according to both United Kingdom and US Army sources on the subject, the Pzkw V "Panther" was the "Best" (as rated by Janes) tank design in exsistance until 1957! (look it up in the US Army Armor Command Archives) That included all post war designs up to, but not including the M-48/60 series and the Brittish Cheiftain series, which both took examples from both the T-34 and Pzkw V Panther series.
Just a little history. Sorry if I got to detailed.
James
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nick982002
19 years ago
i watched this on history television most if not all of the tanks in the movie were left overs from ww2
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