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Zaloga has several books about the Sherman (Including Armored Thunderbolt, Armored Victory 1945) which are in my posession. I also took a look at Hunnicutt's classic volumne and there was unfortunately little about the Easy Eight's armor.
What Zaloga says in his book about the Sherman 76mm is that the 'souped up' armor on the Easy-Eights were in fact a field conversion contracted to 3 Belgium factories by Patton's Third Army in Feb. 1945.
the US 4th AD, 6 AD, and 11 AD each had 36 Shermans (including Easy-Eights) given this especially thick armor to their front face. For extents and purposes, it was an improvisation so I can see the confusion going on in this thread. I had not heard of this '173mm' armored E8 before, and improvised conversions would be varying.
On a side note, the Sherman Jumbo's frontal armor could defeat German 88mm L/56. It was 140mm thick. Also, Sherman Jumbos were universally re-armed with the 76mm gun and had their 30 cal. replaced with 50 cal. in early 1945.
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The 85mm gun can easily shoot holes through the Tiger's flanks (IRL). It was pretty similar in this department to the 75mm L/48.
Doctrinally, the Soviets relied on Tank destroyer Artillery units (Massed coordinated AT guns) in the defense and Assault Gun regiments (SU-85, SU-100, ISU-122, ISU-152 etc.) in the offense to hunt tanks. The SUs were equipped with a tactical radio net and were oriented towards this.
Heavy tank regiments and other subunits equipped with the IS-2 were meant to breakthrough the German defense system in the first wave, hold the front and neutralize German mobile anti-tank reserves (AT guns and armor).
The role of the light and medium tanks of the tank corps and mech. corps was to perform offensive operations with exploitation and not waste their time engaging panzer counterattacks if possible. Naturally, they frequently fought German mobile reserves.
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I would be interested in hearing if anybody used the US dirt mounds successfully. When i started off, I made it for its novelty value as a speed bump on top of fuel points. Then I'd throw my one rear echelon into it.
I stopped doing it pretty soon. |
^
American AARs and veterans are infamous for confusing Panzer IV with Tigers.
301st did not participate in the Ardennes offensive:
schwere Panzer-Abteilung (Tiger/Fkl) 301 with 29 Tiger Is received word on 15 December 1944 that they were to be attached to the 9. Panzer-Division. They assembled in Niederaussem to entrain for transport which was scheduled to begin on 20 December 1944. On 22 December 1944 members of the unit Stab went into the Eifel to establish contact with the HQ of the 9. PD, which was scheduled to relieve the 2. PD fighting near Celles. However, before the rail transport of the Tigers could happen, all of the rail lines had been destroyed so on 25 December 1944 301 was released from it's attachment to the 9.PD. The Tigers were unloaded and 301 moved to Nörvenich where it became an Army Group reserve of the LXXXI. Armee-Korps.
This leaves the Tigers Is of 506th, which are so few as to be inconsequential and probably invisible to the overall battle.
s.Pz.Abt. 506: 41x Tiger II, 6x Tiger I
9. Pz.Div. with s.Pz.Abt.(Fkl.) 301: 29x Tiger I
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No, it's a lot better than wikipedia as it was a published study.
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Operation Queen was not part of the Ardennes offensive. It was part of the earlier Siegfried line campaign. |
Affe, from 'Sledgehammers' a study on the use of Tiger Tanks in WW2 (my PDF); It identifies only the 501st SS and the 506th as actually taking part in combat action (so I remembered correctly).
Operation WACHT AM RHEIN
Both of the heavy tank battalions that took part in the Ardennes offensive,namely SS-Heavy Tank Battalion 501 and Heavy Tank Battalion 506, were equipped with new King Tiger tanks.
Probably only a handful of American tanks—possibly as few as 20—were destroyed by these two heavy tank battalions during the Ardennes Offensive. This was due to a number of factors: first, only a portion of each heavy tank battalion managed to make their way forward to engage the enemy, especially during the initial stages of the offensive; also, during those initial stages, the Americans committed little of their own armor. These aspects of the situation make the contribution of the heavy tank battalions difficult to judge. Whatever their contributions, it is doubtful that those accomplishments sufficiently offset the loss of 25 King Tigers.
Wiki should not be taken at face value; way too many errors and relentlessly edited by anyone. |
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That doesn't mean that they were engaged in combat.
Most of the 501th SS' tigers did not fight at all.
The 506th had little presence in the battle as well. |
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Where exactly were the Tiger I's deployed then? |
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I've studied the battle of the bulge and I don't remember any Tiger Is being actually used in combat.
Some of the Tiger IIs were encountered in the 6th SS army's sector (attached to KG Peiper in La Gleize and elsewhere) but most the battalion did not manage to engage US forces in combat. |
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