The dangers of armored warfare?

Question

How dangerous was it for the allied soldiers of WWII who served in tanks and other armored artillery vehicles? what kinds of weapons and tactics gave these allied armored soldiers the most threat?

Answer 1

Depends, most dangerous would be in the European war where they had to face the Germans who had incredibly good tanks and anti-tank weapons. The standard American tank was the M4 Sherman, which because of its paper-thin armour and low velocity gun was no match for German late-war vehicles like the Panther/King Tiger/Jagdpanther. The Soviets had better tanks than the Western Allies but still suffered badly. Not only did the Allies have to face superior enemy armour but they had to deal with the 1st portable anti-tank weapons that you could teach a child to use (The Panzerfaust) and of course the huge assortment of Anti-tank guns.



By 1942ish, Since German armour was nearly always superior in quality, the Allies had to resort to overwhelming them with numbers and use tactics like getting 5 tanks to distract him while another 5 sneak around the back to hit him in the side. By late-war they could also count on air-power to knock out enemy armour, they usually just ran like hell and waited for friendly infantry or aircraft to come destroy them.



Since the Germans had qualitatively superior vehicles, the Allies had to use their strengths, air-power and sheer numbers.





However when fighting the Japanese or Italians......the Allied tankers dominated, their tanks were invincible compared to the rubbish the Italians/Japanese had.

Answer 2

That Sherman tank, used a gasoline engine and was famous for lighting up.

The prime threat was the 88, a high velocity rapid fire german field gun, (

adapted from a heavy AA gun), that proved highly effective in both artillery

support and anti-armor roles.

Armored vehicles in general would protect the occupant from light weapons,

but were very dangerous to be in or around in the presence of heavy ones.

Answer 3

Several things made being in a tank unit bad. You are slow crawling through a town and someone on the second floor drops a grenade through your hatch. Good bye crew. My friend, a armor instructor in the British army said that the thing that tankers fear the most is a flame thrower. A rocket kills everyone immediately. Depleted uranium slug does the same thing. But a flame thrower turns your tank into an oven and it takes a few minutes to bake to death. Or go out the hatch and face the snipers waiting for you.

Answer 4

The major threat for tanks going into combat was lack of close infantry support.



Without infantry in support,tanks could be picked off by anti tank guns,individual enemy infantrymen with anti mines or hand held anti tank weapons such as bazookas or panzerfausts,or even just with grenades or IEDs placed in the tracks.



That's why all the major armies in WW2 in Europe and North Africa developed motorized infantry formations,which could keep up with the tanks and provide the necessary close infantry support.